Book picks similar to
Shadow by Holly S. Roberts


romance
fantasy
dystopian
science-fiction

Fire in His Blood


Ruby Dixon - 2017
    Dragons - once creatures of legend - are the enemy. Vicious and unpredictable, they rule the skies of the ruined cities, forcing humanity to huddle behind barricades for safety.Claudia's a survivor. She scrapes by as best as she can in a hard, dangerous world. When she runs afoul of the law, she's left as bait in dragon territory. She only has one chance to survive - to somehow 'tame' a dragon and get it to obey her.Except the dragon that finds her is as wild and brutal as any other...and he's not interested in obeying.What he is interested in is a mate.

Hunter's Claim


S.E. Smith - 2014
    She has seen the savage side of human nature and finds they are not much different from the aliens who conquered Earth.The Trivators have taken control of Earth to prevent the humans from destroying it in their fear.A world of warriors, they are sent out by the Alliance of Star Systems to seek out new worlds. Their mission is first contact. They are to establish communications with the leaders of the new worlds they find and bring them into the Alliance.Any resistance is to be quickly subdued to prevent unnecessary death of the inhabitants of the new worlds they find. Their payment comes from the success of their mission.Hunter is what he is called. A hunter, one of the elite clans of the Trivators who seek out those who resist. His abilities to track, capture and eliminate those who try to harm any warrior is renowned.He finds the tables turned when he becomes the one captured by a group of ruthless humans. Hunter is shocked when a strange human female risks her life to help him escape only to disappear into the ruins of the city.He now has a new mission, finding the female who saved his life. He is determined to find her before she is damaged by others of her kind.What he finds is a reward beyond comprehension to a Trivator warrior, a family.Can he convince Jesse that he can give her and her younger sisters a better life on his world? Or will fear keep her from accepting what he has to offer?

Sigil


Addison Cain - 2016
    “You will love me. It is inevitable.”The farthest corners of the universe can hide her. Not from him.Sovereign, ruler of every conquered and converted human world is coming to claim his consort.Yet Sigil refuses. Loathes the empire, hates Sovereign, his Brotherhood, and the needs they inspire which she cannot control.The need to destroy.A craving that can only be crushed in unspeakable, sensual, and terrifying ways.Sigil: Irdesi Empire Book 1 is a Space Opera Dark Romance laced with complete power exchange.

Pythen


Erin Raegan - 2018
    One of the bats says I'm his and I need to ease his mating rage. Yeah, not happening. Except, they tell me the fate of my world comes down to me sacrificing myself to him. Maybe this won't go like I planned. But I figure, if I have to bend to the big guy's will, I'm damn well getting something out of it. TahkMy Pythe is a human. Weak as they are, I cannot fathom how she was chosen for me—the Commander of all Dahk.But then she rises up for her species and I cannot help but notice her fierce heart. I will slaughter all who dare harm her and her species, and she will be mine.***Warninig. For readers 18 years and older. Contains explicit sexual situations, possible triggers, dark themes, and violence. Start of a series featuring these characters and multiple others.

Girl Under Glass


Monica Enderle Pierce - 2012
    Rachel Pryne, a trained medic, is struggling to protect her seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, from the sexual predation of their penal colony’s leader. Having fathered the girl by rape, he now intends to take her on her eighth birthday, only six weeks away. Then Rachel finds her unlikely champion - an injured Ohnenrai soldier who appears in her yard one stormy evening. She knows she may be choosing death over the devil in trusting this warrior, but she doesn’t know that her trust, and her DNA, will make her one of the most important and endangered people to ever set foot aboard an Ohnenrai starship. *** Equal parts science fiction, suspense, and romance, Girl Under Glass moves from a post-apocalyptic wilderness in the American Pacific Northwest to a high-tech world aboard an alien starship furnished with all the stolen comforts of Earth. Readers meet Rachel Pryne, whose parents' lifelong and life-ending connection to the Ohnenrai has set her upon a path she never wanted to travel. And they're introduced to Ehtishem, an Ohnenrai soldier who exists to save his dying people, but who faces enemies from within and without his own military. The only possible solution to the Ohnenrai’s extinction lies within Rachel, but all she wants to do is protect her daughter and see Earth’s alien conquerors go straight to hell.

Sarazen's Claim


Isabel Wroth - 2016
    This book is PART OF A SERIES. Not a HEA and not a Cliffhanger...somewhere in between. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------One hundred and fifty years ago the most powerful countries of Earth built and launched five ships. Ships meant to carry what remained of humanity out into the space beyond their known galaxy to find a new home. As a third generation botanist, it never occurred to Clary Starborn that she might some day be in charge of anything other than her little lab. That changed the day their ship was attacked by an alien species straight out of myth. ----------As commander of the Sarazen armada, Tarek had seen some poor excuses for spacefaring vessels. The one currently being attacked by the Na'ah was to date, the worst. So primitive in its design, Commander Tarek was fascinated it had even survived the harsh vacuum of space. Or the time it had taken to launch it. The species was unfamiliar to him, but initial scans suggested the beings within here somewhat intelligent. Though the ship was outside Sarazen territory, it was his duty to eradicate the Na'ah wherever he encountered them. He had not anticipated that by his actions, the course of his life would be forever changed. By a soft, delicate being who studied flowers and trees. One scent, one touch, was all it took to be Claimed.

