Book picks similar to
Pretty Vicious Things by J.S. Madden
bully
contemporary-romance
academy
4-star
Outcast
Sofia Daniel - 2019
According to the Kings of Mercia Academy...they aren't for Americans, either. Blake, Edward, and Henry rule my new school. They're aristocratic. Old money. Brutal as hell They'll do whatever it takes to break my spirit and make me leave. If I survive Mercia, I'll get a free ride to college. My future will be set. My past will be forgotten. All I have to do is survive their dirty tricks. Their dangerous games. Their seductive kisses. They’ve opened hunting season and put a target on my back. What they don’t know is that one day, the prey will become the hunter. Mercia Academy – it ain't no cup of tea. Outcast is book one of a reverse harem, high school bully romance that contains cursing, dark themes, and sexual situations.
Little White Lies
Sapphire Knight - 2019
If I stick to it, I can escape and finally be free of my father's suffocating grip on my life. My plan does not include four stubborn, rich hot guys that just happen to run Harvard Academy. Brent, Cole, Tristan, and Axel are the top of the food chain. All the boys want to be them, and the girls want to be with them—except me. The thing about spoiled rich boys... they'll do anything to get what they want. These four have set their sights on me—a sweet, innocent pawn in their game of little white lies. And now my plan is fucked...
Falcon
Michelle Heard - 2019
A life of luxury has left him with the notion that everything is attainable.Power. Wealth. Status.He’s a god and I a mere mortal.He’s Jupiter, and I am Mercury.There’s so much power in this man.He has the kind of influence most people can’t even begin to imagine.And me… I’m an eighteen-year-old girl who managed to make him lose control.I’m the girl who showed him there’s a kaleidoscope of colors outside the high walls of his black and white world.
Who is Sarah Randall
Gail Haris - 2020
Her abductor.After her beloved mother passes away, Olivia discovers a box filled with secrets that shatters everything she thought she knew.The woman who raised her, with love and kindness, was never who she claimed to be. The truth thrusts Olivia into a new town with strangers who claim to be her rightful family.Torn from all she’s ever known, Olivia hunts to find who she truly is in the midst of this topsy-turvy mystery. While forbidden to contact her abductor's relatives, there is one caring and compassionate boy that may be able to help her uncover her hidden truth.There’s one problem - he’s her abductor’s nephew.
King of Nothing
Jacie Lennon - 2020
It contains themes that may be uncomfortable for some readers.
A Lovely Obsession
Coralee June - 2020
He hates me. He protects me. He watches me. My stalker is obsessed with keeping me safe. He calls me his prettiest debt. An assassin in the notorious Bullet gang, he uses his empire to control my life. Everything I know is a lie. What started as a debt turned into something more. What started as regret turned into obsession. Ambition is his muse and I am his conscience. Our past may bind us together, but his enemies will tear us apart. My guardian angel is a devil in disguise. He hates me. He protects me. And I think I love him.
Start a Fire
Julia Wolf - 2021
I’ve done the popularity thing at Savage River High, but after two years away, I have no interest in reclaiming my crown.The last time I put myself in the spotlight, I was left in shambles.Unfortunately, my carefully laid plans go to hell when I grab the attention of dark, forbidding, and brutally hot Sebastian Vega. He looks at me like he wants to kill my puppy or eat me alive. Quite possibly both.Sebastian is everywhere I go, and he’s decided I’m the twisted game he wants to play, whether I’m a willing participant or not.The question is...what will I have to lose in order to win?Authors Note: This is a DARK high school bully romance with mature themes and dubious situations that some readers may find offensive. If you’re looking for a nice guy, prince of a hero, this story isn’t for you.
Beautiful, Dirty, Rich
L.A. Sable - 2019
But they’re thinking it. And let’s be honest, some of them are probably saying it too. But I don’t run. Where I came from isn’t where I’m going. They won’t make it easy, I know that. And the most popular boys at Northlake Prep — the Diamonds — they don’t just want me gone. They want me destroyed. Child-star that’s all grown up. Trust-fund brat without a conscience. Mischievous twins who are the entitled sons of rock royalty. All of them are out to get me. Unless, I get them first. The game is on. *****
Popularity is Just an Equation
A.R. Perry - 2020
Piper This isn’t how the rest of junior year is supposed to go. Prom is in a month and a half, and it should be a magical night with my boyfriend and all our friends.Except there’s one little problem.The guy who I’d been planning a future with kicked me to the curb out of the blue with little explanation. But don’t worry, he still wants to be friends.Now I’m out to prove a point. He wants to be popular? Well, I’ll beat him there and I have the perfect person in mind to help me get there. Carter Jackson the golden boy of Center High is about to become my Yoda.I've seen all the movies. How hard can it really be? Carter My future is on a set trajectory with me as an unwilling passenger. Piper Greenly isn’t part of that plan, but she asks for my help and even though I should say no, I agree to her ridiculous scheme to snag the guy and a spot at the popular table.It all sounded so simple at first. But I guess nothing really is as easy as it sounds.In a matter of weeks, my present is shaky and my future might not be as set as I thought. But I do know one thing—the girl with fiery hair and a matching spirit has ignited something in me.Too bad she wants my best friend. Popularity might be a simple equation, but what happens when variables of the heart aren't considered?
