Book picks similar to
North of the Stars by Monica James


historical-romance
historical
romance
dark-romance

Give Me a Reason


A.L. Jackson - 2021
    Jackson comes a single-dad, enemies-to-lovers stand-alone romance about a jaded club owner and his son’s teacher… Eden Murphy came into my club looking to make some extra cash.A girl like her didn't belong in a place like this. She'd get ripped to shreds.Most likely by me.There's nothing but sweetness dripping from her sexy little body, and I'm the monster who's salivating to get a taste. Trent Lawson is the last man I should want.Dark.Dangerous.So wickedly gorgeous he makes my knees weak. He's also an arrogant jerk who happens to be my new boss. When I discover his adorable son is also in my kindergarten class, I know I have to keep my distance. But neither of us can ignore the attraction that flames.One glance, and our hearts race. One touch, and we’re aching for what we can’t have. One night, and we’re falling fast.Dragging her into my sordid world is wrong.It doesn’t matter. Eden Murphy is mine.

Perversion


T.M. Frazier - 2018
    New/alternate cover edition here.USA Today bestselling author of the King Series, T.M. Frazier, brings you an all-new trilogy with a sexy anti-hero you're going to love to hate, and a ballsy heroine with more up her sleeve than just tricks. Love is supposed to be a fairy tale.Ours is a death wish.I'm the executioner for the Bedlam Brotherhood. She's a con artist working for my greatest enemy. I use her. She manipulates me.We find ourselves on opposite sides of a bloody war. My heart and head tell me I have to stay away. My lust for her doesn't give a sh*t. Nothings fair in love and gang war.

Undeniable


Madeline Sheehan - 2012
    My father, Damon Fox or "Preacher", the President of the infamous "Silver Demon's" motorcycle club -mother chapter- in East Village, New York City, was doing a five-year stint for aggravated assault and battery with a deadly weapon. It was not the first time my father had been in prison and it wouldn't be the last. The Silver Demon's MC was a notorious group of criminals who lived by the code of the road and gave modern society and all it entailed a great big f**k you."Never forget the day Eva came bouncin' into my f**ked up life, shakin' pigtails, singin' Janis, wearin’ chucks and sharin' peanuts and straight up stole any decency I had left which wasn't a whole lot but she f**kin' took it and I've been hers ever since."

Sicko


Amo Jones - 2020
    He swore to protect me.He failed.They all failed.I’m an open box of passé photographs, snapped in chaste daylight, but filtered in sepia. I’m the past that he tried to forget, and he was the future I needed. When he left six years ago, I screamed for him every night. But then it all stopped. My screams were suddenly muffled by cruelty, and further coaxed by pain.But he has come back. He’s not the cute big brother I had a furtive crush on, or the bad boy, rich brat that I hated to love.He’s the ruthless vice president of Wolf Pack MC, and he doesn’t answer to Royce Kane anymore.He answers to Sicko.

A Heart of Blood and Ashes


Milla Vane - 2020
    Then the Destroyer came. From the blood and ashes he left behind, a tenuous alliance rose between the barbarian riders of Parsathe and the walled kingdoms of the south. That alliance is all that stands against the return of an ancient evil--until the barbarian king and queen are slain in an act of bloody betrayal.Though forbidden by the alliance council to kill the corrupt king responsible for his parents' murders, Maddek vows to avenge them, even if it costs him the Parsathean crown. But when he learns it was the king's daughter who lured his parents to their deaths, the barbarian warrior is determined to make her pay.Yet the woman Maddek captures is not what he expected. Though the last in a line of legendary warrior-queens, Yvenne is small and weak, and the sharpest weapons she wields are her mind and her tongue. Even more surprising is the marriage she proposes to unite them in their goals and to claim their thrones--because her desire for vengeance against her father burns even hotter than his own...

Written with Regret


Aly Martinez - 2019
    The one where the white knight rushes in to save her from the clutches of evil. They fall in love, have babies, and live happily ever after. By that definition, my life should have been a fairytale too. When I was eight years old, Caven Hunt saved me from the worst kind of evil to walk the Earth. It didn’t matter that I was a kid. I fell in love with him all the same. But that was where my fairytale ended. Years later, a one-night stand during the darkest time imaginable gave us a little girl. It was nothing compared to the pitch black that consumed me when I was forced to leave her with Caven for good. At the end of every fairytale, the happily-ever-after is the one thing that remains consistent. It wasn’t going to be mine, but there hadn’t been a night that passed where I hadn’t prayed that it would be hers. I owed Caven my life. However, I owed that innocent child more. And that included ripping the heart from my chest and facing her father again.

Born Sinner


S.L. Jennings - 2016
    Statistically, I wasn’t supposed to survive these streets past the age of eighteen. Fate had a different plan. I was bred for one purpose and one purpose only: to unleash death and destruction on my world. My thoughts are power. My words are weapons. Evil created me then grace tried to save me. But first… they tried to kill me. They call themselves the Se7en. They are sin and salvation, and everything we’ve feared from the beginning of time. And their leader is the deadliest of them all. He doesn’t lose. He doesn’t compromise. And most importantly, he doesn’t distract himself with mortal weakness. Not until me. Kill one to save a million. That’s what he told me when he took me as his prisoner. Kill one to save a million. That’s what he’s been trying to tell himself ever since he took me into his arms.Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ASIN B01K6HQY8S here.

