Book picks similar to
Getting Dirty by Cheryl McIntyre
new-adult
dark
romance
abuse
Shadowboxer
Cari Quinn - 2014
I’ve faced the darkest parts of life and survived. But now I’m starting a new life with my baby sister. And that means I need cash.Quick. To get the money I need, I’m going to beat the reigning king of the male fighters in New York’s underground MMA circuit, Tray “Fox” Knox. Tray refuses to fight a woman, until he learns I’m not what he expected. At all. Then he makes me a bet I can’t refuse. He’ll fight me, but if he wins, I will spend the night in his bed. All night long, his rules. No tapping out. I agree, certain he will lose. Because I have to win. I have no choice. What I didn’t realize is that Tray loves to fight dirty…and that this match may end up being the most important one of our lives.Author’s note: Shadowboxer is a full-length MMA novel and is book 1 in the Tapped Out MMA series. It has a happily ever after ending and no cliffhanger, though it contains violent material that may be triggering. It was previously published by Cari Quinn in 2014 and has been lightly re-edited.
Translucent
Erin Noelle - 2014
The day I watched my husband murder the woman who was pregnant with his child, my point didn’t just break, it exploded like a full magazine’s worth of hollow points firing through the barrel of a fully-automatic AK-47. Literally. I am no longer his American Princess, nor am I his slave. Now, I’m a murderer in hiding. My name was Bryleigh Carter Oliveira, and that was my story. Translucent is one woman's story of breaking free, starting over, and learning to trust again through willful submission.
Outside the Ropes
Ashley Claudy - 2015
Outside the ropes, she fights to survive.Regan Sommers spent her life fighting. Fighting foster parents, kids in the group home, and classmates. But the night she has to fight for her life changes everything. Now, she's fighting for money in the ring, and from the first punch she's addicted. Every addiction has a price though, and this one is the gym's star boxer, Gage Lawson. He may come in an enticing tattooed package, but his demands are more than she can handle. The responding officer from that night, Anthony Fields, comes with no demands. He wants whatever she's willing to give, and Regan can handle that. She can definitely handle him. But no help comes string free, and Regan's not the only one with a hard past and scars to cover. The life she was trying to escape is nothing compared to the danger she's in the middle of now, and she can't fight her way out.***Reader please be aware: Story contains mature content such as: Drugs, sex, abuse, and explicit language that may be upsetting for some.****
Silent No More
N.E. Henderson - 2013
Life couldn’t get any better—or so she thought. Just when you think you have it all, add in a little betrayal and a few lies and you have the perfect mixture for a storm, strong enough to send you spiraling into a life full of unknowns—or could that have been the point? When traveling down the wrong path sometimes we need to be blown into a different direction. Now unsure of everything she had planned for herself, Shannon is on a mission to forget, but what she isn’t expecting to run into is the arrogant, womanizing, control freak that clearly thinks he’s a gift to all women. That may be for most women, but not this one. Meet Nicholas Lockhart. He’s sexy, domineering, and has a temper that is easily triggered, but those things are a must when in the business environment that he is. To be successful means to be the best, the alpha, controlling all others. Meeting a woman who can turn his world upside down is not in the cards, not part of the plan. Why have one woman when there are so many appetizing ones to taste? A renowned eligible bachelor is the person he likes to be, that is until the defiant, redhead turns his head and puts him in his place. Their quick and intense passion takes them both by surprise, eliciting a relationship neither expected. When her past collides with her present, Shannon is forced to confront it head on, tangling her in a web of lies and twisted truths that soon leave both bare and vulnerable. Sometimes the only option is to be silent no more…
Beg
C.D. Reiss - 2013
Ever. Yeah, he's rich, beautiful, charming as hell, and he has a wit as sharp as a double-edged razor... but he's made it perfectly clear that this is a short-term fuck. Three nights, tops, then we part like sexually satisfied grown-ups. I believe him when he says he can't love me. I'm not trying to fall in love, either. We get in. Get it on. Get the hell out. Done. Right? Right.
Breathless
Eve Carter - 2013
Except lately, it has been bad impressions. Frustrated and wounded, he surrounds himself with women, booze and drugs, until one day, he finds himself in a world of trouble. Kicked out by his brother, he relocates to California for the summer to help his uncle open Rookies, a local sports bar. In Santa Monica, Jesse meets the one woman who can lead him back on the right path, the beautiful 22 year old, Niki Milani. Only problem, she is not interested. Niki has her own demons to fight. A past that left her emotional abandoned by her own blood, her father. She keeps her heart guarded and finds it difficult to trust a man again. Especially not a bad boy player who is even more messed up than her. However, Jesse never backs down from a challenge. Blinded by a sizzling attraction, he is determined to prove to Niki that there is more to him than what appears on the surface. That he is the one who can heal her heart.The story of Jesse and Niki is a New Adult Romance that will leave you breathless.
A Harmless Little Game
Meli Raine - 2016
Of course it would. A Senator’s daughter on camera? Wouldn’t you click “share”? Besides, that’s what three of the four guys in the video did.Share.They shared me.But that fourth guy? The nondescript one in the background in the upper left corner of the screen, just sitting on the couch? The only one who did nothing?Not one single thing.That was my boyfriend, Drew.And that was the last time I saw him.Until today, when my father—now on a path to the White House—hired him as head of security for my new team as I return home after four years of “recovering” in an undisclosed location that involved white lab coats, needles, pills and damage control.You see, the other three guys never went to jail. Never had charges pressed.Never faced consequences.Until today.Game on.* * *A Harmless Little Game is the first in this political thriller/romantic suspense trilogy by USA Today bestselling author Meli Raine.
