Book picks similar to
Fear, and Other Love Languages by Aveda Vice
horror
dark-romance
romance
monsters
Love, Laugh, Lich
Kate Prior - 2021
She loves her job, but she's got some questions about her boss. Like what's under that cloak of ever-billowing.Her wondering intensifies when one day the Lich needs something from her that isn't just scheduling appointments-- but a shiver. He needs it for a spell, but it feels like it crosses a line from their usual workplace banter.After her contributions to his dark rituals become more than OSHA compliant, sex-magic-and-triple-cocks-oh-my, she starts to contemplate whether the Lich Lord returns her feelings, or still only sees her as his secretary. Lily may have given him her body, but he never asked for her heart.
Aries
Gemma James - 2019
A virgin queen. One arranged marriage. The first time I met the boys of the Zodiac Brotherhood, I was forced to my knees for the introduction. Still grieving the death of my parents, I was a child queen, a pawn in my uncle’s agenda for wealth and gain. As my guardian, he had the authority to arrange a marriage upon my eighteenth birthday. That meeting took place six years ago. Now those boys are powerful men. Twelve virile men that want to own me. And I must spend a month with each one. Bending and yielding to their desires and commands. Shedding pieces of my innocence so long as my virtue remains intact. Because they want a virgin queen after the last month concludes, and my uncle plans to auction me off to the highest bidder. Out of the twelve men, only one has my heart. And only one can claim my hand in marriage. If only it were up to me to decide.
Part 1 of The Zodiac Queen.
Corruption
Kim Fielding - 2017
He exists in miserable servitude to men who plunk down ten dollars to fulfill their dark desires.Charles Grimes is half human, half… something else. For fifteen years he’s worked for the Bureau of Trans-Species Affairs, ridding the country of dangerous monsters. When his boss sends him to Kansas to chase a rumor about a captive demon, Charles figures it’s just another assignment. Until he meets Tenrael.
Still Waters
Alex Gabriel - 2015
Almost.A deadly hunter.Hraban has dedicated his life to taking down creatures like Drakjan, protecting those who cannot protect themselves.An uneasy truce.When fate forces them together, the nix and the hunter discover a dangerous attraction… and a threat that can destroy everything Drakjan has come to love.~~~~~~This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. "Still Waters" contains sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. ~~~~~~This story prompt and photo inspired "Still Waters":Dear Author,I only have two words for you: ginger merman! Everything else is up to you.Photo Description: A redheaded, muscular young man with a short beard stands in a lake, a scraggly stand of seaweed-draped deadwood behind him and mountains in the distance. He looks directly at the viewer, wearing a neutral expression. The water comes up to just above his waist, and he is lifting a sturdy white net from the water with both hands.
Run & Hide
Beatrix Hollow - 2021
The things I fear crave me… and they’ve been here the whole time. Hiding, waiting, and wanting. Lurking, sneaking, and watching.Traveling the country camping was supposed to be an escape from the strange and unusual that clings to my family. My family’s calling to fame terrifies me. The ghosts, the hauntings, the supernatural--I want nothing to do with it.Too bad it wants everything to do with me.Where did the trip first go wrong? Maybe when an old friend with dark secrets insisted on coming--a rising rock star whose fame is now putting me in the limelight.Then there is the West Virginia local legend. A monster myth of cryptid fame. A campfire story. But there are those that believe--that are willing to do whatever it takes to capture the monster in the mountains.Maybe even use humans as bait.Maybe even use me.Author Note: This is a monster romance with multiple love interests the female lead will not choose between. This is book one of a series and will be slow build, meaning not all love interests are introduced in book one.content warnings/tropes & details: Graphic violence/gore, Violence from outside the harem, Dub-con, Gun/Knife Violence, Death/murder, Hauntings/ghosts, Paranormal possession, Kidnapping/captivity, Cults, Biting, cervical penetration, c*m inflation, abnormal anatomy, monster sex, praise k*nk, squirting, excessive male fluids
Prosper's Demon
K.J. Parker - 2020
But they don’t die, and we do. Equilibrium.The unnamed and morally questionable narrator is an exorcist with great follow-through and few doubts. His methods aren’t delicate but they’re undeniably effective: he’ll get the demon out — he just doesn’t particularly care what happens to the person.Prosper of Schanz is a man of science, determined to raise the world’s first philosopher-king, reared according to the purest principles. Too bad he’s demonically possessed.
