Book picks similar to
The Leader by Shanna Bell


mafia
romance
dark
arranged-marriage

Resist


K. Bromberg - 2019
    Rich, handsome, and more than intriguing, he thinks blackmail will bend me to his will.But he’s wrong.I may have done a few things that weren’t exactly legal, but I have my own reasons for that. The last thing I’m going to do is let some high-powered divorce attorney come into my life, have my body, and rule my heart. Not to mention ruin everything that I have carefully built in just a short amount of time.But as much as I try to resist him, and against my better judgment, there is something about him that has me agreeing to his proposal.I’m putting everything on the line for him. I just hope I won’t lose everything when this is all over.

King of Corium


C. Hallman - 2021
    Assassins, mafia leaders, arms dealers and art thieves.You name it, this college houses them.Here nothing can touch them.Upon arriving I knew Aspen would be here, she was the daughter of our enemy, a snake in the grass like her father. I had no intention of sparring with her. That is until she opened her pretty little mouth. One sentence and she became my next target, and a woman that I would do anything to see on her knees at my feet.If she thought the university was the only nightmare she would have to face, she was wrong.I was the king, and this was my kingdom.**King of Corium is a dark romance novel, that contains dark themes, including dub-con, non-con. It is not a standalone novel.**

Follow Me Darkly


Helen Hardt - 2020
    But he’s a master of control. Skye Manning knows what she wants. Her job as assistant and photographer for a major social media influencer isn’t perfect, but it’s a rung on the ladder to bigger and better things. She’s confident she’ll one day take feature photos for National Geographic.Self-made billionaire Braden Black didn’t get where he is by taking no for an answer. When a chance encounter with the refreshingly innocent and beautiful Skye piques his interest in more ways than one, he’s determined to make her submit.Dating a billionaire soon has Skye in the middle of a Cinderella story…until the clock strikes midnight and Braden reveals his dark side. Heat sizzles between them, and Skye finds herself falling hard.But Braden Black is no Prince Charming, and his dark desires are far from his only secret.Start this amazing series off with Darkly, Follow Me Darkly told from the hero's point of view, or spice up your reading with Braden's story any time while enjoying the Follow Me series.Darkly (Book #1 in the hero's POV) can be read and enjoyed in any order!Reading order of Follow Me trilogy:Book #1: Follow Me DarklyBook #2: Follow Me UnderBook #3: Follow Me Always

Stay With Me: An Eight-Book Billionaire Romance Box Set


Summer Cooper - 2020
    

This Love Hurts


W. Winters - 2020
    Some love stories are a slow burn. Others are quick to ignite, scorching and branding your very soul before you’ve taken that first breath. You’re never given a chance to run from it. That’s how I’d describe what happened to us.Everything around me blurred and all that existed were his lips, his touch… The chase and the heat between us became addictive.Our nights together were a distraction; one we craved to the point of letting the world crumble around us.We should have paid attention; we should have known that it would come to this.We both knew it couldn’t last, but that didn’t change what we desired most. All we wanted was each other…

