Book picks similar to
Pickpocket by Christa DeClue


abuse
action
contemporary-general-fiction
abuse-trauma

Destroyed


Pepper Winters - 2014
    Not broken or ruined or running from a past I can’t face. Just complicated. I thought my life couldn’t get any more tangled in deceit and confusion. But I hadn’t met him. I hadn't realized how far I could fall or what I'd do to get free. He has a secret.I’ve never pretended to be good or deserving. I chase who I want, do what I want, act how I want.I didn’t have time to lust after a woman I had no right to lust after. I told myself to shut up and stay hidden. But then she tried to run. I’d tasted what she could offer me and damned if I would let her go.One secret destroys them.

Because of Him


Terri E. Laine - 2017
    Laine.Past and present intertwine with light and dark to tell a story ...Because of Him Something inside me fiercely craves normal.Sheltered all my life and taught to be afraid, I want to be bold, fearless. Up until now I've kept myself and my heart safe.Tade Astor, a guy so hot he steals my breath away, jeopardizes it all.He isn't the kind of guy to give up on what he wants—me.He’s determined to prove my safe world is missing something—him.Even though he may not be the cocky guy I assumed him to be...He’s definitely not the guy I should give my heart to.But each time I see him, he becomes harder to resist.I want to be brave and give him a chance... though it might come back to haunt me.At the heart of Because of Him is a love story. But due to certain sensitive topics, it might not be suitable for all readers.

Interim


S. Walden - 2015
    That space is called the INTERIM.~High school seniors Jeremy Stahl and Regan Walters aren’t friends. Not even close. He’s a picked-on, picked-apart loser outcast. She’s a cool kid running with the popular crowd. It’s unlikely they’d ever speak to one another. Too bad he’s madly in love with her. But what does it matter anyway? He’s got no time for love. Only revenge.Meticulously detailed in the pages of his battered red notebook is his master plan: April 14, 9:30 A.M., two guns, eighty rounds of ammo, backup knives, eleven victims. He’s finally ready to answer every single taunt, jeer, and flying fist—unwarranted abuse that’s spanned six years of his lonely life. He’s justified. He’s ready. But he never readied himself for her.Regan finds his journal. She reads it, and when he discovers her intrusion, he has to switch tactics. She’s a liability now.Better fix that.Interim is a New Adult Standalone. It contains explicit language and disturbing images of violence, including gun violence. If school shootings are an especially sensitive subject for you, I encourage you to refrain from reading this book. - S. Walden

Cruel Saints


Michelle Heard - 2021
    Loyalty is owned. Love is taken. Little did I know my love and freedom would be taken to form a new alliance.Brutal, possessive, and dangerous, Lucian is feared by all. Including myself. When his father is assassinated, Lucian takes his rightful place as head of the Cotroni family. They rule the Mafia with an iron fist, and he’s set his sights on my family.Until now, we’ve been the only threat, but when a new one emerges, my father is forced to arrange a marriage between Lucian and myself.He might be handsome but he’s not the kind of man who loves. He takes what he wants and right now, it’s my body. I might belong to him in name, but the question remains – will our union be consummated in blood or love? STANDALONE: Romance Suspense full-length novel.WARNING: This book contains subject matter that may be sensitive for some readers. There is dark and triggering content between these pages. 18+ only. Please read responsibly.

