Book picks similar to
Catalyst by Nicole Fanning


romance
mafia
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contemporary-romance

Mine


Natasha Knight - 2020
    She was never supposed to walk into my club.  But she did.  I shouldn’t have looked twice at her.  But I did.  The criminal underworld is no place for a girl like her.  One night with Katerina isn’t enough, but men like me can’t afford to be weak.  So, I tell her to leave me behind.  She does, but not before she sees something she shouldn’t.  When she goes into hiding, it’s my duty to hunt her down.  I have a job to do, and she needs to disappear for good.  But four years later, Kat isn’t alone anymore.  And the little boy right beside her looks just like me.

Tough Love


Skye Warren - 2015
    My father’s guards don’t see me. My sister doesn’t see me.No one sees me, except him.He’s the son of a mafia foot soldier. My father is the boss. I shouldn’t even know Giovanni. And I definitely shouldn’t kiss him. Our relationship is doomed to fail, but that won’t stop me from trying.Not every girl wants to be a princess. I just want to be free.

Dark Mafia Prince


Annika Martin - 2016
    So trusting.
Like you think I’m not a monster.
Like I won’t wrap your hair in my fist and bend you to my will.
Like I won’t sacrifice you, piece by piece, to save my brother.I’m the most dangerous enemy you’ll ever have because every time you look at me, you see somebody good. That friend who died.And when you look at me like that, I die again.MiraI spent years making myself invisible.A good girl, apart from the noise.
Then you came back, beautiful and deadly in your Armani suit.
Don’t look at me like you still know me, you say.
But I remember your smile and those sunny days.Before they lowered your small casket into the ground.
Before they told us the prince was dead.

Illicit Temptations


Janine Infante Bosco - 2015
    That's all I was before New York's most notorious gangster recruited me.Now here I am, following in my father's footsteps and breaking my mother's heart. And I'm torn between the only life I've ever known and the possibility of something else. Because the only beacon of light in this dark world is the one woman I can't have. The Boss's daughter. The nightclub king's girl. Her irresistible spirit struggling to be respected for who she is, and not just who she belongs to. I see her. All of her.She's the sweetest temptation I've ever known.And the most illicit. Publisher's Note: Illicit Temptations is volume one in The Tempted Series but it may be read and enjoyed as a standalone mafia romance. This book has been revised and edited as of January 2021.

Dark Passion


Bec Botefuhr - 2013
    This book contains adult content 18+ It's not your typical happily ever after kind of book, it's dark, beautiful, dangerous and heart wrenching but who can resist a dark, hot, dangerous man? Consider yourself warned!! Willow didn’t have an easy life. Her Mother’s in a mental institution and her Father’s dead. When she finally feels like she’s moving on, darkness invades. Jagger is part of what Willow likes to consider a gang. When he captures her and reveals that her Father is alive and is holding vital information, everything she ever believed is turned upside down. Now she’s trapped, put in the middle of a gang war and being held captive by a dazzling and beautiful man. Jagger has the power to change everything she’s become, but he also has the power to destroy it… So what happens when Dark Passion ignites between them?'

Asher Black


Parker S. Huntington - 2017
    Huntington comes a steamy, slow-burn love story full of unexpected love and banter.It started with my bladder.I didn't mean to witness a shady deal in the restroom hallway.I didn't think twice when I called the cops.And I certainly didn't know who the club belonged to.Asher Black.Former mafia hitman.Billionaire CEO.New York's most eligible bachelor.When he shows up at my college, looking for the girl who called the cops on his business, I know I'm as good as dead.What I don't expect is his offer--he'll pay my tuition and set me up with a cushy job after I graduate.All I have to do is... be his fake fiancée.Asher Black is a 90,000-word standalone novel in The Five Syndicates mafia romance series.

Rising


Jessica Ruben - 2018
    Anonymity is key in my neighborhood—particularly as a lone female walking at night. All I want is to leave my crime-ridden shadow of a home in New York City. I’ve done everything I can to keep my head down and focus on my studies. College is my only goal; love has never been on the map… That is, until my sister brings me to an underground fight, where I meet a gorgeous and mysterious man: Vincent. He is the ghost in my shadows, showing up to feed me pieces of his upper-crust life, then evaporating into darkness until his next visit. I’m falling hard and fast. How can I trust him amidst the depth of his secrets? Vincent may be even more dangerous than the dark world I’m trying to escape.

The Wolf and the Sheep


Penelope Sky - 2018
     My father married me off to one of the most powerful men in Italy. Maverick DeVille. But I call him the wolf. He calls me his sheep. The arranged marriage was detested by us both, but we had to make sacrifices for the right reasons. He needed to avenge his mother and I needed protection from the mobs that want to torture me. He's not what I pictured for my husband. He's ruthless, calloused, and cold. His walls are higher than mine. He possesses cruelty that makes him feared. But it doesn't take long for me to respect him...even like him. I rely on my husband more than anyone else in the world. He provides for me, protects me, and chases away all my fears. He lets me graze in the meadow...not a care in the world. Because the wolf is always watching. "When people look in the darkness, they see shadows. I see monsters. And I kill the monsters that hunt my sheep." I hated this marriage in the beginning, but now I realize how lucky I am. How lucky I am to be the sheep the wolf protects...and doesn't eat.

