Book picks similar to
My Beautiful Nightmare by Alisha Cole
dark
arc
abuse
contemporary-romance
You Loved Me At My Darkest
Evie Harper - 2014
Kidnapped by a rich madman, Sasha is sold into slavery, while Lily is forced to join The Collection, a unique bevy of exotic beauties enduring frequent horrors at the hands of elite bidders. However, no amount of pain and suffering will break Lily, who will stop at nothing to save her younger sister. Possibly with help from an unlikely ally.Love is stronger than loyalty…Attempting to prove his allegiance to his employer, Jake is tasked with guarding the unruly and uncontrollable Lily. He can’t afford to help her in her quest to free Sasha—not if he hopes to fulfill his own agenda. But in their dark, gritty, tension-filled world, solace is taken wherever it’s found. Bonds are formed and hearts engage despite Jake’s resistance and both their attempts at self-preservation.When certain secrets come to light, the resulting explosion has breathtakingly bittersweet consequences that, by the end, may not leave everyone whole…or alive.
Serial, Volume One
Lily White - 2014
Born with everything, wanting for nothing, murder has become his addiction. He kills women who entice him. He immortalizes them while they’re still young and beautiful. How will he manage to save the one woman he loves?Ronnie Lapierre is a survivor. Born with nothing, she’s struggling in a dead end job with an abusive bastard for a boyfriend. Jude offers her a way out, salvation beyond her wildest dreams. What will happen when she learns his terrible secret?Donovan Blake is the brightest mind to come out of Quantico in years. Charged with finding the Cascades Butcher, he’s perfect for this game of cat and mouse. Will his own dark past lead him to success, or drag him into the depths of hell with the most dangerous man he’s ever encountered?Hearts will be broken, families destroyed, and good men will turn evil. In the end, only one will remain. Find out who survives in this intense story of love and ruin.***Explores dark themes of murder, violence, sexuality, BDSM, the nature of evil...basically all the good stuff.
Caged
D.H. Sidebottom - 2016
After an extensive search he was never found. Twenty-one years after a random call out, Judd is found chained and beaten in the basement of an old rundown farmhouse where he has lived the life of an animal for the last twenty-one years. Kloe Grant is assigned as Judd’s personal therapist. It’s her job to rehabilitate him, to guide him back to normal life. But as Judd’s only emotion is rage, Kloe finds it both heart-breaking and challenging mending a soul that’s not only broken but caged inside him by the demons of his past. However, when Kloe’s relationship with her patient raises some eyebrows, Kloe can’t fight against the powers that want to see her fail, and with an arm behind her back, she walks away, leaving behind a man who has come to live life again for her. Four years later Judd, now known as Anderson Cain, the darkest and most formidable cage fighter in a world where violence and crime are the only way to keep breathing, Judd finds there’s not a lot in life that can abate the rage that still twists and prowls beneath his skin. Not until a chance encounter brings him to her door. To the woman with the bluest eyes and the most stunning smile, the woman who took his hand in the darkness and led him through the door into the sun. But Kloe Grant left him when he needed her the most. She took the only shred of hope and trust he had left and annihilated it. She starved his belief, and she fed his fury. She owes him. And he’s going to make sure that this time, she pays. In blood. In lust. In pain. And with her soul.
Security Binds Her
Jennifer Bene - 2015
It may take time, but I will.”“And if I don’t break?”“You will.”Taken from work one night, Thalia is thrust into the violent, controlling world of a man she thought had been the security guard for her building, but she quickly learns that this was only a cover to get to her, to take her. As her old life is erased, the guard pushes Thalia to recognize the darker sides of herself, while Thalia endeavors to hold on to who she is.Trapped alone with her abductor, can Thalia fight to retain her self, or will his small glimpses of kindness cause her to finally submit to him?‘Security Binds Her’ is a brutal journey that leaves readers breathless and waiting to turn the page to find out if Thalia will break, or be lost forever to the darkness around her.**WARNING: This book contains graphic punishments, disturbing situations, scenes of dubious consent, and very strong language. Intended for mature audiences.
Beautifully Broken
Alex Grayson - 2014
A place to take a deep breath after months on the run.What Bailey didn’t count on were the people welcoming her with open arms. Making her feel safe and protected for the first time in her life.Especially Jaxon Walker. The tattooed bar owner who’s determined to get under her skin and force her to reveal her deepest secrets. Even if it puts everyone she cares about in danger.Just when Bailey finds the love she’s been searching for her whole life, her past blazes its way into the dream world she’s been living in.Will Jaxon save Bailey before it’s too late? Or will the evil that is her husband finally finish her off?
Progress
Amalie Silver - 2016
She was rounder than the girls who usually caught my eye. Not my type. But when I saw her sitting in that booth alone, for the first time something in my mind or my instincts or my heart told me to join her.She defied me.She challenged me.She gave me hope.Before I knew it, moving forward was my only option.CharlieI couldn’t tell you when it happened, but it had to have been a gradual change; I never moved too quickly.If someone would have told me earlier that year what I was going to go through, I wouldn't have believed them.Jesse was so different from anyone I’d met before. And everyone I’ve met since. He sucked all the life out of me, in the best—and worst—ways.We don’t get strong overnight. For most of us it takes time. Strength isn’t measured by how high and fast our walls go up, but how easily we can watch them fall.Warning: This book contains material that might be a trigger for some readers. Abuse and rape are implied, but not described in detail. Discretion is advised.
