Book picks similar to
City of Thieves by Cora Kenborn
mafia
mafia-romance
age-gap
underworld-kings
Sunshine and Bullets
Coralee June - 2018
It’s a nickname I haven’t heard since I lived on Woodbury Lane, where the houses were pretty but the secrets? Deadly. It was a pet name known only to the Bullets. Rough, violent, and ruthless, they laid claim to the town — and my heart. I wasn't supposed to fall for a boy from the wrong side of the tracks—especially not four of them. But they were the only ones who understood that sometimes hell hides in plain sight. I was the girl with all the conveniences a privileged upbringing could provide. The world only saw two loving parents and a pristine home life, but I knew the truth. And it was going to get me killed. So, I disappeared, from everyone and everything I’d ever known. I changed my name and my appearance, but the scars I carry, they’re still the same. The Bullets are all grown up now, too — a crime boss, a pro fighter, a bounty hunter, and a federal agent. Life took them in different directions, but they once shared the bonds of a brotherhood forged under the harshest conditions. Together they were fearless. Brutal. Unstoppable. I'm praying they can find that unity again. If I'm going to survive this, it'll take everything they have. Because that's the thing about running from the past. Eventually, it catches up to you.
The Danger You Know
Lily White - 2020
Always has been. I'm the worst thing for her, yet I’m the only salvation she knows.He had his chance to make her happy.He failed.He didn't see how she was dying inside because he couldn't know her.Not like I know her.I am her stalker.Her protector.And the only man that can bring her back to life.***This book contains sensitive subject matter.
Sugar Daddy
Sawyer Bennett - 2016
Sela Halstead lost her innocence in a way that no sixteen-year-old should ever have to endure. She’s spent years trying to forget that night even while wondering about the identities of the monsters who brutalized her—until a telltale tattoo flashes across Sela’s TV screen. The incriminating ink belongs to Jonathon Townsend, the millionaire founder of The Sugar Bowl, a website that matches rich older men with impressionable young women. Obsessed with revenge, Sela infiltrates Townsend’s world, only to come face-to-face with a tantalizing complication: Beckett North, his charismatic business partner. The tech mastermind behind The Sugar Bowl, Beck always gets what he wants, in business and in bed. And yet, for a man who’s done every dirty thing imaginable, there’s something about the naïve, fresh-faced Sela that sparks his hottest fantasies. Because with her, it’s not just about sex. Beck opens up to her in ways he never has with other girls. So why does he get the feeling that she’s hiding something? In a world of pleasure and power, the shocking truth could turn them against each other—or bind them forever. Note: Sugar Daddy ends on a cliffhanger. Sela and Beck’s story continues in Sugar Rush and Sugar Free!
For Fallon
Soraya Naomi - 2014
Fallon’s mask is real, what you see is what you get. Growing up with two loving parents in Chicago, graduating in Chicago, and now working a job she loves, she enjoys her life. Her untarnished world is shaken when Luca crosses her path. Luca’s mask is tightly controlled. Distrust, rivalry, and violence rule his life.When confronted with insecurities, when the one you love wears his mask perfectly, when your life unravels and you don’t know why, do you keep trusting the person you love? Everyone has a façade. Everyone has an ulterior motive.A contemporary romance/ romantic thriller in dual point of view. Contains sexual content and violence.
Killing Sarai
J.A. Redmerski - 2013
Over time she forgot what it was like to live a normal life, but she never let go of her hope to escape the compound where she has been held for the past nine years.Victor is a cold-blooded assassin who, like Sarai, has known only death and violence since he was a young boy. When Victor arrives at the compound to collect details and payment for a hit, Sarai sees him as her only opportunity for escape. But things don’t go as planned and instead of finding transport back to Tucson, she finds herself free from one dangerous man and caught in the clutches of another.While on the run, Victor strays from his primal nature as he succumbs to his conscience and resolves to help Sarai. As they grow closer, he finds himself willing to risk everything to keep her alive; even his relationship with his devoted brother and liaison, Niklas, who now like everyone else wants Sarai dead.As Victor and Sarai slowly build a trust, the differences between them seem to lessen, and an unlikely attraction intensifies. But Victor’s brutal skills and experience may not be enough in the end to save her, as the power she unknowingly holds over him may ultimately be what gets her killed.This is their story…
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.
