Book picks similar to
Incandescence by Elena Leman
fantasy
romance
adult
arc
Boardwalk Beginnings
Nikki Lynn Barrett - 2020
London Carmichael, the middle daughter of Cinnamon Bay’s wealthiest family, lives off her father’s money while jet-setting around the world. Until one bad investment has the family losing everything. Now homeless and not a penny to her name, she is stranded at the airport. Who is sent to pick her up? Jacob Westley, the one man who can’t stand her.Jacob would do anything for his best friend, even if it means helping out his buddy’s snooty sister. Years of fighting with London has him primed for the rounds of rapid-fire barbs he knew she’d throw. What he isn’t prepared for is their mutual attraction and off-the-charts chemistry. It’s in his best interest to stay away from her.Only now London has come up with a plan and needs his help in saving her family. Jacob doesn’t have the willpower to say no. Will these two enemies call a truce long enough to accomplish their mission and find true love?Fans of Brenda Novak, Nora Roberts, and Robyn Carr will fall head over heels for this delightful beachy romance.Meet the Carmichael siblings, each with their own unique personality like the different spices that helped build the family fortune. Some are hot and fiery, others mild and sweet. Some blend well together. Some don’t. Now that their wealth is gone, they must put aside their differences and come together for the first time. Follow each sibling on their path to survival and their journey into everlasting love.
Captivate
Vanessa Garden - 2014
In an effort to repair this broken bond, Miranda’s grandparents whisk the siblings away on a secluded beach holiday. Except before Miranda gets a chance to confess her life-changing secret, she’s dragged underwater by a mysterious stranger while taking a midnight swim.Awakening days later, Miranda discovers that she’s being held captive in a glittering underwater city by an arrogant young man named Marko...the King of this underwater civilisation.Nineteen-year-old Marko intends to marry Miranda in order to keep his crown from falling into the sinister clutches of his half-brother, Damir. There’s only one problem. Miranda is desperate to return home to right things with her sister and she wants nothing to do with Marko. Trying to secure her freedom, Miranda quickly forms an alliance with Robbie — Marko’s personal guard. However, she soon discovers that even underwater, people are hiding dangerous secrets...
Trial by Fire
Josephine Angelini - 2014
Worlds collide. Magic reigns.This world is trying to kill Lily Proctor. Her life-threatening allergies keep her from enjoying many of the experiences that other teenagers take for granted... which is why she is determined to enjoy her first (and perhaps only) high-school party. But Lily's life never goes according to plan, and after a humiliating incident in front of half her graduating class Lily wishes she could just disappear.Suddenly Lily is in a different Salem - one overrun with horrifying creatures and ruled by powerful women called Crucibles. Strongest and cruellest of all the Crucibles is Lillian... Lily's identical other self in this alternate universe. This new version of her world is terrifyingly sensual, and Lily is soon overwhelmed by new experiences.Lily realizes that what makes her weak at home is exactly what makes her extraordinary in New Salem. It also puts her life in danger. Thrown into a world she doesn't understand, Lily is torn between responsibilities she can't hope to shoulder alone, and a love she never expected.But how can Lily be the saviour of this world when she is literally her own worst enemy?
Leftover Girl
C.C. Bolick - 2016
At fifteen, she has adjusted to moving without notice and never fitting in, but everything changes with her adopted mom's hometown. There Jes falls for her mom's nephew, a love she hides when his betrayal leaves her isolated and driven to unravel the past.After Jes befriends a strange new student, she discovers an amazing secret: he's from another planet and searching for a missing girl who might be her. As Jes will learn, truth comes at a cost, but will she give up love to find out?
Venom
Dee Garcia - 2019
Releasing as part of the 2019 Sinister Fairy Tales Collection!
-Tinks-From the moment I befriended him, I set a conspiracy in motion.A revolution.Kill Peter Pan.And I was their ultimate weapon.I was also none the wiser, falling hopelessly and irrevocably in love with him as the years went by.Just as they hoped I would.But their plan comes to a screeching halt when Peter vanishes into thin air, something I’ll learn has nothing to do with Rosewood at all.You see, Peter never truly loved me...because he loved a wench instead.He lied to me, he used me, he left me, and he broke me.Forever altering me in ways that incite revenge when Hook sweeps in with revelations and the ultimate truth.Peter may have turned his back on me, but in the end, he and his precious little Wendy will choke on every last tear I once shed.And I’ll have Hook to thank for that.-Hook-It’s no secret I always despised Peter Pan.A common threat amongst the factions, I should’ve killed him when I had the chance, long before he sank his claws deep into Tinksley’s heart.But his death at my hands wasn’t what the plan called for, despite how I felt for her.I’d always been drawn to the girl, innocently enough at first…until that vile abomination marked her with his stamp, unleashing a sense of propriety I had no rights to.Didn’t matter—he had her...and I wanted her.Then like magic, he disappeared.I thought my time had come, but the road to owning Tinksley’s heart comes with a price.A price so dark and depraved it strips her of her purity and awakens the beast within.All because of the truth.Sometimes, there is honor in revenge, and it will be my utmost pleasure to watch as Peter Pan finally meets his maker.His maker who will soon be my Queen.
