Book picks similar to
Living with Shame by K.J. Bell


romance
dark
new-adult
forbidden-love

Made of Steel


Ivy Smoak - 2020
    The only thing she knew for sure was that she was going to marry him. Just as soon as she could convince him that she didn't have cooties. But tragedy tore her away from him before they ever got a chance at their happily ever after. And the worst part? He forgot all about her.Ten years after Summer lost everything, she's given a fresh start in the witness protection program. The only rule: don't speak to anyone from her past. A rule that's hard to follow when she finds out that the boy next door is living right down the hall. Unlike him, she never forgot. But she knows that the future she once dreamed of is no longer an option. And if she reveals her identity, she could get them both killed.Miles fell in love with the girl next door when he was eight-years-old. When she disappeared in the foster care system, it felt like a piece of him was missing. So when she shows up in his life again with a different color hair and a new name? It doesn’t fool him. And this time he'll do whatever it takes to keep her.

A Life Less Broken


Margaret McHeyzer - 2014
    Broken and damaged, Allyn seeks help from someone that fate brought her.Dr. Dominic Shriver is a psychiatrist who’s drawn to difficult cases. He must push past his own personal battles to help Allyn fight her monsters and nightmares.Is Dr. Shriver the answer to her healing?Can Allyn overcome the broken?Contains distressing content. Only suitable for 18+. Standalone.

Sanctum


K. Michelle - 2020
    Always waiting.They call me Priest, and I’ll make you repent for your sins.But I won’t be able to protect you from mine. Do I scare you, Cohen?Does my mere presence heighten your pulse and warm the blood in your veins?Do I stir the deepest parts of you? The parts you buried deep inside long ago?Admit it, Cohen, I’m a thrill, scattered within the deepest layers of your mind.Always tempting. Always enticing.You found me in the woods. You were a danger, and I was naive.But now I want the wolf that hunts me. Call it a truce. Call it a surrender.He needs justice. I need answers.It’s us against them.Cohen may have claimed me, but Sanctum wants to own me.They plan on collecting.But so am I.

Stanton Adore


T.L. Swan - 2014
    Sensual, sweet, and as annoyingly perfect as she was when I left 7 years ago. My body remembers the way she felt underneath me, and wants her again. My heart remembers the way she crushed it and wants as far away as possible. But she’s everywhere, haunting me, torturing me, driving me past all logical reason. I need to forget her, move on and get her out of my system, but to do that, I need to have her one. Last. Time. It started as a kiss. We never meant to fall in love. But I was 17 and carefree, And he was 19, beautiful and forbidden. Our families never would have accepted it… And I broke his heart to save his future. Now the boy I loved 7 years ago is the man I can’t have. He’s grown into everything my body craves, my heart demands… and my sense of decency rejects.

Ignition


Skye Callahan - 2015
    Fast cars, pain, alcohol, women... his vices come in many flavors, but one woman tempts him closer to the line he can never come back from. She'll be his hardest theft yet--an action that will set the looming conflict with his brother on a new and violent path.Aubrey has two choices. The first she knows too well: the alluring businessman who entwined her in his deceptive plots. The second is a stranger. He makes his promises not with a silver tongue but with harsh, blunt observations that Aubrey can't ignore. Either way, she's caught between two brothers each seeking the other's downfall--and neither has a problem taking her down in the process. IGNITION is the first book in the dark romantic serial, The Redline Series.1. IGNITION2. TORQUE (May 2015)3. BRAKE (July 2015)4. EXHAUST (September 2015)5. CLUTCH (November 2015)

Hush Hush


Lucia Franco - 2019
    Don’t get close to the clients. The dark and glamorous lifestyle of the rich and shameless open my eyes to a lavish world of sin and wealth, and a man I can’t have. A man I desperately want—James Riviera. We're treading a fine line as we live the ultimate double life until we make a startling discovery that tests both our loyalties. I only had to follow the rules, but rules are meant to be broken.

Need


K.I. Lynn - 2015
    Maybe it was love at first sight, but I was only ten.She became my best friend.My crush.The girl I can’t live without.But I have to.She was almost mine, but my father took away my chance.Now she lives across the hall from me. Instead of possessing the title of girlfriend, she’s now my stepsister.But that doesn’t stop how I feel, how I want her. Thankfully, I’m off to college two hundred miles away, but even that doesn’t help.She’s under my skin, all around me, and all I can do is watch her morph from a sexy teenager to an irresistible woman.I can’t take it anymore, I need her.Is it possible to ever be happy without the one person you need?

Torrid Affair


Callie Anderson - 2016
    And one of them is my brother-in-law.He’s my drug. My fire. My addiction.But he’s married to my best friend. And I’m married to my husband.I’m not ashamed. I have no guilt.None.I’m not fucked. I’m a fucked up person.This is the story of how I ruined my life.And the life of the one I loved most.

Canary


Tijan - 2021
    Names didn’t exist.I joined anyway. I had no other choice because they took my sister.Join. Find her. Try and make it out alive.Then he won me in a poker game.I hated him instantly, thinking he was like my other bosses before him.He wasn’t. He was worse.He wasn’t just cold. He was dead inside.It didn’t matter that he was gorgeous.He was the most lethal thing I’d ever met.He was also the only person who could keep me alive, if he didn’t kill me himself.A/N This is a 102k mafia/cartel standalone.This is the most violent book Tijan has ever written.Trigger warning: references to sexual violence“Canaries sing to save lives. I sing and people die.”

Star-Crossed


Luna Lacour - 2014
    It is intended for mature readers.It started with a game - seduce the new teacher.Eighteen-year-old Kaitlyn Laurent is living the American Dream. Born into a wealthy, socialite family with more opulent surroundings and material things than any girl could even fathom, Kaitlyn is the fresh, young face amidst a sea of morally-amiss Manhattan Debutantes. She is educated, poised, and on the outside - entirely virtuous. Her life, in short, is perfect.Or so it would seem. Inside the walls of her Upper East Side mansion, Kaitlyn is struggling. After her parents' divorce and her father's remarriage to a beautiful but otherwise utterly vapid woman, Kaitlyn quickly finds herself living in a realm of self-created fantasy, completely detached and entirely clashing with her new family – particularly, her classmate-turned-stepbrother, Marius. Arrogant and with a penchant for playing games, he is intrigued and infatuated by Kaitlyn's faux-chaste outer facade that she uses to cover an otherwise calloused heart.When the two of them enter into into their final semester at Trinity Prep, and the buzz around campus is that a gorgeous new teacher has set foot in the classroom, Marius makes Kaitlyn a bet: seduce the man who is now her Literature teacher.If she wins, she gets his trust fund. Money that she can use to finally escape a life that she has come to loathe.If Marius wins...he gets her virginity.When an initial spark turns into full-blown obsession, and her affections are inevitably returned – Kaitlyn learns that there are no actions without consequence, and some affairs are simply star-crossed.