Better When He's Bad
Jay Crownover - 2014
. . meet Shane Baxter. Sexy, dark, and dangerous, Bax isn’t just from the wrong side of the tracks, he is the wrong side of the tracks. A criminal, a thug, and a brawler, he’s the master of bad choices, until one such choice landed him in prison for five years. Now Bax is out and looking for answers, and he doesn’t care what he has to do or who he has to hurt to get them. But there’s a new player in the game, and she’s much too innocent, much too soft…and standing directly in his way. Dovie Pryce knows all about living a hard life and the tough choices that come with it. She’s always tried to be good, tried to help others, and tried not to let the darkness pull her down. But the streets are fighting back, things have gone from bad to worse, and the only person who can help her is the scariest, sexiest, most complicated ex-con The Point has ever produced. Bax terrifies her, but it doesn’t take Dovie long to realize that some boys are just better when they’re bad.
Last Hit
Jessica Clare - 2013
For years I savored the fear caused by my name, the trembling at the sight of my tattoos. The stars on my knees, the marks on my fingers, the dagger in my neck, all bespoke of danger. If you saw my eyes, it was the last vision you’d have. I have ever been the hunter, never the prey. With her, I am the mark and I am ready to lie down and let her capture me. Opening my small scarred heart to her brings out my enemies. I will carry out one last hit, but if they hurt her, I will bring the world down around their ears.
Daisy
I've been sheltered from the outside world all my life. Home-schooled and farm-raised, I’m so naive that my best friend calls me Pollyanna. I like to believe the best in people. Nikolai is part of this new life, and he’s terrifying to me. Not because his eyes are cold or my friend warns me away from him, but because he’s the only man that has ever seen the real me beneath the awkwardness. With him, my heart is at risk... and also, my life.
Predator
Michelle Horst - 2017
I'm tortured and beaten within an inch of my life when he walks right into my hell.No one knows who he works for, only that he leaves no one alive. But for some unknown reason, he doesn't end my miserable life.Instead, he takes me, and I don't know which is worse... the death sentence hanging over my head or being at his mercy.Previously published as 'PREDATOR.'(Rewritten with a new cover and title 2021)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.This is Cara's story. Her trauma and her journey of healing are the main focus of this book.
Violent Delights
Jessica Hawkins - 2019
An untouchable among thieves. Heiress to a life others have killed for, and one I'd do anything to escape. I vowed not to leave without Diego, my first love and best friend, but if his ruthless brother has his way, I won’t leave at all.Cristiano de la Rosa is a man as big and bold as his legend. Once upon a time, he was our cartel’s best soldier . . . until he became my family’s worst enemy. And a man like Cristiano will bend fate to his will to get what he wants—even if it means tearing me from another's arms.Because in the de la Rosa family, old grudges run deeper than loyalty, and betrayal is a three-letter word: war. But this feud isn’t between enemies—it’s between brothers. And I’m the prize.
Crowned by Hate
Amo Jones - 2017
Daughter of the current President of the United States, wealthy, famous, and all things that some girls wish they had. Only I'd dream of having a simple life. A life where I wasn't marrying the scariest man I have ever met. Well, I thought I had just met him, but it turns out, there's so much I don't know about myself. That's all thanks to a past so twisted, so warped, that no amount of money, or presidential status could wipe it clean. I'm the rebel child. Or as some may see it, the disappointment. I’ve never cared about expensive wedding gowns, or how much someone paid for a tailored suit. I don’t care if your wedding dress is from Walmart, or if it’s from some fancy, upscale designer line. So why am I marrying the devil dressed in a thousand-dollar suit? I'm about to find out how I got here. To marrying one of the most powerful men in the country. The road to finding out, though, is paved with darkness, painted with the blood of innocents, and it leads my ass straight to hell. Only this hell is a multi-million-dollar penthouse suite in New York City where Bryant Saint Royal, sits on his throne.