Hooked


Emily McIntire - 2021
     Once Upon A Time, there was a little boy. His belly full of laughter, his life full of joy. Until one day, something changed; stripped his innocence away.The hole inside making space for the devil to come and play. His dreams gone forever, he grew up way too fast. An endless night of crocodiles, and watches made of glass. He grew into a villain, the taste of vengeance on his tongue. Craving to make his enemies pay for the misdeeds they had done. Instead he found a darling girl, and refused to let her go. For what better way to make the man pay, than to steal his little shadow. *Hooked is a full-length, complete standalone and the first in The Never After Series: A collection of fractured fairy tales where the villains get the happy ever after. This is a DARK Contemporary romance (not a literal retelling and not fantasy) featuring mature themes and content that may not be suitable for all audiences. Reader discretion is advised.*

Dark Heart Volume 1


Ella James - 2020
    Looking back, it makes sense. I was young and needed saving. Luca was my strength. He could take on anything—the world, for me. They say first love cuts the deepest. Ours became a blade that bled me out. It turns out I didn’t know a villain when he held my heart in his hands. Now it’s darker—more like his. Elise was my whole world—until my world burned, and I destroyed her with me. Some betrayals, you can’t undo, no matter how much you wish you could. I can’t help who I am now, and why would I want to? I run this city. No one’s going to take me down—not even the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. I heard they’ve got a file eight inches thick on Don Galante. But dodging bullets is my business. They play dirty, but there’s no one dirtier than me.The DA learns the hard way who’s in charge; he’s out. It should be time for celebration. There’s just one problem: his heir. Or should I say heiress? Elise O’Hara wears a crown of lies, a gown of red, and a fat diamond on her left hand. Now it’s me and her. Or her and me. Only one of us will be left standing when the story’s over. This is how you write a tragedy.

Wolf


Penelope Black - 2020
    So when she invites me to stay with her for the summer, I don't hesitate.And I make a new summer plan: skip the vacation, take online courses, and dig up dirt on Mom's new fiancé.What I didn't plan for was Wolf Fitzgerald--and his brothers. Dangerously good-looking with tattoos and bad attitudes.And my new stepbrothers.

Because You're Mine


Claire Contreras - 2018
    They're the ones with experience. The ones with secrets. The ones that exude sex just by saying your name.From the minute I laid eyes on Lorenzo, I knew he wasn't just bad news. He was the headline.My opinion didn't change on our second meeting. Or our third. But my head and my heart are at war. He’s too mysterious, too gorgeous, too wild, and now, he wants me. I should run far away. So why am I racing toward him? I’m totally going to get burned. I know it. A man like Lorenzo won’t leave me unscathed.He'll make ashes of me.

Kings of Chaos


Eva Ashwood - 2021
    I wear vengeance like a suit of armor.I’ve got a list with six names on it. Six people who wronged me, who hurt me, who took everything from me. Six people who turned me into the monster I am now.And I’ve crossed off every name but one.One more name. One more death. Should be simple, right?Yeah, you’d think so. But it turns out revenge is a messy business, and when I end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, I royally piss off four brutal, twisted, gorgeous men.Gage, Priest, Ash, and Knox.Lucky for me, the last name on my list is someone they’ve got their own grudge against, so instead of killing me, they offer me a deal. They’ll give me a chance to exact my vengeance, and in exchange, all they want is…Me.I’m not stupid. I’ve played this game before. Even though they've agreed to help me, I know they want to punish me too. They want to toy with me. To let their demons loose on me.But maybe these Kings of Chaos have let my pretty face fool them.Because I'm just as vicious as they are. And I’ve got demons of my own.Kings of Chaos is a full length dark new adult romance with enemies-to-lovers/love-hate themes, featuring a slightly psycho heroine and four even more psychotic men. What happens between these pages will be dirty, dark, and delicious, so read at your own discretion.

The Brit


Jodi Ellen Malpas - 2021
    Numbing herself to fear and pain is the only way she can survive in this cruel world. So when she’s taken as collateral by the notorious Danny Black in a deadly game of power, she’s thrown by the deep fear she feels rising within her. And, worse than fear, a profound desire. She’s heard tales of The Brit. He’s callous. Coldblooded. But no one ever said he was wickedly beautiful and darkly captivating. He sees past her mask, giving her a cruel sense of hope. But she must fight their twisted attraction or risk losing the one thing she survives for.When Danny Black took an enemy’s beautiful lover as security, he never anticipated the repercussions. Or the warped attraction they would share. Rose Cassidy pushes Danny to the brink of madness with her impenetrable façade and savage allure. He has to remind himself that she’s bait. A solution to a problem. Yet she evokes powerful feelings in Danny, and feelings are risky when you’re wanted dead by endless enemies.The most dangerous game is about to be played.But can either of them win?*This story is gritty, dark, edgy, and contains scenes that some people may find uncomfortable to read. It is NOT for the fainthearted.

Brutal Prince


Sophie Lark - 2020
    He’s ruthless, arrogant, and he wants to kill me.We got off on the wrong foot when I set a (very small) fire in his house.Our families believe a marriage pact is the only thing that will prevent all-out warfare.I think I might need to murder him while he sleeps.This would all be a lot easier if Callum wasn’t so damned good-looking.But I’ve got a lockbox around my heart. Because even if I’m forced to marry him…I could never love a brutal prince.“Brutal Prince” is the explosive first act in the epic “Brutal Birthright” series. It’s a stand-alone Dark Mafia Romance, complete with HEA and no cliffhangers. It contains blazing hot bedroom scenes for mature readers only!!!