Hidden
Gemma Weir - 2019
Shallow.The most popular girl in school.My name is Nova Stubbs and all of those words have been used to describe me, they define me. Or at least that’s what people think.No-one except my family ever bothered to look past the mask I wear, the role I play. Because this is what they want me to be, who they expect. If they looked a little deeper they’d see the crumbling mess I am.I care too much and hate who I pretend to be. My mind is too loud and it consumes me. Staying hidden is the only way I survive.Then Valentine Miller steps into my world.He hates me. He manipulates me and controls me. But when I’m with him he makes the world quiet.Love. Hate. Need. Want. I feel them all when he touches me.Valentine wants to ruin me and I might let him.
Tarnished
Indie Black - 2021
Instead, he made me fear the dark. He was supposed to love me. In the end, his love was sickening, cruel and filled with malice.Five years ago, the only bright lights in my world were extinguished. One decision. One text. One sentence and my fragile life shattered. I never expected the depravity and lies that greets me when I return to Montecito, leaving me with one goal... To flee and never look back.Everything changes when three gorgeous guys crash into my life. They’re determined to mark me as theirs, and make me question everything I hold true.But when the ghosts of my past and future collide, who will be left standing? Me… or the monster who coveted me for all of the wrong reasons, turning me into what I am today…Tarnished. *Tarnished is the first book in the Tainted by Ruin Trilogy and cannot be read as a standalone. It is a Dark High School Reverse Harem Romance that contains scenes that may be triggering to some. Including : sexual assault (minor), physical abuse & self harm. Recommended for readers 18+.
Best Kept Secrets: The Complete Series
Kandi Steiner - 2020
She's perfectly content to go down in the flames, until her first love shows back up and reminds her the other way love can burn. On the northeast side of town, there is a house . . .The house was once magical, filled with love, and joy, and plans for the future.Inside its walls are many things that belong to me — my books, the china from my mother on my wedding day, the beautiful cage once home to two birds, now empty, just like me.And a man.A man who also belongs to me.A man I no longer wish to keep. A man who, no doubt, has not slept, though the sun is rising. Because the house where he waits is where I laid my head to rest every night for eight years. Until last night. No one who knows me would believe Charlie Pierce, the quiet, bookish girl who never made waves is pulling out of the driveway of a man who isn’t her husband. But they don’t know me at all. I don’t even know me. Not anymore. They say there are two sides to every story, and I suppose in most cases, that’s true. But the one I live inside of? It has three. On the northeast side of town, there is a house.But there is no longer a home . . .
Broken Elite: An Angsty College Romance (The Darlington Elite)
Waverly Alexander - 2021
I don't know what she's hiding, but I've made it my mission to break her down until I know every last detail. Our broken pieces will match, and she'll know the soul-crushing agony I feel when I look at her. I hate that I want her. Unequivocally, the need I feel for her is stronger than I'll ever be. If she thinks she isn't still mine, she's lying to herself, too. She used to look at me like I was everything to her. She'll look at me that way again. I can promise you that. Everly My best friend is dead, and I can't tell anyone her secret. Patrick thinks I'm protecting myself. But really, I'm protecting him. He's in pain, and knowing I'm the reason is utter torture. The truth will cut him far deeper than losing whatever it is we had. I'll give him what he needs, even if it means he'll hate me forever. He wants to break me. He's too late. My world shattered the day I chose to lie to him. Includes a happily ever after, but main plot points continue on to the next book in the series. Each book features a new couple in The Darlington Elite world. This book discusses adult themes and is suitable for 18+ readers.
Broken Trust
R.A. Smyth - 2021
Today I start school at Pacific Prep. This is my new lease on life, and I won’t be wasting it. I need this, now, more than ever. I need the education, the promise of a future that I wouldn’t get anywhere else. These rich kids don’t like me though. When Hawk Davenport decides he doesn’t want me here, his friends back him. Along with Hawk, Westley Warren, Cam Rutherford, and Mason Hayes rule this school and nobody dares go against them. They don’t know the real me. I won’t back down.***This book is a reverse harem, meaning the FMC will have three or more love interests. The book also has trigger warnings for emotional/physical bullying, abuse, violent scenes, reference to self-harm and mature content/swearing, so please do not read if you are easily offended or have the mentioned triggers.This book is intended for 18+
Lawless Kingdom
Natalie Bennett - 2020
Judas Barron, for example. Wicked blue blood and heir to a severely twisted cutthroat society. Everyone knew who he was and what crew he ran with—a clandestine group of filthy rich kids surrounded by ominous secrets. Secrets that were rumored to be dark, dirty, and stained with blood. It was never my intention to get tangled up with them, but Judas and I had a secret too, one he was determined to make sure I took with me to my grave, which meant keeping me by his side. Now forced to be part of a savage coterie, I start to see his world through a new pair of eyes. It isn’t long before temptation becomes something dangerous and wild, breeding the sickest kind of infatuation. And those secrets Judas keeps? They’re about to tear my life apart. **WARNING** Before beginning this series please be aware that while LK is mild in terms of darkness, the following books in this series will be on a drastically different level, containing graphic violence, total power-control, explicit sexual content, and varying triggers. LK is a percursor that sets the stage for the rest of the series. 18+ only.