Book picks similar to
Muse: A dark romance by Julia Gabriel


romance
contemporary
contemporary-romance
new-adult

Birthday Cake


Minx Malone - 2011
    How hard can that be?My best friend is deployed and he worries about his little sister being alone. But I don’t mind taking her out for her birthday. I just have to remember one thing. 1) Keep my hands off her ridiculously curvy body.But there’s just one problem. Mara has her own ideas about what we should do for her birthday. And she wants a lot more than a Hallmark card.

Tiger Lily Part One


Amélie S. Duncan - 2015
    After a horrendous crash killed her parents, an abusive relationship was all she needed to calcify her broken heart to stone. So when Lily’s boss comes to her with a challenge most girls would balk at, she knows there isn't much left in this world to be afraid of. The target: Jonas Crane, a brooding business mogul who hasn't smiled once since his very public divorce. Dark, dangerous and mouthwatering, Crane has written a book about life in the fast lane and with the recent publicity, Lily's boss wants the rights. Problem is, Crane won't return a phone call, let alone agree to a meeting. But if a pretty publishing assistant happens to run into him at the Waldorf, with a business card and a smile...what could go wrong? A lot, it seems. Lily thinks she's going to meet a rich jerk, or worse, a playboy, but the truth is way more disturbing. Jonas Crane is smart, engaging...and devastatingly out of her league. This Romantic Erotica contains some dark elements/situations.

Big Girls Do It: Volumes 1-4


Jasinda Wilder - 2012
    They go for supermodels and actresses, skinny-girls who never eat and spend all day working out. I'm not that girl. So when he locked his fiery brown eyes on me for the first time, I couldn't quite believe it was really happening to me. It was the second night I spent with him that I'll never forget. The Long Drive Home (bonus short story) Big Girls Do It Wetter Chase went to New York...without me. It was only one night, one delicious, sinful night, but it awakened something within me, and now, with him gone, I have no one to satiate my sudden, ferocious hunger. Then I woke up one day and looked at someone near and dear to me in a whole new light. And my world was rocked once again. Big Girls Do It Wilder I'm going. Going to New York City to be with gorgeous, mysterious, rockstar Chase Delany seemed like a crazy dream, a fantasy come true. The bright lights and music, and his tight, sexy leather pants called to me...and I answered. Chase might want more and I just might give it to him, if I could only forget what I started with Jeff back in Detroit.I thought I had my love life all figured out, I thought I knew what I wanted, and then things went and changed on me all over again... Big Girls Do It On Top I fled New York with my heart breaking and a million questions. Foremost in my mind was whether Jeff would even see me after the colossal mess that New York turned out to be. I discovered the answer, but that only spawned even more questions, many of the yes or no variety...

Baby for Brother's Best Friend


Sofia T. Summers - 2020
    And I dream of having a family. A baby. So I went to the only person who I thought could help me. My fertility doctor.Who, in fact, is my younger brother’s best friend. The age gap should’ve been enough for me to keep a distance. But my heart didn’t listen. Playing by the rules had never gotten me anywhere.So I wanted the forbidden fruit this time. I wanted his strong arms to hold me tight. And his gorgeous eyes to look into mine. I knew what was coming.It was the one thing I didn’t want. Love.Full length standalone brother’s best friend romance. No cliff-hangers. HEA guaranteed.

Before You: Standalone Contemporary Romance


Eve Cates - 2015
    Stay with me. Just until I don’t need you anymore…’ When Willa Henderson flew to Chicago, she was just supposed to pack up her brother’s apartment and ship everything inside it back to LA. That included packing up his roommate's things up as well. It was a big ask, but Dave was her big brother, so Willa agreed. The last thing she was expecting was to run into said roommate - the intense German named, André Bauer, a photojournalist who was supposed to be in Afghanistan working for the next few weeks - on her first night there. She also wasn’t expecting him to throw her out on her a** without even trying to let her explain who she was and why she was there. Let’s just say it was…hate at first sight. From the moment they met, they didn’t like each other, and neither of them really had any interest in changing that fact. But one thing they did know, was that they were unequivocally attracted, and it didn’t take too long for them to collide. With both of them screwed up by their pasts, neither of them could handle a relationship if they tried - André is a self-confessed a**hole. Willa is a self-confessed commitment-phone and gets angry whenever she feels. Then there's Willa’s brother, who could very well kill André if he found out he’d slept with his sister. But, when desires go unchecked, there’s little that can change the outcome, and eventually Willa and André agreed to give in – just until they got each other out of their system. They expected it would take a week, maybe two. Then they could walk away without anyone getting hurt. Before each other, that arrangement might have worked out, but there was something there - an intensity they couldn't explain. As layers are peeled back and secrets are revealed, they find themselves in a state of need that neither was prepared for... Before You is a standalone contemporary romance with no cliffhanger and its own HEA.

