Book picks similar to
He Who Is a Friend by Love Belvin


romance
african-american
love-belvin
dnf

Bought


Lauren Landish - 2016
    I trust no one. I thrive with control and I’ve learned to be ruthless and coldhearted. A love life? I’m not interested.But I still have desires.That’s where Dahlia came in; my treasure. She had never been a submissive before and I was eager to train her.The dusting of sparkles on her dress barely hid her tempting curves. I wanted to see all of her. My d*ck was already hard at the thought of my hand leaving a bright red print across her lush ass.When I saw her on stage at the auction, dressed in gold, I knew I had to have her.She’s mine for an entire month. I own her. But one lie changed everything.She’s going to be punished for it. But I’m doing this for her own good. She needs this.I’m going to make this right. I’m going to heal her.If it’s the last thing I do. *Bought is a full-length standalone romance with an HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger.

Gabriel's Rule


Sloane Kennedy - 2015
    Riley is your normal." After nearly ten years of moonlighting as a professional escort, Gabriel Maddox is good at giving women the forbidden pleasures they crave. They don’t need to know that something inside of him dies a little each time he does it or that his desperate need for cash is the only reason he can’t walk away. They just need to know that to get what they want, they have to play by his rules. Riley Sinclair is starting over. She’s left dry, dusty Texas and her ultra conservative, fanatically religious parents and cheating, mean-spirited fiancé behind for a new life in Seattle. But one look at her stunningly gorgeous new neighbor Gabe brings back all the insecurities she’s trying to escape. Gabe can only offer Riley pleasure but when she discovers that his perfect outside hides something terribly broken on the inside, will she risk her heart to give him what he needs?

Play Along


T.L. Swan - 2017
    I realize, to save my life I need to become valuable.My body is my only weapon.Pleasure and pain.28 days is a long time to Play Along with his perverted demands.He thinks I enjoy them.It disgusts me that I secretly do.I hate him.I crave him.When my captor becomes my savior, escape will be my reality.Publishers note....This is a full length, stand alone, romantic suspense. It is not a dark romance.

Perfectly Bad: Pierce


Alice May Ball - 2016
    My voice shook, “Are you going to force me?”His nostrils flared.”Is that what you want?” His eyes gleamed and a shock beat through my body. I wanted to smack that grin right off his face. When I want something from somebody, I’ll take what they love the most. I wanted old man Grace’s club? So I kidnapped his curvy, sassy daughter. I didn’t give much thought to her when I slung her over my shoulder and carried her away. She was only collateral. But they say that opposites attract, right? I have to hold the little minx close or she makes all kinds of havoc. That’s where the real trouble starts. However close I hold my feisty prisoner, the urge to hold her closer and tighter gets stronger. It uncoils like a fat, sleeping python then it lengthens and hardens and nothing will make it sleep until it has fed. He’s hot as hell, but he’s a ruthless killer He took me hostage just to steal my daddy’s club. I needed to show him that I wasn’t like the paper-thin dancers and models who flowed into his arms and his bedsheets like a tide. I wanted to smack that smirk right off his chiseled face. The longer he holds me in his power and try as hard as I might, I can’t push away the thoughts of how it will be if he turns his brutal force on me. Can I resist him? This standalone, novel-length adventure races with passion, pulses with action, and climaxes again and again, rises higher and higher to a full, complete, satisfying and surprisingly happy ever after ending. It’s a bad boy romance like no other and you’re going to love it. LAUNCH BONUS for a limited time only, includes Alice May Ball’s Biker MC novel SAVAGE ANGELS for free ! ! !