Better the Devil You Know
Bey Deckard - 2015
Tags: graphic torture, murder, paranormal, forced incest, rape Byron is tall, handsome, well spoken, wealthy, and has outstanding taste in wine and food. You’ll be impressed by his impeccable attire and eloquence in conversation, ranging from Baroque art to the newest advances in pharmacology. With his charming smile and elegant manners, Byron truly is the perfect date… and who doesn’t love a man who appreciates opera? What’s the catch, you ask? Just this: if Byron finds you suitable, he will subject you to utterly depraved forms of torture. No, I’m not talking about S&M. Byron will mutilate, rape, and then kill you. Don’t think that you will survive the encounter, because you won’t. He has a perfect record. Intrigued? Would you like me to arrange a rendezvous? It has to be in the next few days because he’s leaving on a trip south to much warmer climes, and his calendar will be completely full. Yes? Very good. I will make a reservation for two under the name of Smith. Who am I? I’m Gloria, his personal assistant.
Lord of Eternal Night
Ben Alderson - 2021
Jak, a boy born with power that the witches have not seen in a century, is their prophesied saviour. The one who is to kill the creature, break the curse and restore magic to his coven.Sent to the creature’s castle as the final Claim, Jak must get close enough to land the final blow. It is what he has trained all his life to accomplish.Not all is as it seems when Jak uncovers secrets and half-truths. The creature is not the haunting beast he had been brought up to hate. Emotions war as new feelings are uncovered. For what is more dangerous than hate? Lust.Lord of Eternal Night is a complete, M/M *stand-alone novel*, inspired by Beauty and the Beast… with added bite.
Games We Play
Dana Isaly - 2021
He makes a living playing video games and using his gravelly voice to bring people’s sexual fantasies to life.When the top gaming site on the West Coast sends someone out to interview him, Quinlan walks into his apartment with her auburn curls and thick curves, and they’re instantly drawn to each other.Quinlan has no idea of the monster that lurks beneath the surface of his calm demeanor. Jack is quicksand, pulling her down into the dark underbelly of his desires. To get out unscathed, she’ll need to give into the hunger she has always tried to deny.
What Big Teeth
Rose Szabo - 2021
When she flees boarding school after a horrifying incident, she goes to the only place she thinks is safe: the home she left behind. But when she gets there, she struggles to fit in with her monstrous relatives, who prowl the woods around the family estate and read fortunes in the guts of birds.Eleanor finds herself desperately trying to hold the family together — in order to save them all, Eleanor must learn to embrace her family of monsters and tame the darkness inside her.
Branded
Nora Ash - 2014
Being different was never easy. After 27 years of living as a social outcast, Selma has become quite accustomed to the isolation and lack of dreams for a happy future. What she's never gotten used to are the demons she sees; the dangerous creatures masquerading as humans, blending into the regular world as if they belong. No one else ever sees what she does—not when she was younger, and not the night she is attacked by horned monsters, losing the precarious grasp on her already damaged mind. Trapped in a mental hospital, Selma's only hope of gaining back her life is a young psychiatrist with smoldering looks and some very disturbing ideas for her treatments. If she is ever to see the outside world again, she must submit to him. But he is one of them—and his intentions are far more devious than they appear. First installment in the 6-part serial Demon’s Mark. Contains darkly erotic scenes and demons who like to play rough. Not for the faint-hearted. Demon's Mark Complete Series: #1 Branded #2 Tricked #3 Hunted #4 Captured #5 Claimed #6 Cherished
A Little Familiar
R. Cooper - 2015
Generations of Russells have lived and died with only their familiars at their side. The presence of a friendly familiar is enough to keep even the loneliest witch sane, and yet Piotr deliberately hasn’t chosen one. He forces himself to keep busy instead, but the emptiness of his house haunts him even more the spirit of Great-Great-Aunt Elysia in the parlor. With Samhain and Halloween approaching, he’ll have much to do, and knowing that, his concerned coven seizes the chance to intervene and sends help to his door in the form of Bartleby Dorchester. The rarest of rare jewels, Bartleby is a human familiar: a witch with no magic of his own, and a desire to find a strong witch to help and serve. In particular, he desires to help and serve Piotr, and everything in Piotr wants to let him. Bartleby was meant to be his familiar; Piotr knows it as surely as he knows when it will rain or when the apples in his garden will ripen. But what Piotr wants from Bartleby, all he’s ever wanted, is for Bartleby to love him, something he thinks is impossible. Russells live and die unloved, and he won’t allow Bartleby to feel obligated to spend his life with him as his familiar if he could be happy in love with someone else. But Samhain is a time for change, when walls come down and borders grow thin, and Bartleby isn’t going to waste what might be his last chance to convince Piotr that they were meant to be. He might have no magic, but love is a power all its own.