Vicious Prince
Lili St. Germain - 2018
A brutal abduction.And a love so forbidden, it might destroy them both.Avery Capulet is missing.Taken by a madman. Kept in the dark.She might not survive.He’ll use her body. Destroy her mind. All before he ever lays a hand on her.Rome Montague is a drug dealer. A criminal. A thief.And he needs the secrets Avery and her family are keeping – even if it means cutting them out of her pretty Capulet flesh.Rome Montague is missing – but nobody will miss him.Not that it matters; After the things he’s done to this girl, he doesn’t deserve to be found.Vicious Prince, set in the criminal underbelly of San Francisco, follows two warring families who are ruled by blood, power and twisted desire.Please note this book was formerly titled Verona Blood.
El Malo
K. Webster - 2018
Evil. Twisted. Psychopathic. A cruel madman with a killer smile. And he is my boss. My duty is to blend in, clean his home, and not make a peep. I’ve done my job well for years. Imbedded myself so deep in his world, he’s never going to get me out. But I am this king’s worst nightmare. Bad men like him took everything away from me. I will never forget. He will pay for the sins of many. I’ll just bide my time—watching, waiting, calculating—until the time is right. When I strike, he won’t know what hit him. The monster who rules Mexico with an iron fist may not bow to anyone… But I’m not just anyone. He will bow to me.
Bang
E.K. Blair - 2014
But I’m not innocent. I haven’t been for a very long time. My innocence was stolen from me. Taken was the life I was supposed to have. The soul I was born with. The ruby heart embedded in a life full of hopes and dreams.Gone.Vanished.I never even had a choice. I mourn that life. Mourn the what-ifs. Until now. I’m ready to take back what was always meant to be mine.But every plan has a fatal flaw. Sometimes it’s the heart.**Due to the dark and explicit nature of this book, it is recommended for mature audiences only as some scenes may be particularly disturbing.**
Pretty Stolen Dolls
Ker Dukey - 2016
Kidnapped and held prisoner by the psychotic serial killer, they spend years in captivity, lost to the world. Resolute in seeking freedom, Jade finally manages to escape the clutches of the brutal monster of a man and his sadistic torture. But it comes at a devastating price. Macy is left behind. Years later, and now a detective herself, Jade is determined to hunt down her kidnapper and finally free her sister. She soon learns, after a string of new murders with an eerie familiarity…She's not the only one on the hunt.Her past is about to catch up with her. And Benny is a lot closer than she thinks.This is a dark title with adult themes.
One Hundred & Thirty-Six Scars
Amo Jones - 2016
I fought through life with my scarred soul, wrangled through the dark empty nights where I’d pray I didn’t wake up the next morning. I would shut my eyes and mentally take myself to my happy place.Red rosesThe sound of waves crashing on the sand under my feet. The final time the cold blade pushed up against my thigh, and I waited for my blood to trickle over the other One hundred and thirty-six scars that covered my skin— never came. Who was this man who just saved me? He had no idea how close I came to ending myself that day. I was ready to blow my brains all over the bedroom walls and I had a nine sitting under my pillow to prove it.BeastSome people have families, I had engineered human killing machines surrounding me my whole life. I’d been a part of this unit since I was a baby, raised in a community that was shut off from the real world. A community where we were nothing but empty vessels, until Hella (my best friend) and I escaped. Hella took us to a girl who was in foster care with him before he was summoned into The Army. After finding out yet another complication in my life, I needed space. I booked in to a run down apartment, ready to clear my head. Only my head didn’t clear, because I was haunted every night from the screams that would vibrate through my walls.This is not a story of a perfect man coming in to save the day. This is a story of what happens when fate interferes and two completely broken souls collide.
Takeover
Lana Grayson - 2015
Imprisoned. Ravished.When tragedy stole my family, my father’s will mandated my future. I didn’t inherit Atwood Industries. I became the only one capable of protecting it. Atwood Industries belongs only to a male heir, my heir. And my enemies—my own step-brothers—will stop at nothing to create a shared bloodline.But they’ve made a mistake, and they’ll forever regret trying to control me.Nicholas: Damned. Destroyed. Enthralled.My family’s livelihood depended on acquiring the rival Atwood Industries and seizing the innocent woman bound within its terms of succession. I never expected such a challenge from my step-sister.I never thought I’d betray my own blood to protect her from the nightmare we began.But if I don’t stop her, the woman I’m forbidden to love will be responsible for tearing apart the empire my family spent generations building.
Siren
Jaimie Roberts - 2016
In fact, I’m a real bitch. If the opportunity arises, I will take your husband, give him the best sex he’s ever had, and laugh behind your back once I’m done with him. I do not put on airs and graces. I just take what I want whenever I want it. I am the abused who has become the abuser. I live for power because all power had been stripped from me for years. Now that I have it back, I feed off of it like it’s my primary sustenance, and I don’t care who I hurt in the process.Every woman hates me, but do you know what? I don’t give a shit.You won’t like me. I’m not here to be liked. You want to know my story? I won’t stop you from observing. Just know that once I’m done with you, no shower—no matter how scalding—will ever get me out from under your skin.Warning: If you’re looking for pink, fluffy clouds, rainbows, and HEA’s, then this book is not for you. These pages contain flashback scenes of child abuse in all forms (physical, sexual, and emotional) as well as BDSM and other taboo themes. Love does not live in this book. Only dark, twisted, and sick obsessions thrive here. You. Have. Been. Warned!
Filthy 1
Megan D. Martin - 2014
But everything changes when Rhett Hale comes back into her life. Her devilishly handsome step-brother brings life-changing news and a special kind of hate reserved only for Faye. But all the hate in the world can’t hide Rhett’s lust for her.He wants something wild. Something filthy.And Faye is tempted to give him just that.***Filthy is a dark erotic serial novel that will release monthly in segments of around 50 pages each. This book is not for those who like a traditional heroine. Faye and Rhett's story is dark, complicated, and twisted with themes that are not acceptable to all readers. Read at your own risk.***