Annihilate Me Vol. 1
Christina Ross - 2013
If she doesn't find work soon, she'll need to return to her native Maine, where the job situation is even more bleak. And where her abusive parents lie in wait.But when an unorthodox arrangement is proposed, Jennifer decides to take it. She agrees to be the "girlfriend" of Alexander Wenn, the reluctant, billionaire CEO of Wenn Enterprises, who is so devastatingly good looking, he needs a beautiful woman like Jennifer on his arm to "keep the wolves at bay." In this case, the wolves are other women, all of whom vie for his attention so aggressively, they keep him from focusing on business at the exclusive events he must attend. It's there that deals are cut. What they want is his money and his power. Damaged by a past event, the only thing Alex wants to do is focus on work. And to forget the past.But can Jennifer deny their white-hot chemistry? As she's swept into this glittering otherworld of society and big business, she finds herself struggling to keep from falling for Alex, an almost impossible feat she nevertheless must meet.Armed with her MBA, Jennifer Kent knows about business. But what she doesn't know is what could destroy her--the business of protecting her own heart. And maybe her own life.This story unfolds over multiple volumes approximately 50,000 words each.
On Every Street
Karina Halle - 2013
But Javier Bernal is no ordinary man. Subtly dangerous and overwhelmingly seductive, Eden finds herself passionately in love with Javier, the very person she's set-up to betray. With her body and heart in a heated battle against her deep need for revenge, no one will walk away from this con a winner.Takes place six years before Sins & Needles. It can be read before or after Sins & Needles and may also be read as a standalone.
Wrong
L.P. Lovell - 2015
I knew exactly what I wanted and where I was going, until I was thrust into his world and ripped from mine. In the blink of an eye everything shattered, proving to be nothing more than a cheap illusion. Now I’m living in this twisted form of hell, where enemies and friends are one and the same. I thought I wanted perfection. Now I don’t know what I want - perhaps not even my own freedom. Jude I'm the definition of wrong. I'm violent, I'm greedy, and I stop at nothing to win. I'm a notorious bookie and in my game paying with your life is not just a figure of speech. You lose, I collect. I take whatever you have. She’s collateral for a debt, and if that debt's not paid someone will die. This should be just business, so why can’t I kill her? Everything is not always as it seems. Lust. Blood. Lies.Nothing this wrong should feel so right.
Very Wicked Beginnings
Ilsa Madden-Mills - 2014
Meet Cuba Hudson, the heartbreaker of Briarwood Academy:I'm the tattooed bad boy girls think they can change.I have it all: a football career, a stellar GPA, and a family that owns half of Dallas, Texas. Everyone wants to be me, but all I want is to forget...Then she shows up.Dovey Beckham arrives at Briarwood Academy and looks right through me, unconcerned that I rule the school. I wasn't part of her precious plan, and it drove me insane...so I made it my mission to claim her, to put her notch on my bedpost.She would be mine and her heart would be broken.I didn't plan on falling for her, and I sure as hell didn't plan on losing her...Welcome to Briarwood Academy...where sometimes, the best things in life are Very Wicked Beginnings.
The Vigilante's Lover
Annie Winters - 2015
Seduction. Bondage ropes. Descriptions of things Mia has never experienced or known. The man’s words are desperately passionate. He longs for a woman who must have given him a fake address. Mia’s address. She plans to send the letter back. He’s a convicted felon. But his words gnaw at her. She’s never done anything dangerous. And no man has ever talked to her like this. So Mia writes him, pretending to be the woman he desires. It's her one dark thrill in her dull, solitary small-town life. The man is in prison for another fifteen years. It's harmless. She is safe enough. Until he escapes.
Cloak and Dagger
Nenia Campbell - 2012
When a hacker breaks into their computer's mainframe, they send Michael out to finish off the loose ends. But so far, there's just one lead to go on. The hacker's daughter, Christina Parker.Christina seems like any other high school senior. And she is — until she gets kidnapped by a group of people who think she's the key to the malicious code that has infected their mainframe system and she is plunged into a world where the lines between right and wrong are blurred beyond all recognition and terror knows no bounds. What do you do when the odds are against you, and the stake is your life?As she quickly learns, there are good guys and there are bad guys. Sometimes Michael's one, sometimes he's the other--but usually he's both. And right now he's the only one who can save her.Cover design by Louisa.
The Contract
Scarlett Edwards - 2014
My imagination conjures up demons of the worst kind.Reality is much worse:A collar with no leash. A prison with no walls. And a life stripped of meaning.I am presented with a vile contract and asked to sign. It outlines the terms of my servitude. The only information I have about my captor are the two small letters inked at the bottom:J.S.Armed with only my memories, I must do everything I can to avoid becoming ensnared in his twisted mind games. But in the end, it all comes down to one choice: Resist and die.Or submit, and sign my life away.
A Beautiful Mess
T.K. Leigh - 2013
Having lost her parents in a tragic car accident when she was a little girl, she’s struggled to get close to anyone. Instead, she prefers to avoid all relationships, keeping them superficial at best.Until retired Navy SEAL Alexander Burnham walks into her life and sparks something inside her she thought was dead.But he has demons of his own, ones that could turn her world upside-down.Ones that could reveal the truth that’s been kept from her for years.Ones that could cost her everything…Including her life.A Beautiful Mess is the first book in the Beautiful Mess Series, a gripping, suspenseful story about two souls destined to be together and the forces threatening to keep them apart. Pick up your copy of the first book in this USA Today Bestselling series today!