Cold Hearted Bastard
Jenika Snow - 2021
and love and hate.He didn’t have a heart... but he wanted hers.All I knew about life was anger and violence. Pain and suffering. Kill or be killed.I was a “fixer” for the Ruin—a syndicate for the Bratva, Cosa Nostra, Cartel, and any other organized crime faction that dealt in the darker, crueler aspects of humanity.I was a free agent who was called upon to do things weaker men didn’t have the stomach for.And when you surround yourself with death for long enough, soon, you didn’t remember what it felt like to be alive.And then I saw her. She was a fragile little thing who tried to be strong. But I could tell she’d seen too much horror in the world, too much of the ugly within people. I should have stayed away. I’d only bring her farther down into the darkness.But for the first time in my life, I felt a stirring in my chest, this protectiveness and possessiveness toward another living person. And it was painful. It made me feel alive.Lina tried to hide how broken she was, but I was an old friend of being ruined. She held secrets I’d find out. Because for the first time in my miserable life, I wanted something for myself. I felt something more than apathy and indifference.I wanted to possess the innocence she clung to. I wanted to break it open and consume it for myself. I could look into her too trusting blue eyes and knew I’d maim for her. I’d kill for her. And that became our truth when her past finally came back for her when my present tried to destroy her. They thought they could take the one thing—the only thing—I’d ever wanted for myself. They were wrong.When I looked at her, I felt some of the monster that made me who I retreated back to my black soul. He’d never leave... but he’d share the space. For her.A complete standalone novel in the Underworld Kings series.
Nyx
Serena Akeroyd - 2020
I feel it like it’s my own.He’s a killer. Shameless. Some might even call him a psycho. I just call him soul mate. We were born to raise hell together, born to make sick b*stards pay for their sins, born to be the king and queen of darkness…Now, the king just needs to get that memo. NYX is the first book in the eleven-book ‘A Dark & Dirty Sinners’ MC’ series. It is not a standalone.
Marriage & Malice
Trisha Wolfe - 2021
I've devoted my life to my pursuit of ballet, it’s my escape from the dark underworld I was born into. As a Carpella and the daughter of a made man, I've accepted certain traditions. Yet, having just been promoted to principal within a prestigious dance company, I'm so close to escaping that world…Until a devil with blood on his hands and an Irish curse inked into his skin tears into my world, now passion holds a whole new sinister meaning. With ruination in his steel-blue eyes and me in his crosshairs, Lucian Cross traps me in his gilded cage and uses me to deliver his retribution.Forced to sign a marriage contract, my father traded my life to save his own. Now I'm bound to Lucian, owned by a monster who swore an oath of pain and suffering to my family. Lucian's passion is revenge.And because my family destroyed what he loved, he vowed to destroy what I love. Every night he forces me to dance until my breaking point. He wants to condition me to loathe the very thing that once gave me hope.I can't let him break me, but the closer we get to the wedding date, the more entangled I become in his dangerous, tempting world, and I begin to lose myself in him.His vow is my pain.My vow is not to fall for the enemy.But how can I dance with the devil himself and not be singed by his fire?
Borden
R.J. Lewis - 2015
After a crime-filled upbringing in a very harsh neighbourhood, Borden leaves his hometown, returning four years later mysteriously rich and unrecognizable, with one woman on his mind. A woman he'll never have. Pained by his devastating loss and filled with rage and guilt, Borden's world turns dark. * As a fiercely independent woman, Emma Warne knows all about hard living. Having kept to herself most of her life, the last thing she expects is to be thrust into the world of infamous criminal Marcus Borden, the dangerous man the entire city fears and loathes. But the more she pushes him away, the more he comes back, taking over her life and stripping her of her control she desperately clings to. Once Borden has his sights on her, Emma is going nowhere anytime soon, and what she doesn't expect least of all... is that she may not want to either. Book 1 of 2. ******* WARNING: This is NOT a love triangle. This book contains sexual situations - of a very rough nature - violence, and strong language that may be offensive to some.*******