My Heart Is Your Secret


Chelsea Maria - 2020
    With each passing day that went by without touching her… kissing her… I became more ill.Atlas fell in love with me when he thought it was impossible… I fell in love with him knowing it was guaranteed.I wanted Keatyn to be so in love with me that I became a second pair of skin to her. So engraved in her that she was unable to breathe unless I exhaled first… But I had secrets. And she had silent insecurities. With everything combined, we were a disaster waiting to explode…

Stone Lake


Phil M. Williams - 2015
    He toils to keep their construction company afloat while the exes in his life enjoy their honeymoon. Jon meets Morgan when a flock of turkeys and a curvy mountain road aligns with one-in-a-million timing. Despite their attraction, her engagement, and the ire of her family, the pair embarks on a platonic friendship. As their relationship strengthens, they share secrets, but Morgan holds her most important secret tight to her chest, where it beats like a ticking time bomb. It’s not a matter of if, but when. Adult language and content. Beware of spoilers in the reviews.

Capture Me


Anna Zaires - 2015
     Yulia Tzakova is no stranger to dangerous men. She grew up with them. She survived them. But when she meets Lucas Kent, she knows the hard ex-soldier may be the most dangerous of them all. One night—that’s all it should be. A chance to make up for a failed assignment and get information on Kent’s arms dealer boss. When his plane goes down, it should be the end. Instead, it's just the beginning. He wants her from the first moment he sees her. Lucas Kent has always liked leggy blondes, and Yulia Tzakova is as beautiful as they come. The Russian interpreter might’ve tried to seduce his boss, but she ends up in Lucas’s bed—and he has every intention of seeing her there again. Then his plane goes down, and he learns the truth. She betrayed him. Now she will pay.

Serving Time


Bailey West - 2018
    **WARNING** It ends in a cliffhanger. Samuel Valentine is one of the country’s most prolific litigators and manages a successful law firm. His priorities are growing his business, building a legacy and taking care of his family. His life was closed off from people outside his circle until a case forces him to call on the help of an outsider. Averie Patterson excelled in law school, was granted a clerkship with a Supreme Court Justice then opened her own law firm. She is passionate about helping women overcome legal obstacles. Averie is put into the path of the one person who doesn’t want her help. Can they co-exist? This is part one of a two book story. **WARNING** It ends in a cliffhanger.

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry


Joya Goffney - 2021
    It’s a heartfelt, tortured, contemporary YA high school romance with epistolary elements. Fans of Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Kristina Forest’s debut I Wanna Be Where You Are will love the juicy secrets, leap-off-the-page sexual tension and the enemy-to-lover romantic arc.Quinn keeps lists of everything—from the days she’s ugly cried, to “Things That I Would Never Admit Out Loud,” to all the boys she’d like to kiss. Her lists keep her sane. By writing her fears on paper, she never has to face them in real life. That is, until her journal goes missing…An anonymous account posts one of her lists on Instagram for the whole school to see and blackmails her into facing seven of her greatest fears, or else her entire journal will go public. Quinn doesn’t know who to trust. Desperate, she teams up with Carter Bennett—the last known person to have her journal—in a race against time to track down the blackmailer.Together, they journey through everything Quinn’s been too afraid to face, and along the way, Quinn finds the courage to be honest, to live in the moment, and to fall in love.

Let Me Love You


Alexandria House - 2018
    She believes she has all the bases covered in her world. But what about her heart? Rap legend Everett “Big South” McClain is divorced, too, knows all about failed relationships, and has relegated his love life to casual connections rather than pursuing something real. That is, until he lays eyes on Jo. She’s exactly what he never knew he needed. He’s what’s been missing from her world. Will she accept what he has to offer and let him love her? ***This novel contains profanity and sexual content. If you do not like those elements in your romantic reads, this is not the book for you***

Welcome to the Underworld


Con Template - 2012
    This society is so powerful that it can control a nation, strike fear into the bravest of men and bring turmoil onto the most unsuspecting of victims...There is a dangerous society in Seoul that is plaguing Choi Yoori.Her world is turned upside down when she is told that she bears a strong resemblance to the “Queen of the Underworld,” a notorious Underworld crime lord who died 3 years prior—the exact same time Yoori woke up with amnesia. The dangers of this new world is crashing in on her and Yoori's only grip on stability lies with the guidance from her crime lord boss and the secrets the Queen of the Underworld hid from her powerful society.Welcome to a world where “Gods” walk amongst humans. Where the heartless and vengeful are revered like Kings and Queens—and the weak, the distracted are punished without mercy.It is a cruel world and once you’re in, the only exit is death.