Bound and Freed Boxed Set


Nikki Sex - 2013
    But John is a deeply damaged soul, bound to his tormented past. Can André save him from himself?Submissive Kelly Flynn has a huge crush on John Taylor, and is restrained by troubling ties of her own. She is suffering from the "Fatal Female Flaw" when ordinarily sensible women fall madly in love with an unattainable man who can't, or won't love them back. There's no possible way Kelly can ever break through John's defenses to the tortured soul beneath... or can she? Freed With a deep phobia of small spaces, the last place Kelly Flynn wants to be is trapped in a dark elevator... especially with John Taylor, the handsome Dom she has a huge crush on. As her fear threatens to overwhelm her, it becomes clear John will have to do something drastic to save her.Luckily, John is just the man to solve the problem. An experienced Dom, he knows everything about a woman's body, including how to bring it to soaring heights of pleasure.Both Kelly and John are caged by far more than just walls. Each has their own issues that bind them. Can they free each other? Stripped After escaping the elevator, Kelly Flynn goes home with John Taylor, the Dom she has a crush on. Why? Because she has fallen completely, madly in love with the man. And what woman in her right mind wouldn’t fall in love with him? To Kelly’s mind, John is perfect. Or is he? Punished Kelly Flynn is on an emotional roller coaster ride from hell.Saturday night she had hit a freakish all time low when she had been caught in a broken elevator. With a phobia of being trapped in small, dark places Kelly had totally flipped out when the lights went out and the elevator screeched and jerked to a halt. Luckily the Dom she had been crushing on all month, John Taylor, was there to save her. One thing led to another and Kelly ended up spending the night with John and having the BEST SEX of her entire life. Not to mention falling head over heels in love with the guy.Who unfortunately it turned out, was a complete nut job wacko bastard. Or was he? John Taylor is in fact, the ultimate Dom. He knows just how to deal with a disrespectful sub. What will John do? Because it is pretty clear by now, that Kelly won’t get away with her behavior toward him. There is no question about it. Kelly will need to be punished. Connected Submissive Kelly Flynn's life is falling apart.John Taylor, her Dom boyfriend is wanted by the police for the brutal murder of his psychologist, a woman who was helping him deal with his childhood.Kelly is John's alibi, but the police don’t believe her. Her parents don't believe her either, but she knows John. Madly in love with John Taylor, Kelly just doesn't know anything about his past. What is it that made him the way he is?Meanwhile, with John's solid alibi, the real killer is looking for another victim. Does the murder have Kelly's name on the top of his "To-do" list? Between her parents, John's past, the police, and the killer, Kelly's perfect love story is seriously feeling the strain.

Silenced


Leddy Harper - 2017
    Silenced and scarred, he keeps to himself, spending his time with his notebook in the woods behind his aunt’s house. Until Rylee Anderson…When Rylee spots Killian hopping over a fence next door, she follows him, unprepared for the boy she’d find—or the relationship that would unfold over the next seven years.Or the silence that would follow.Fighting between the hate of his past and the promise of his future, Killian must make choices—ones that would affect more than himself. Choices that would test the lines of right and wrong. Decisions that could break the bond of the only love Killian knew.Hate or love.Revenge or forgiveness.Silence or his voice.

Sin


Elena M. Reyes - 2021
    Sin and pleasure.The Devil she never sees coming…Everyone knows that Malcolm Asher owns Chicago. Nothing—not a single move is made in my city without my authorization. I’m ruthless. Conniving. Worshipped by those around me, and yet, it means nothing the moment my eyes meet hers…Clear blue and innocent, the delicate doll on this stage holds me captive against my will. She’s decadence personified—a corruptible angel I want to own.I’m hard for her. Starving for a taste. Eager for her to feel me.This little girl has no idea of the danger she’s in within my presence. How I will make her crave the darkness I control.How I will make her…Mine.

For You


Kristen Ashley - 2011
    Everyone in their small town knew from the moment they met they were meant for each other. But something happened and Feb broke Colt’s heart then she turned wild and tragedy struck. Colt meted out revenge against the man who brought Feb low but even though Colt risked it all for her, Feb turned her back on him and left town. Fifteen years later, Feb comes back to help run the family bar. But there’s so much water under the bridge separating her and Colt everyone knows they’ll never get back together. Until someone starts hacking up people in Feb’s life. Colt is still Colt and Feb is still Feb so the town watches as Colt goes all out to find the murderer while trying to keep Feb safe. As the bodies pile up, The Feds move in and a twisting, turning story unravels exposing a very sick man who has claimed numerous victims along the way, Feb and Colt battle their enduring attraction and the beautiful but lost history that weaves them together.

The Boss


Melanie Moreland - 2021
    New added content for a complete romantic suspense experience.

Bad Boy Daddy


Chance Carter - 2015
    I needed a man.FaithThe first time I saw Jackson, I hated his guts. He was everything I could never have. Pure, panty-wetting, manhood. And I was trapped in a loveless relationship with his worst enemy. I never would have dreamed he craved my womb so badly he was willing to do anything for it.JacksonMy father's death taught me a lot of things. Most importantly, I needed a child. I had to have a son before my enemies caught up with me. So when Faith came begging for protection, I knew exactly what I wanted. I yearned for her body. Lust raged through me like a wildfire. I longed to make her pregnant with my child. I gave her an offer she couldn't refuse. A life for a life. My protection, in exchange for everything she had to offer. I'd die for her, but she would give me a son.I took her womb. I never suspected she'd take my heart.