Brutal Captor #1-6


Amber Adams
    In return, he holds her captive.April Cooker loves her life as an ER doctor but in a horrific twist of fate she suddenly finds herself whisked away to a heavily guarded mansion in order to care for a man she found bleeding to death in an alley. This is no ordinary situation. She has walked into the world of Valentin Ivankov, Russian mafia don. Forced to tend to his injuries, April starts to learn more about the man whose life she has just saved and can’t help but wonder if she’ll ever see her own life again outside the magnificent mansion that has become her prison. Will this devastatingly handsome but dangerous man let her go or is she forever trapped in this world by her brutal captor?Book II: Escape is her only thought. He is determined to make her his, permanently.April has now learned who her patient is and he doesn’t seem intent on letting her go.When her own secret is revealed there is suddenly more at stake regarding her life than ever. As she catches glimpses of the real man beneath his cold and hard exterior, April is drawn into the dark, violent world of the handsome Valentin Ivankov. Will she be able to resist this dangerous man or will she find herself helplessly drawn into the arms of her Brutal Captor?Book III: Being drawn to her captor was never the plan. His tenderness something he never knew that he had.Russian mafia don, Valentin Ivankov, has taken Dr. April Cooker away from everything she’s ever known and, much to her shock, he’s now announced he’ll be taking her as his wife. Escape is still her only thought. But, while she attempts to gain his trust she finds herself unable to resist the pulse-raising effect he has on her.Craving the touch of her Brutal Captor is not something she ever would have thought possible and his tenderness something she never expected. Perhaps it’s not just her life that’s in danger but also her heart.Book IV: The captive comes to hold power over her captor.A mafia Don is expected to take a wife, not necessarily to love one. Marrying April was purely a strategy in order to gain leverage against his fiercest enemy. But now, Valentin finds himself helpless against her. Each day he sees more and more that without April his life would be empty and meaningless and he will stop at nothing to protect her. And it’s this that is planting April right in the crosshairs of the violent mafia war with the Ivankov family’s longest standing competitor, Capeci. Who just happens to be April’s father.Will Valentin’s love for April be the thing that destroys both of them in the end?Book V: Having a future with him is exactly what she wants, or so she thought.Against all odds, April has fallen in love with her Brutal Captor and the man who forced her to marry him. The passion she and Valentin share is like nothing she has ever experienced before and having a future with him is exactly what she wants. Or so she thought. April soon finds out that perhaps the only thing you can count on in Valentin’s world is betrayal and ever-present danger... especially at the hands of family.Book VI: It’s life or death for both of them. Is blood always thicker than water?The war raging with his enemy Capeci is not letting up and April finds herself forced, once again, to play the role of a pawn at the dangerous hands of her father. The extent of the Capeci’s stronghold over Valentin and the Ivankov bratva is finally displayed in a crushing blow that brings Valentin to his knees. A final showdown with Capeci is about to go down and April herself has been positioned as the sacrificial lamb. Is the new love of Valentin and April strong enough for them to triumph over this nightmare or is it true that at the end of the day blood is always thicker than water?

The Scotch King


Penelope Sky - 2017
    He took my intelligence without paying for it. And thought he could get away with it.Think again.Now I’ll take something from him—something irreplaceable.His sister.Collateral.But even when Joseph doubles the amount of money he owes me, I don’t give her up.Nope. I have an image to maintain.So I keep her.And I’m not giving her up.

Bentley


Melanie Moreland - 2018
    Their pasts dictate the men they are, but their present shapes their future. What happens when these men meet the one person they are destined to be with? Can they fight their feelings and walk away? Or will they each succumb and learn the sweet agony of love?BentleyThe leader of the group. He is uptight, formal, and cold. Rigid and set in his ways, always following the same path. Until the day, he stumbles upon her. Emmy.She brings with her spontaneity and light. The world she lives in is so different from his, yet he cannot control the draw to her. Nor can he explain the way she makes him feel. Happy. Protective. Loved.

Kiss of War


Clara Elroy - 2021
    His eyes fostered demons solely reserved for me. They craved to own my soul.And for the longest time, I took it, I bore his cruelty alone.But then... then I grew thorns of my own.And now?Now it's time for his torment to taste my kiss of war.Kiss of War is a complete standalone and a part of the City of Stars series.

Promises and Pomegranates


Sav R. Miller - 2021
    Hades incarnate.They say he stole me.Usurped my fiancé and filled the cracks in my heart with empty promises.Imprinted his crimson fingerprints on my psyche and tried to set me free.They’re not wrong, per se.Except it was my choice to stay.KalTo most, Elena Ricci is an innocent.Goddess of springtime, lover of poetry, angel of my nightmares.Little one. Persephone personified.They say I ruined her.Shattered her virtue and devoured her soul like a succulent pomegranate.Embedded my evil as deep as I could possibly get and tried to set her free.They’re not wrong, per se.Except it was she who ruined me.**Promises and Pomegranates is a full-length, standalone, dark contemporary romance based loosely on the framework/characters from the Hades and Persephone myth. It features mature themes, explicit scenes, triggers, and strong language. If you’re not a reader of the genre, this book may not be suitable for you. Reader discretion is advised.