Love & Other Chaos


Jackie Walker - 2020
    Brody’s my friend - just a friend. He’s also my autistic son’s favorite teacher.He’s as off limits as they come, no matter how drop dead gorgeous he is. Falling for him would be wrong. Resisting him though, is becoming pure torture. After being burned by men who can’t handle dating a single-mom of a special-needs child, I refuse to date anymore. Not until my son is grown. My plan is working fine until my trouble-making bestie presents me with a dare that I can’t resist. I’m a sucker for a good dare - especially when margaritas have been consumed. And she’s just dared me to plant a surprise kiss on Brody’s sexy lips, while she records it for a trending TikTok challenge video. But if I do this, it could change everything. My life is already pure chaos and maybe now is not the best time to shake things up even more. Is it worth risking our friendship and his important role in my son’s life for one kiss? What if he wants more? What if I do? Love & Other Chaos is a hilarious, steamy, friends-to-lovers romantic comedy featuring a drop dead gorgeous and seriously buff teacher with the hots for a single-mom of an autistic pre-teen son... who happens to be one of his students. This story also includes wise-cracking grandparents with zero respect for personal boundaries, swoon-worthy beach scenes, a jerky boss with no concept of personal space, nosey siblings and a foul-mouthed best friend who loves to instigate trouble. If you don't like sarcasm, steam, sexy-times, heroines who drink copious amounts of margaritas and laugh-a-minute dialogue, then this might not be the book for you. It’s a stand-alone novel with a happy ending, because cliffhangers will kill your margarita buzz.

Complete Submission


C.D. Reiss - 2018
    A beautiful bIllionaire with a taste for obedience. Too bad I'm not submissive. This girl will never surrender.But I can’t stay away from him. He’s got this bossy way about him in bed. The word “Sir,” falls from my lips, and when he tells me to get on my knees…well, my knees have a mind of their own.I got this. I can be his slave for a few nights and walk away unscathed. We get in. Get it on. Get the hell out. Done. He can find the line between love and lust. It’s right between my legs. Now, let’s see if that line blurs for me.------This bundle includesSubmission / Domination / Connection

Three Simple Rules


Nikki Sloane - 2015
    Now I have to.In order to save my skin at the office, I'm forced to sell it at an exclusive and illegal blindfold club. He paid thousands of dollars for one night to own me, but when my blindfold comes off, I want more. More nights, more rules, and more from this unavailable and uncompromising man.Rule number one, no questions. Rule number two, no lies. But, rule number three? That's the hardest one to obey.

Craving


Helen Hardt - 2016
    Her humiliation still ripe, she doesn't expect to be attracted to her friend’s reticent brother, but when the gorgeous cowboy kisses her, all bets are off.Talon Steel is broken. Having never fully healed from a horrific childhood trauma, he simply exists, taking from women what is offered and giving nothing in return...until Jade Roberts catapults into his life. She is beautiful, sweet, and giving, and his desire for her becomes a craving he fears he'll never be able to satisfy.Passion sizzles between the two lovers...but long-buried secrets haunt them both and may eventually tear them apart.

