Book picks similar to
Unchained by C.J. Barry


romance
science-fiction
sci-fi
sci-fi-romance

Star King


Susan Grant - 2000
    Are they fated mates, or is fate stacked against them? Love and war on a galactic scale.Rom B’Kah is fighting for the survival of his people. During combat he encounters a beautiful and mysterious woman who saves his life. When she vanishes without a trace, he vows to find her again. Years after battlefield trauma sends her life into a tailspin, Jas Hamilton has given up on love. When a galactic empire makes first contact with Earth, she sets out to reclaim her lost sense of adventure—and finds it in the arms of the golden-eyed alien warrior she’s spent a lifetime trying to forget.When an old enemy resurfaces, will they be forced to choose between duty and a future together? Saving the galaxy has just gotten personal…

Dark Thoughts


Cynthia Sax - 2017
    Kralj, its leader, reigns over the remote outpost with terrifying ease, ruthlessly squashing any rumors of rebellion, killing anyone who breaks his rules. Primitive, deadly, powerful, he’s a monster, scarred both on his face and his soul. He has never met a being he couldn’t control. Until he meets her. Dita has one mission—to kill the three targets claiming sanctuary within the Refuge. Or so she claims. For the first time in his long lifespan, Kralj isn’t certain of another being’s intentions. The tiny assassin is immune to his powers, her thoughts unreadable. He can’t predict her movements, can’t control her, can’t stop wanting her. Dita is rare, as unique as he is, and, to keep the residents of the Refuge safe, Kralj will have to kill her. But first, he’ll touch her, taste her, show her how passionate the beast inside him can be. Dark Thoughts is a STAND-ALONE SciFi Romance. The hero might be tall, dark, and scarred but don’t be fooled by his appearance. He’s truly a monster. This story is not for readers with delicate sensibilities.

Mercenary Instinct


Ruby Lionsdrake - 2014
    But Ankari Markovich needs a few archaeological samples for her latest business venture, a venture that might prove lucrative enough to move her family off the impoverished planet where she grew up. Unfortunately, she has no sooner collected her samples than she’s captured by a band of brawny mercenaries. The captain might be handsome, but he’s intent on turning her over to some finance lord who has, for reasons unknown, put a bounty on her head, a ridiculously large one at that. If she can’t figure out a way to escape before she’s delivered to the lord’s home world, she could be forced into a life of indentured servitude—or worse.Captain Viktor Mandrake doesn’t usually take on piddling bounty hunting gigs, but when his intelligence officer informs him of a criminal on a nearby planet, he decides it wouldn’t hurt to take a shuttle down to collect the woman. But Ankari Markovich is trouble from the start, nearly eluding his elite forces, then fighting and tricking his people left and right. He finds himself admiring her spirit, but according to her warrant, she’s a criminal. The safest thing is to keep her in the brig and ignore her until she can be handed off to the man who wants her.But the situation grows more complicated when other bounty hunters show up, wanting to claim Ankari for themselves. Thanks to this woman, Viktor’s ship is in danger, his crew members are going missing, and he’s fighting enemies he never asked for in a jungle in the middle of a hurricane. He’s either going to strangle Ankari… or fall in love. Either scenario could get him killed.Mercenary Instinct is a full-length, stand-alone novel of 90,000 words. It is part of the “Mandrake Company” series of science fiction romance stories and is recommended for readers who enjoy space-based adventure (such as Firefly) and steamy love stories (in the style of Linnea Sinclair).

Peyton 313


Donna McDonald - 2014
     Kyra Winters never meant for her cyber science discoveries to be used for evil, but that’s exactly what happened. Now returning Peyton 313’s humanity is the last chance she’ll ever have to atone. She can’t get back the lost decade, but she can change the present by restoring the cyborg who was once Marine Captain Peyton Elliot. Certainly her grand plan for rectifying her mistakes didn’t include madly kissing the confused, passionate Marine when he begged her to. The same scientific mind that constructed the cyborg creator code now warned her not to let Peyton’s tempting offers of heaven cloud her rational decision making. Yet it’s difficult to resist the cyborg she’s restoring when he’s also the most intriguing man she’s ever known.