The Man Who Loved Cole Flores


K.A. Merikan - 2021
    By a stroke of luck, he is recruited to infiltrate the Gotham Boys and bring them all to justice. Ripped out of his wholesome life on a ranch, he has to find his footing with a band of ruthless outlaws who challenge his morals every step of the wayBut the one who tests him most of all is Cole Flores. Deadly, full of himself and unpredictable, the gang leader’s adopted son should be a man easy to hate, but instead, he sparks illicit desires Ned has never felt before.Cole Flores is forbidden.Cole Flores is corruption.Cole Flores is everything Ned O’Leary craves.Torn between love and revenge, lust and loyalty, Ned has to face impossible choices that are bound to leave scars, no matter how hard he tries to do the right thing.*“I don’t know what this means, or how to do this with you,” he whispered as his heart broke into a gallop. “But I want to. I need to.” Dark, dangerous, yet desperately romantic, “The Man Who Loved Cole Flores” is a gritty western M/M romance novel. Prepare for violence, emotional turmoil, and scorching hot, explicit scenes, as well as a heart-pounding cliffhanger to book 1.The epic love story of Ned O’Leary and Cole Flores gets its HEA in book 2 - “The Man Who Hated Ned O’Leary”.POSSIBLE SPOILERS:Themes: Enemies-to-lovers, first love, revenge, undercover, friends-to-lovers, forbidden romance, outlaws and cowboys, crime, gang, secrets, loyalty, betrayal, period-typical homophobia, Old West, survival, corruption of the innocent, self-discovery, first love, opposites attractLength: ~155,000 words (Book 1 in a duology)WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, offensive language and morally ambiguous characters as well as sensitive topics of child abuse and suicide

The Truth about Heartbreak


B. Celeste - 2019
    The guy I could never touch.Then one night changed everything for us. But there was one huge problem.He belonged to her.

The Initiation


Nikki Sloane - 2019
    But there are rumors of a sordid rite of initiation. Whispers how one woman and nine men disappear into a boardroom. This time, that woman will be me. The Hale family owns everything—the eighth largest bank in the world, everyone in our town, even the mortgage on my parents’ mansion. And now Royce Hale wants to own me. He is charming. Seductive. Ruthless. But above all, he’s the prince of lies. My body may tighten with white-hot desire under his penetrating gaze, but I refuse to enjoy it. I’ll make a deal with the devil to save my family and sell myself to the Hales. But Royce will never own my heart.

The Sun and Her Star


Dylan Allen - 2018
    Once upon a time, that star shone only for me. Now, I have to share him with the rest of the world. For a while, I thought I could do it. Because, beneath the hypnotic smile, gorgeous body and God-given charm that made him famous, I still caught glimpses of my best friend.Of the boy who called me sunshine and loved me. I wore that love like a crown . . . until he placed it on another’s head. Losing him was agony, distance felt like the only cure. When tragedy reunites us after years apart, it only takes one touch to erase the past. Just like that, I'm back in his arms. He promises this time will be different. But I’m afraid to believe him. Because behind his star’s blinding brilliance is a darkness that doesn’t want to let him go. I know a star that bright can’t belong to just one person, but my jealous heart doesn’t want to share him.I want all of him . . . even if wanting what doesn't belong to me leads me to ruin.

The Rise of Saint


Bella J. - 2020
    Monster. Thief.That’s what he is. The one who stole me. The man who ripped me from a life I thought was mine. There was no negotiating. No choice to be made. And no. Way. Out.He says my whole life has been a lie. I believe him.He says he’s addicted to my tears. I believe him.He says once I give him what he wants, he’ll let me go…I don’t believe him.~ Saint ~Orphan. Fighter. Secret.That’s what she is. The woman I took. The woman they tried to hide from me but failed.Now she’s exactly where she’s meant to be. At my side. And at my mercy. The blood that runs through her veins makes me her king. But to me she’s nothing but a means to an end. A way for me to feed my vengeance.Once she gives me what I want I’ll let her go back to her miserable, mundane life. But for now, she’s mine to play with…until she breaks.

Becoming Calder


Mia Sheridan - 2014
    In this place, there is no room for dreams, no space for self-expression, and no tolerance for ambition.In this place, there is a boy with the body of a god and the heart of a warrior. He is strong and faithful and serves his family honorably. But he dares to dream of more.In this place, there is a girl with the face of an angel and a heart full of courage. To her family, she is the vision of obedient perfection. But she dares to want that which she has been told can never be hers.Becoming Calder is the story of good versus evil, fear versus bravery, and the truth that the light of love has always found its way into even the darkest of places . . . From the beginning of time, to the end of the world.THIS IS THE FIRST PART IN A TWO-PART SIGN OF LOVE SERIES INSPIRED BY AQUARIUS. THE SECOND PART, FINDING EDEN, IS AVAILABLE NOW. New Adult Contemporary Romance: Due to strong language and graphic sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.

Breach


K.I. Lynn - 2013
    To keep myself safe I hide in the world and let life move around me.My new partner, Nathan, isn’t safe. Far from it.The darkness coils around him, hidden by a shield created by a blinding smile. But those who live in darkness see past the façade we create.Even in darkness, there is light. A spark that ignites, then explodes.Every filthy word from his mouth, every possessive touch—I crave them, need them. Violent and passionate and everything I need to fill the void inside me, but one thing is missing.He can never love me.More than my heart is on the line, and I don’t know if I’ll survive our breach.

Reign of a King


Rina Kent - 2020
    Jonathan King is every bit his last name.Powerful.Untouchable.Corrupted.He’s also my dead sister’s husband and way older than me.When I first met him as a clueless child, I thought he was a god.Now, I have to confront that god to protect my business from his ruthless grip.Little did I know that declaring a war on the king will cost me everything.When Jonathan covets something, he doesn’t only win, he conquers.Now, he has his sights on me.He wants to consume not only my body, but also my heart and my soul.I fight, but there’s no escaping the king in his kingdom...Reign of a King is the first part of a duet and is not standalone.