Midnight Burning
Karissa Laurel - 2015
But one night, she suffers a vivid nightmare in which a wolfish beast is devouring her twin brother, who lives in Alaska. The next morning, police notify her that Mani is dead. Driven to learn the truth, Solina heads for the Land of the Midnight Sun. Once there, she begins to suspect Mani’s friends know more about his death than they’ve let on. Skyla, an ex-Marine, is the only one willing to help her.As Solina and Skyla delve into the mystery surrounding Mani’s death, Solina is stunned to learn that her own life is tied to Mani’s friends, his death, and the fate of the entire world. If she can’t learn to control her newfound gifts and keep her friends safe, a long-lost dominion over mortals will rise again, and everything she knows will fall into darkness.
The Falconer
Elizabeth May - 2013
Eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, has everything a girl could dream of: brains, charm, wealth, a title—and drop-dead beauty.She's a liar.But Aileana only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady. she's leading a double life: She has a rare ability to sense the sìthíchean—the faery race obsessed with slaughtering humans—and, with the aid of a mysterious mentor, has spent the year since her mother died learning how to kill them.She's a murderer.Now Aileana is dedicated to slaying the fae before they take innocent lives. With her knack for inventing ingenious tools and weapons—from flying machines to detonators to lightning pistols—ruthless Aileana has one goal: Destroy the faery who destroyed her mother.She's a Falconer.The last in a line of female warriors born with a gift for hunting and killing the fae, Aileana is the sole hope of preventing a powerful faery population from massacring all of humanity. Suddenly, her quest is a lot more complicated. She still longs to avenge her mother's murder—but she'll have to save the world first.The first volume of a trilogy from an exciting new voice in young adult fantasy, this electrifying thriller combines romance and action, steampunk technology and Scottish lore in a deliciously addictive read.
Dark Horse
Michelle Diener - 2015
Sazo's an artificial intelligence. He's saved her from captivity and torture, but he's also put her in the middle of a conflict, leaving Rose with her loyalties divided.Captain Dav Jallan doesn't know why he and his crew have stumbled across an almost legendary Class 5 battleship, but he's not going to complain. The only problem is, all its crew are dead, all except for one strange, new alien being.She calls herself Rose. She seems small and harmless, but less and less about her story is adding up, and Dav has a bad feeling his crew, and maybe even the four planets, are in jeopardy. The Class 5's owners, the Tecran, look set to start a war to get it back and Dav suspects Rose isn't the only alien being who survived what happened on the Class 5. And whatever else is out there is playing its own games.In this race for the truth, he's going to have to go against his leaders and trust the dark horse.Winner of a SFR Galaxy Award 2016 and the Prism Award 2016 for Best Futuristic.
River of Shadows
Karina Halle - 2022
Being in the enchanting land of ice and snow feels miles away from Hanna's busy life back in Los Angeles, especially under the complicated circumstances.But when Hanna discovers that her father's body is missing, that's when things really get weird. A mysterious man, Rasmus, tells Hanna the truth: her father was a powerful shaman who went into Tuonela, the Realm of the Dead, in order to barter for more life, and has been held captive by Tuoni, the God of Death. The only way her father can be freed is if she travels with Rasmus into the mythical underworld to rescue him.Willing to do anything to have a second-chance with her father, Hanna accompanies Rasmus into the dark and bloody realm, traveling via the River of Shadows, stalked by dangerous creatures, monsters, and the living dead, until they finally come into the haunted kingdom ruled by Death and his family.Only for her to be captured and held prisoner by the God of Death himself.Turns out Death is intrigued by Hanna's beauty and fierceness and makes a bargain with her. If she marries him, and spends an eternity in the Realm of the Dead as his wife, he'll set her father free.But even the most noble sacrifices come with hidden costs, and Hanna's might involve the most unexpected of all things: her heart.