C791


Eve Langlais - 2012
    Kidnapped during his daring escape, he shows her that despite the chip in his brain, his humanity is not completely lost.Formerly known as unit X109GI, Joe is on a quest to discover his origin. While he doesn’t find the answers he’s looking for, he does discover that affection isn't just for humans. But when it comes to a battle between logic and love, which side will the cybernetic organism—once a man—choose?Evaluating his feelings will have to wait though because the military isn’t done with Joe. But their threats against him pale in comparison before the shocking discovery of project C791, the revelation of which stuns the rebel cyborgs—and ignites a fury for vengeance.

Break Out


Nina Croft - 2011
    Unfortunately, the radioactive mineral is exorbitantly expensive and only available to a select few. A new class comprised of the super rich and immortal soon evolves. The Collective, as they're called, rule the universe. Two-thousand-year-old Ricardo Sanchez, vampire and rogue pilot of the space cruiser, El Cazador, can't resist two things: gorgeous women and impossible jobs. When beautiful Skylar Rossaria approaches him to break a prisoner out of the Collective's maximum security prison on Trakis One, Rico jumps at the chance. Being hunted by the Collective has never been so dangerous–or so fun!

Driven


Eve Kenin - 2007
    She's spent her life on the run, one step ahead of the megalomaniac who hunts her. All she wants is to stay out of trouble and haul her load of grain to Gladow Station--but trouble finds her in the form of a sexy stranger called Wizard. He has the trucking pass she needs, and she has to drag him out of a brawl with the very people she's trying to hide from in order to get it. She may have rescued him, but Raina's not foolish enough to see Wizard as anything close to helpless. He's hard and honed and full of secrets--secrets that may destroy them both. As they race across the Waste, trying to outrun rival truckers, ice pirates, and the powerful man bent on their destruction, Raina's forced to admit that trouble's found her. And this time, there's nowhere left to run.

The Price of Pleasure


Joanna Wylde - 2002
    Now the rules have changed and the stakes are higher than either could have imagined.Seth and Calla have one chance to change their destinies and the fates of their people hinge on their choices. Only when they risk everything to find each other will they truly know... The Price of Pleasure.

Escape Velocity


Jess Anastasi - 2015
     And rediscovering love... Ilari, Brannon System, 2436At first, Dr. Sacha Dalton is simply curious about the prisoner of war admitted to her med-lab...until she sees who it is. For Commander Kai Yang--the commander of the battleship Valiant Knox--has long been thought dead. Killed in action. But after almost a year and half, he's returned home. Returned to her.Kai is recovering from his ordeal and under the watchful care of Sacha, his childhood friend and the widow of his best friend. Only now, their friendship has grown and deepened into something far deeper, and far more complicated. Yet as Kai's body recovers, his psyche remains broken. How could he ever be the man he was, and the man Sacha deserves? But an intergalactic war has a way of forcing a man to be the hero he was always meant to be...

Renall


Celeste Raye - 2017
    Love. Duty. War. When those things collide, human Clara finds herself faced with the Revant named Renall, and choosing between love — and the life she planned... Clara Waters is aboard a supposed brideship headed to a planet far from her home world, it’s her punishment for being a carder and carrying currency on a world ruled by an oppressive and dangerous government that often lets its poor citizens starve. The ship is taken over by wreckers headed up by four brothers, none of whom know that there are brides aboard as the ship is listed as a mere non-life-form carrying cargo ship. When the wreckers attack to strip the ship Renall, the eldest, finds himself face to face with Clara, who is not about to go down without a fight. Clara does not want to be attracted to Renall. He owns a gambling hall on Orbitary and he makes her an offer she can’t refuse. He will reunite her with her family and remove the chip that would prevent her from escaping the Federation’s clutches as a prisoner, but at a high price. Not to mention he is betrothed to a female of his own dying race, and not just any female, a pureblooded Revant whose father is the king of a planet next to the one Renall and his brothers are determined to buy. Renall does not want to fall for her either. Clara, as beautiful and tough as she is, could cost him everything he has spent centuries working for. But he can’t stay away from her either. With the Federation loosing a spy into the brother’s midst and futures hanging in the balance Clara and Renall will have to decide whether to admit their feelings and forge a life together, or flee to opposite ends of the galaxy in search of the shelter they both so desperately need. Revant Warriors Renall is the first book in the Revant Warriors Standalone series. All books in this page-turning SciFi romance series can be read as standalones, there are no cliffhangers, and happily ever afters are guaranteed! Note: Adults Only!