Den of Vipers


K.A. Knight - 2020
    Their deals are as sordid as their business, and their reputation is enough to bring a grown man to his knees, forcing him to beg for mercy. They are not people you mess with, yet my dad did. The old man ran up a debt with them and then sold me to cover his losses.Yes, sold me.They own me now.I’m theirs in every sense of the word. But I’ve never been meek and compliant. These men, they look at me with longing. Their scarred, blood-stained hands holding me tight. They want everything I am, everything I have to give, and won’t stop until they get just that. They can own my body, but they will never have my heart.The Vipers? I’m going to make them regret the day they took me.This girl? She bites too.18+ Reverse Harem Romance. Warning this book contains scenes and references of abuse/assault that some readers may find triggering. Along with graphic sex scenes and violence. This is a dark book.

Andrei


Naomi West - 2020
    Time to show her how deep the darkness goes.It’s been a bad night for Cora Jones. It’s about to get so much worse.She thinks the man who snatched her from that alley and sold her to a brute is the worst man alive.But he isn’t. Not even close.Not compared to me.I’m Andrei Valeri, don of the Valeri mafia. And when I see Cora on that auction stage, I know one thing only:I have to have her.It costs me a lot to make her mine.But in the end, it will be worth it.Because Cora belongs to me now.And I know just how to make this angel sing.ANDREI is a full-length, standalone auction mafia romance. It contains adult themes that may not be suitable for all readers.

The Negotiator


Avery Flynn - 2017
    Free spirits with personal boundary issues, excessive quirks, or general squeamishness need not apply. Salary negotiable. Confidentiality required.Workaholic billionaire Sawyer Carlyle may have joked he needed a “buffer” from their marriage-obsessed mom, but he didn’t need a waiting room filled with “candidates” to further distract him. (Thanks, bro.) But when a sexy job applicant shooes his mom and the socialite in tow out of his office, Sawyer sees the genius of the plan. And the woman. In fact, Miss Clover Lee might just get the fastest promotion in history, from buffer to fake fiancé…This “free-spirit” might look like hot sunshine and lickable rainbows, but she negotiates like a pitbull. Before Sawyer knows what hit him, he’s agreed to give up Friday nights for reality tv, his Saturdays for flea markets (why buy junk still baffles him), his Tuesdays and Thursdays for “date nights” (aka panty-losing opportunities if he plays his cards right). And now she wants lavender bath salts and tulips delivered every Monday? Yup, she’s just screwing with him. Good thing she’s got this non-negotiatable six-weeks-and-she’s-gone rule or Sawyer may have just met his match…

Machiavellian


Bella Di Corte - 2020
     I hungered to be seen. There were three things I knew about Capo Macchiavello: He was gorgeous. He was reclusive. He was considered one of New York’s most savage animals. And he wanted me as his wife. A simple arrangement – you do for me, I do for you. Nothing owed, no expectations. Except for one: never leave. Life was never that simple, though. By the age of twenty-one, I was parentless, jobless, and homeless, and I had come to learn the hard way that nothing was ever free. Even kindness comes with strings. Capo might’ve been the only man to ever see me, but I had made a vow to myself: I would never owe anyone anything. Most of all, the man I called boss. I killed to stay hidden. Mariposa Flores thought she owed nothing to no one, but she owed everything…to me, the ghost the world had once called The Machiavellian Prince of New York.

Code of Silence


Shantel Tessier - 2020
    Who just so happens to also be my ex-boyfriend.It’s complicated. Two years ago, he broke my heart when he left me to do his father’s bidding. After months of crying, I finally accepted he was gone and wasn’t going to look back. That maybe he’d never loved me at all. I never wanted to see Luca again.Now a cruel twist of fate has signed me over to him in a heartless deal. I’m his. He thinks he did me a favor, but I feel like I’ve been given a death sentence. He doesn't want to get married because he still loves me. No, he did it for money. More power.I’m going to be a mafia wife. And there’s only one way out of it. Death.But as it turns out, someone else doesn’t want me to marry the ruthless Luca Bianchi. And if he has his way, I’ll see that early grave.Due to mature content and themes this book is recommended for readers aged eighteen and over. Code of Silence is an arranged marriage and a complete standalone. This novel may contain triggers.