Origin
Jessica Khoury - 2012
She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home―and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life. Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia's origin―a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.
Beyond the Night
Joss Ware - 2000
. .When Dr. Elliott Drake wakes from a mysterious fifty-year sleep, the world as he knew it is gone. Cities are now desolate, and civilization is controlled by deadly immortals. Stranger still is Elliott's extraordinary new "gift"--he has the power to heal, but it comes with fatal consequences.A woman with a past . . .Jade barely escaped the immortals and is now hell-bent on revenge. She trusts no one . . . until Elliott. His piercing gaze and tempting touch shatter her defenses, but the handsome doctor seems to have dangerous secrets of his own. Is it safe to trust him with her heart?If they are to survive in this dark new world, Jade and Elliott must work together to fight the forces that take them beyond danger.Beyond desire.
The Hunted
Bethany-Kris - 2019
The halfling prince with murder in his eyes and the sea’s songs in his blood will make sure of that.He should kill her.Perhaps, keeping her might be worse.Two kingdoms are falling. One king is losing it all and another threatens to ruin everything. The rules of the land and sea are changing. Secrets of the past are spilling.And all because of a prince and his little mermaid—whether they live or die—nothing in the realm will ever be the same.*In The Hunted, Bethany-Kris opens a new world—the 9INE REALMS—for readers with a dark fairy tale retelling, and pulls inspiration from the cult classic favorite and the Hans Christian Andersen original to redefine what it means to be The Little Mermaid.
Mermen
Mimi Jean Pamfiloff - 2015
Yes, he knows it. And no, he doesn’t care. He’s got money and power, and he depends on no one. But when his estranged father dies, willing him a secret island, Roen will come face to face with an even bigger secret: its occupants. And these savage, sea-obsessed warriors are quick to make their position clear: Leave now or die.There’s only one problem. Nobody tells Roen what to do. Ever. Oh, and one other thing. He’s just met the island’s other new “guest” and something about her brings out his possessive side.SOLE SHIPWRECK SURVIVOR LIV STRATTON had been adrift at sea for ten grueling days when salvation miraculously appeared: an uncharted island. Only, the deceivingly beautiful men who live there aren’t interested in saving her. No, not at all. Because they somehow believe she is their property, a gift from the ocean to do with as they please. This is not good.Her only hope? Billionaire Roen Doran, of all people. A man who’s said to care for nothing and no one. But if he’s so heartless, then why is he about to risk everything to help her?
Star Kissed
Lizzy Ford - 2013
At first, she thinks the scary world is nothing more than a bad dream. The war-torn Earth is unrecognizable. Black fog blocks the sun, and the oceans are dry. Even worse: the planet is inhabited by half-human, half-alien creatures dying from a mysterious disease. Horrified at the thought of spending her life here, she clings to the knowledge that there’s one man who can open the star gate to send her home. As the Naki prince who controls the star gate, Akkadi gets first choice of any human female that makes her way through the star gate. Only by breeding with purebred humans from the past can his race hope to remain immune to the disease and hopefully, develop an eventual cure. With shrinking resources and a raging battle for the human planet, dutiful, commanding Akkadi is less than thrilled at the idea of trying to figure out Mandy, a woman he views as wild with neither discipline nor respect for someone in his position. He’s ready to write her off, when she offers him something too tempting to resist: her body for the chance to convince him by any means possible to send her home. Neither intends for the arrangement to be permanent or to fall for the other. Only when Mandy learns Akkadi’s secret and walks away does he realize he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her – even if it means losing his war.
Equal Parts
Emma Winters - 2012
For years now, she’s been ‘gifted’ with the ability to collect and transfer happiness to anyone at will. Well, everyone except herself.That is until Achilles - renowned criminal mastermind with a face painted like Death and enough charm to cause hormonal riots – crashes into Felicity’s world and makes her feel … something.Determined not to let such a coveted superpower slip beyond his reach, Achilles kidnaps Felicity, hoping to use her ability to brave his own skeletons. Felicity is only a half-unwilling prisoner though, forgoing escape to learn more of the man behind the mask and pursue the inexplicable spark between them.As the lines between hero and villain begin to blur, Felicity finds herself wondering if Achilles might be the key to her own happiness at long last. Is it possible to be so happy with someone so dangerous?But Achilles isn’t the only villain in the town, and the pursuit of happiness can be a deadly hunt…Equal Parts is a 78,000-word, standalone New Adult romance. No cliffhangers, and a HEA guaranteed. It is recommended for readers 17+.