Wild Irish Ride


Jennifer Saints - 2008
    Now he's back in Savannah with his highly successful security company to put the Weldon name on the right side of the tracks. Unfortunately, before he can even make a move in that direction, he runs into Alexandria Jordan and ends up making the same mistake he did before. He succumbs to her allure, but this time, he plans on getting her out of his system for good and walking away.Except for a few wild moments with Jesse at seventeen, Alexi Jordan has followed the life expected of her. But a Wedding Day betrayal from her blue-blooded fiancé has her running from her life and right into the arms of the man she'd never forgotten, Jesse. Yet as she forges a new future for herself amid the scandal of her aborted wedding, Alexi finds herself the target of a twisted killer and both her and Jesse's days are now numbered.Excerpt:"Still a virgin on the run after all these years, Lexi?" he drawled.  His voice, as steamy and seductive as Southern summer day, challenged her on an elemental level, a sensual one. "Almost," Alexi said, letting the last illicit picture she had of Roger fall from her grasp to the ground.  She'd only ever been with Roger and he didn't count.  Not anymore.  She sucked in air, latching onto Jesse's appeal.  The reporters encircled them.  Jesse lifted his hot gaze to her eyes and smiled. "Almost?"  Slow and sexual, his grin spread awareness over her.  "Sounds frustrating.  Interested in changing that?"  He ran his finger under her chin and she caught her breath. Yes, some part deep inside her shouted.  Yes, she wanted to change that.  Here was one situation her grandmother couldn't smooth over with a lie.  With the cameras rolling, Roger and her grandmother would get a clear picture that Alexi meant it when she said she wasn't marrying Roger ever. "Yes," Alexi said to Jesse, stepping closer to him.  Waves of his sex appeal washed over her.  Waves she had no trouble remembering, though she'd only been seventeen when she'd last dipped into them.  His nearness and touch sparked something inside of her that wanted to rebel against everything that had just happened to her.  "Kiss me," she demanded, loudly.Jesse arched his brow and asked softly, "What's your game Lexi?"  His slid an arm around her and pulled her flush to his chest, her breasts to his hard muscle.  Then his mouth covered hers.  She gasped at the desire shooting through her as his tongue entered her mouth, and his gaze dared her to respond. She wound her arms around his neck, pressed closer to him, and met his tongue with hers.  His eyes widened with surprise, telling her that he'd expected her to put him off rather than to take him up on his challenge.  After that first moment, he didn't hesitate in delivering a four-alarm kiss.  He bent her back over his arm, inserted his leg between hers and had one hand cupping her butt.  In one kiss he ravished her from the inside out and she burned for more.  By delivering a message to her grandmother, what message had she delivered to herself? He ended the kiss, but kept her captive in his embrace as he stared into her eyes.  The cameras continued to flash and the world swirled crazily.

Love & Ruin


J.A. Owenby - 2018
    Hendrix and Gemma's story continues in Love & Deception and finished with an HEA in Love & Redemption. ** This book includes language, sex, and violence.

Beautiful Pain


J.M. Walker - 2015
    If you deal with triggers, please read this book with caution. Material consists of adult content and BDSM. I was sent away for protection. Pulled from a world and forced into another, I lost myself on the way. No emotion. Only walls to hide feelings that were now masked behind a barrier. Matteo Santos opened my eyes. He helped me see through the darkness that consumed my soul. He breathed life into my lungs, gripping my heart until it beat again. With a darkness of his own, it haunted him, turning him into a beautiful Master of seduction and pain. Through trust and love, we would battle our pasts together. Before they took control...completely. "Not everything is as it seems." ~ Beautiful Pain

#1 Crush


Kaia Bennett - 2014
    Gabriel has always seen Nicole as his good friend’s very pretty, but extremely off limits baby sister. Then a hot summer day and an even hotter discovery pushes them over the lines of friendship, over the lines of unrequited desire, and into each other's arms.Will they indulge and move on? Or will this crush turn into something more, something deeper? Something that leaves loose ends begging to be tied…#1 Crush is book one in the Loose Ends series. Each book is a full novel and the series will conclude with book three.

A Taste of You


Sorcha Grace - 2013
    Beautiful and talented Catherine Kelly is starting over as a food photographer in Chicago. With her painful past buried in California, she’s focused on her career and is hungry for little else. Until she meets a wealthy bachelor with arresting blue-grey eyes filled with enough tragedy to match her own. William Lambourne is rich, powerful, and gorgeous -- and as talented in the kitchen as he is in the bedroom. From the moment they meet, William is determined to discover the perfect recipe to unlock Cat’s resolve, awaken her senses, and make her his own. Book 1 in The Epicurean series, A Taste of You will leave you hungry…for more!

Beauty and the Feast


Julia Barrett - 2010
    Eva moves to the Napa Valley where her culinary skills come to the attention of the owners of a start-up, All Things to All People, and Eva finds her niche as a personal chef. Now all she needs is a man as perfect as her cooking, but she has serious doubts that such a creature exists. When wealthy entrepreneur, winery owner, and noted Lothario, Gabriel Abbott, makes plans to seduce his flavor of the month, his assistant hires All Things to All People to cater a gourmet dinner. Eva expects to use her way with food to showcase the startup. What she unexpectedly discovers is that her culinary skills showcase far more. Once Gabriel finds himself seduced by Eva's voice, and the sensual flavors and textures of her food, his previous plans are quickly forgotten. He begins to obsess about meeting his little chef in person. But when Eva and Gabe finally come face to face, the question is, how hot will their fire burn?