Strictly Professional


Christina C. Jones - 2014
    At all. After her disaster of a relationship with Michael, the last thing she needs is another round in the ring. But, a chance encounter with Terrence has her second thinking that. If only he weren't off limits...Follow along with Gabi and Terrence as they navigate the stages of a relationship that was never meant to go further than a single night. Will they be able to overcome the challenges of family and career to build something that could last?

The Kiss Thief


L.J. Shen - 2019
     Mine was stolen by a devil in a masquerade mask under the black Chicago sky. They say the vows you take on your wedding day are sacred. Mine were broken before we left church. They say your heart only beats for one man. Mine split and bled for two rivals who fought for it until the bitter end. I was promised to Angelo Bandini, the heir to one of the most powerful families in the Chicago Outfit. Then taken by Senator Wolfe Keaton, who held my father’s sins over his head to force me into marriage. They say that all great love stories have a happy ending. I, Francesca Rossi, found myself erasing and rewriting mine until the very last chapter. One kiss. Two men. Three lives. Entwined together. And somewhere between these two men, I had to find my forever.

Twisted


Aleatha Romig - 2019
    It’s a world where knowledge means power, power money, and money everything. While I paid the ultimate price to have it all, it wasn’t my decision to give my life.. That doesn’t mean I ceased to exist, only to live.Going where the job takes me and living in the shadows, with deadly accuracy I utilize the skills inherent to me, not knowing from where they came, not recalling what I’d lost. And then I saw her.Laurel Carlson.I shouldn’t want her, desire her, or need her, yet with each sighting I know she is exactly what I have to have. Laurel has the ability to do what I thought was impossible. She sees what others don’t. My gut tells me that it’s a deadly mistake to change my plans and open my world to her. My mind says she’ll be repulsed by my twisted existence. None of that matters, because my body won’t take no for an answer. I’ve made dangerous mistakes before.This time, will the price be too high?From New York Times bestselling author Aleatha Romig comes a brand-new dark romance bringing us back to the same dangerous underworld as SECRETS. You do not need to read the Web of Sin trilogy to get caught in this new and intriguing saga, Tangled Web. TWISTED is book one of the TANGLED WEB trilogy which will continue in OBSESSED and conclude in BOUND.Have you been Aleatha’d?

Rake: A Dark Boston Irish Mafia Romance


Sophie Austin - 2020
    But I still want to see what's under her clothes. Sasha is the devil in heels. She wants to ruin my family's business. But she's also incredibly delicious. The way she licks her lips, Tosses her hair, She brings me to my knees. But I have to focus. Get her and her labor union ideas out of the casino. And I'll do anything to stop her. Even tie her to my bed. My family can't know I'm attracted to her. They'll think I'm turning my back on the family. I'd never do that. But for Sasha? Maybe they're right to be worried. Rake is the latest standalone book in a hot new dark mafia series written by bestselling author Sophie Austin. Get an inside look at what brings the eldest son of Boston’s richest crime family to his knees. He’ll do anything to protect his family fortune and investments, and he’s not afraid to get dark and dirty to get things done. Sasha’s ready to rumble, and this enemies-to-lovers and class differences romance will keep you turning the page with just the right amount of high drama, emotional angst, forbidden steamy scenes, heartpounding danger, and satisfying emotional redemption that leads straight to an Happily Ever After you dream about. Fall in love with Finn and get to know the Carneys. If you loved The Doyles, but wanted them even darker, the Carneys are for you.