Taken by My Best Friend


Logan Chance - 2018
    Sometimes not for the better.Xavier is no longer the maid’s son. Or my best friend. Now he’s wealthy and powerful--the dark don, in charge of one of the largest corporations in the world.I never expected the boy who always saved me to be the man who kidnaps me.XavierSome things never change.Rhiannon is still as fiery and beautiful as the day I walked away. Now I'm back, ready to seek vengeance against the one man who wronged me. My rival. Her father.If her father wants war, he'll get a war.Kidnapping his daughter is the key to my ultimate revenge.

When Sinners Kneel


R. Scarlett - 2018
    Someone who fights there must have the answers she’s seeking. Instead, she found him. The damage inside her matches the darkness inside him. She’s only eighteen, but the feelings she has for him are as old as time.Beau Knight should have ruled New York. Falling in love was the beginning of his end. He watched her die and he lost his heart. Now, The Pit is his heaven and his hell. The only place he can be himself.They’re both beyond fixing. Addicts, with desires humans couldn’t understand.A soulless man and a souleating girl.How do you find redemption from your demons when you are one?Beau Knight's Book.

Bennett Mafia


Tijan - 2019
     The wealthiest of the wealthy sent their kids to our boarding school, and Brooke Bennett had been at the top, though I never quite knew why. She was fun and outgoing, but she kept quiet about her family. The only things she showed me were photographs of her brothers. I became fascinated with her second-oldest brother. Kai Bennett. He was the most of them all. Smoldering. Hypnotic. Alluring. Kai had eyes that pulled me in and a face that haunted my dreams. Then I met him. He came to our school with their father, and that’s when I learned what kind of family Brooke came from. They were mafia, and Brooke’s oldest brother was dead. Her father said accident, but Brooke said murder. Three months later, her father died, and Kai became the head of the Bennett Family. Brooke left Hillcrest for good, and that was the last time I saw her. Fourteen years later, I’m staring at her face on the television. Brooke is missing. Two days later, Kai Bennett kidnaps me. ** This is a 120k complete standalone. ** There is a bonus chapter from another book at the end.

Waterfall Effect


K.K. Allen - 2018
    Allen comes a new and suspenseful small town mountain romance.Lost in the shadows of a tragedy that stripped Aurora June of everything she once loved, she’s back in the small town of Balsam Grove, North Carolina, ready to face all she’s kept locked away for seven years. Or so she thinks.As one of the victims of a string of mysterious disappearances in the small, picturesque Appalachian Mountain town, darkness has become her home—her safe blanket when the world reveals its true colors. But as the walls of darkness start to move in on her, she knows the only way to free herself from her past is to face it, head-on. She just needs to figure out how.Upon arrival, Aurora isn’t expecting her first collision to be with the boy she left all those years ago. The boy who betrayed her trust with no regrets. The boy who is no longer a boy, but a man with the same stormy eyes that swept her into his current before she ever learned to swim.She’d thought he was safe. He’d thought their path was mapped out. Turns out neither of them was ready for the crash at the bottom of the cascade.

Fear of Falling


S.L. Jennings - 2013
    Security seemed more like a luxury to me, reserved for those who were fortunate enough to have picture perfect childhoods. For those who didn’t bear the ugly scars that keep me bound in constant, debilitating fear. I’ve run from that fear my entire life. But when I met him, for once, I couldn’t run anymore.He scared the hell out of me in a way that excited every fiber of my being. It wasn’t the tattoos or the piercings. It wasn’t the warmth that seemed to radiate from his frame and blanket me whenever he was near. It was just…him. The scary beautiful man that threatened to alter 23 years of routine and rituals, and make me face my crippling fear.My name is Kami and I am constantly afraid. And the thing that scares me the most is the very thing I want.“Don’t worry,” he smiled, pulling me into the hard warmth of his chest. “I’ve got you. I’ll always catch you when you fall.”And just like that, Blaine had staked his claim on the untouched part of me that no living soul had ever moved. He had captured every fear, every reservation, and crushed them in the palm of his inked hand.Author Disclaimer: Abuse is real- verbal, emotional, physical and sexual. It takes place all around us; it doesn’t discriminate against race or gender, wealth or poverty. It affects us all- those of us who’ve had to live through it, or watch it happen, even those of us who’ve only heard about it. We are all affected. We are all forever changed. This is not a story for the faint of heart; this is the story of one woman’s very real struggle through a world against her, the people who hurt her, her real life demons and the people who showed her that every gray sky, no matter how dark, has a sun waiting to break through.***Inspired by true events***