Hunter of Demons
Jordan L. Hawk - 2013
But when a demon murders his brother, Caleb knows he has to avenge Ben’s death, no matter what the cost. Unfortunately, his only allies belong to an extremist group who would kill Caleb if they found out about his talent.Gray is a wandering spirit, summoned to hunt and destroy demons by drinking their blood. This hunt goes horribly wrong, and for the first time in his existence Gray is trapped in a living, human body. Caleb’s body…and Caleb is still in it.Hotshot federal agent John Starkweather thinks he’s seen it all. But when he’s called to exorcise Caleb, he finds a creature which isn’t supposed to exist outside of stories. For Gray is a drakul: a vampire.Having spent his life avoiding the government as an unregistered ‘mal, Caleb can’t let himself trust a federal exorcist, no matter how sexy. And he certainly isn’t going to give into the heat growing between them and sleep with Starkweather.Can Starkweather win Caleb’s trust and convince him he isn’t the enemy? Can Caleb keep Gray under control, as the drakul experiences the temptation of a living body for the first time?Because if he fails and Gray gives in to bloodlust, Starkweather will have no choice but to kill them both.Novella: 33,643 words
Once Upon a Haunted Moor
Harper Fox - 2013
It’s not life in the fast lane, but he takes it very seriously, and his first missing-child case is eating him alive. When his own boss sends in a psychic to help with the case, he’s gutted – he’s a level-headed copper who doesn’t believe in such things, and he can’t help but think that the arrival of clairvoyant Lee Tyack is a comment on his failure to find the little girl. But Lee is hard to hate, no matter how Gideon tries. At first Lee’s insights into the case make no sense, but he seems to have a window straight into Gideon’s heart. Son of a Methodist minister, raised in a tiny Cornish village, Gideon has hidden his sexuality for years. It’s cost him one lover, and he can’t believe it when this green-eyed newcomer stirs up old feelings and starts to exert a powerful force of attraction. Gideon and Lee begin to work together on the case. But there are malignant forces at work in the sleepy little village of Dark, and not only human ones – Gideon is starting to wonder, against all common sense, if there might be some truth in the terrifying legend of the Bodmin Beast after all. As a misty Halloween night consumes the moor, Gideon must race against time to save not only the lost child but the man who’s begun to restore his faith in his own heart.
Delinquent Demons
K. Webster - 2020
Sure, everyone sent to prison says that. It’s true, though. I’m not who they say I am. Dark. Evil. An abomination. The worst of the worst. They sent me to the deepest, most awful catacombs of Nightmare Penitentiary. It’s where they put all their secrets they don’t want anyone in the world—both human and paranormal—to know about. I’m left to be forgotten and waste away until the day I die. And I’m not alone. I’m there with others. Others who are worse than me. Terrifying. Horrible. Monsters. Four demons in particular who seem to wake from their evil slumber the moment I enter their presence. They want me. All four of them. I’m not sure what they plan on doing once they get their hands on me. But one thing’s for sure… It won’t be good.