Ruwen


Kate Rudolph - 2016
    The curse of his alien species has put a countdown on his life, and he'll be dead before the month is out. Unless he finds his denya, the only woman in the universe who can save him.Down on her luck and lost in space...Lis Jaynx just wants to go home. Kidnapped from Earth by unknown foes, she's dropped on a inhospitable planet with little food and no hope. She'll do anything to find a ship to take her back to Earth, but Polai is hostile to all alien life, and Lis is running out of places to hide.An unexpected chance...From the moment he sees her, Ru knows Lis is his denya. But she's already wounded and distrustful of aliens, even those who claim they want to help.Will the explosive chemistry between them be enough to topple Lis's fears? Or will their bond break before it even forms, leaving Ru a dead alien walking and Lis all alone in the black of space.(Complete story, no cliffhanger!)

Bridal Pact


Leora Gonzales - 2015
    Sexy, long-haired and leather-pants-wearing Wheaton.Diplomat Wheaton expected a cultured Earthling to help in his mission, not some crazy-haired woman named after a flower and whose speech baffles his translator. Pardon my French? Knock it off? But Wheaton is soon smitten and eager to turn Poppy’s good-morning kisses into an all-day affair. Doing the nasty? Bring it on!But Poppy must do battle with the slimy councilor Demascus, and an extremist group opposed to the Pact. And that’s before a glitch in the Bridal Pact program makes all existing matches invalid, and glossy Hannah, the perfect politician’s wife, arrives on board. Her match: Wheaton.Reader Advisory: This story has graphic sexual language and scenes—no closed bedroom doors (or other rooms) here!An adult science fiction romance from Ellora’s Cave

Alcandian Quest


Mary Wine - 2005
    She wants a man who will love her, make her heart pound with desire and her body melt from passion. Marriage is in there too, but finding the right guy is turning out to be mission impossible.Dumping Mr. Wrong, she heads to her cabin in the mountains, hardly expecting to be swept off her feet and out of this world—literally—into the arms of the sexiest man she's ever met. What she isn't prepared for is to get the man of her dreams—in duplicate!Dylan and Jett don't care which planet they discover their mate on, only that they find the woman who will complete them both. And when Dylan touches Jessica's mind and body, he knows it is his mate he holds in his arms.But Jessica is about to find her personal taboos stretched to the limit by these two sexy, powerful warriors. Offering her everything she ever wanted from a man, she finds out that sometimes what you wished for is a whole lot more than you can handle. But an Alcandian warrior never gives up until the battle is won…

Queen of Starlight


Jessa Slade - 2014
    Transformed by empathic crystals into the perfect paramour, Benedetta Galil is the last treasure of her fading world. When raiders attack—seeking to corrupt the crystals and conquer all of charted space—she gives herself as a prize to the one man in the universe who values freedom over power. Mercenary sheership Captain Corso Deynah left oppression behind him on a burning planet and has no use for a sex slave, even one as seductive as Benedetta. But while he stubbornly resists her body, her fierce spirit tempts him, and he will risk everything—his ship, his seclusion, the very stars—to win not just her passion but her love. Originally published as "Enslaved by Starlight" in HOTTER ON THE EDGE: Science Fiction Romance Anthology.

Claimed


Evangeline Anderson - 2011
    Problem is, she isn’t being forced into the Army, she’s been chosen as a Kindred bride. The Kindred are huge alien warriors—a race of genetic traders whose population is ninety-five percent male. After saving Earth from the threat of invasion they demand a reward—the right to find brides among the population. The chances of being chosen are about the same as those of winning the lottery—guess it’s just Liv’s lucky day. Baird is a Beast Kindred who recently escaped imprisonment and torture at the hands of the malevolent Scourge. Through the torment and pain only one thing kept him sane—the thought of finding and claiming his bride—Olivia. His need to possess her is a burning intensity that threatens to consume them both.Angry at having her future and her family taken away from her, Liv vows to fight back the only way she can—by resisting. She has one month on the Kindred Mothership with Baird—their claiming period. If she can keep from having bonding sex with him during that time, she can go home and get on with her life on Earth. But Baird isn’t going to make it easy for her. Every week he is allowed to touch Liv more and more intimately and according to the contract she signed, she has to let him. She’s determined to resist him but his touch sets her on fire. And just as she thinks she knows what she wants, a twist of fate and an attack by the faceless Scourge AllFather changes everything…