Out of the Ashes


L.A. Casey - 2017
    But her day-to-day life was about to drastically change forever. Gone were the days when her only worries were rabid animals, augmented humans, the unforgiving scorching sun, and rogue watchmen. Now, Nova found herself faced with a new threat, and he was tall, grey, and horribly stubborn. For Kol, a two-hundred-year-old daredevil, sailing the never-ending waves of deep space was a vast and thrilling life to lead. He had one objective on Earth—rescue as many human females as possible and return them to his home planet. It was supposed to be simple, but no one told Kol that a human female’s tongue could slice a male like a blade. His charge was short, strikingly attractive, and she talked way too much. Nova wasn’t going to be kidnapped without putting up a fight, but Kol was more than ready to go toe to toe with her. These two species set out on a collision course that would redefine the phrase "The Big Bang" forever.

Hold


Claire Kent - 2007
    Give yourself to him in return for protection. It’s the only way you’ll ever survive. Convicted of a minor crime, Riana is sentenced to a prison planet—a dark primitive hold filled with convicts vying for power. Her only chance of survival is with Cain, a mysterious loner who has won his territory in the prison through intelligence and brute strength. Sex is all she has to offer, so she uses it. She’s under no delusions here. No one is ever released, and no one ever escapes. Survival is all she can hope for—until Cain. An earlier version of this book was published under the same title and a different penname by Ellora’s Cave. It has since been substantially revised and expanded.

Wild Blood


Naomi Lucas - 2017
    Part of an elite group that dealt with the horrors of the universe. At least that was what everyone at the spaceport was whispering as he walked by. A Cyborg, a hunter, a beast with eyes as dark as the pits of Hell and the stride of a predator. Katalina was a nobody who was intimate with death. It clung to her like a shroud, It followed her like the plague, and infected her like a parasite. When she overheard that the Monster Hunter needed an assistant, she took the job. And when the Cyborg’s eyes caught hers, she knew getting closer to death might just bring her back to life. The Cyborg didn’t scare her. So she followed him and left fate up to chance. Warning: mature readers only, explicit sex scenes. Book one of Cyborg Shifters, same universe as Stranded in the Stars, every book is a standalone that only subtly builds off of the others.

Homebound


Lydia Hope - 2020
    And aliens. Gemma McKinley works at a prison cleaning goop off the floors and serving food to inmates. When she is reassigned to the alien ward, Gemma is nervous. Aliens are dangerous and ruthless. They bite. But there is one that isn’t like them. Simon is damaged, starved, and wasting away in complete isolation. Touched by his loneliness, Gemma starts nursing him back to health, dismissing rumors that he’s high-risk, ignoring the advice to let him croak. Simon despises humans. His only goal is to get off this miserable planet fast, for he is hunted by a scientist obsessed with perfecting the human race. Simon’s rare alien genes are just the ingredient that’s missing for breakthrough research. Thanks to Gemma, for the first time in years he can escape. And he will. He will… As the hunt for Simon heats up, Gemma becomes an unintended target. Is she a fool to help him get away? And will he risk another captivity to protect her?

Mercenary Instinct


Ruby Lionsdrake - 2014
    But Ankari Markovich needs a few archaeological samples for her latest business venture, a venture that might prove lucrative enough to move her family off the impoverished planet where she grew up. Unfortunately, she has no sooner collected her samples than she’s captured by a band of brawny mercenaries. The captain might be handsome, but he’s intent on turning her over to some finance lord who has, for reasons unknown, put a bounty on her head, a ridiculously large one at that. If she can’t figure out a way to escape before she’s delivered to the lord’s home world, she could be forced into a life of indentured servitude—or worse.Captain Viktor Mandrake doesn’t usually take on piddling bounty hunting gigs, but when his intelligence officer informs him of a criminal on a nearby planet, he decides it wouldn’t hurt to take a shuttle down to collect the woman. But Ankari Markovich is trouble from the start, nearly eluding his elite forces, then fighting and tricking his people left and right. He finds himself admiring her spirit, but according to her warrant, she’s a criminal. The safest thing is to keep her in the brig and ignore her until she can be handed off to the man who wants her.But the situation grows more complicated when other bounty hunters show up, wanting to claim Ankari for themselves. Thanks to this woman, Viktor’s ship is in danger, his crew members are going missing, and he’s fighting enemies he never asked for in a jungle in the middle of a hurricane. He’s either going to strangle Ankari… or fall in love. Either scenario could get him killed.Mercenary Instinct is a full-length, stand-alone novel of 90,000 words. It is part of the “Mandrake Company” series of science fiction romance stories and is recommended for readers who enjoy space-based adventure (such as Firefly) and steamy love stories (in the style of Linnea Sinclair).

Broken Earth


S.J. Sanders - 2020
    Wandering the fringes of space as a salvager, he comes across a planet beyond the boundaries of the federation, rich in metals remnant of a dead civilization. Or so he thought. Confronted by cannibalistic mutations of the indigenous species, his salvage has suddenly become a lot more complicated. Even more so when he encounters a female surviving on her own. She is strong and fearless, begrudgingly earning his admiration. Terri is hardened by a life of hunger and watchfulness, and yet is moved by a compassion that he’s never possessed. When his admiration turns into the first signs of a forming mate-bond, he knows his fate is sealed. Unlicensed mating is forbidden—if his malfunctioning wasn’t already a death sentencing, taking her for her mate would be. Yet, he finds that letting her go is no longer an option. Please be advised that this book has graphic sex and violence that may not be appropriate for all audiences.

The Last Hour of Gann


R. Lee Smith - 2013
    She entered her Sleeper with a five-year contract and the promise of a better life, but awakened in wreckage on an unknown world. For the survivors, there is no rescue, no way home and no hope until they are found by Meoraq—a holy warrior more deadly than any hungering beast on this hostile new world…but whose eyes show a different sort of hunger when he looks at her.It was his last year of freedom:Uyane Meoraq is a Sword of Sheul, God’s own instrument of judgment, victor of hundreds of trials, with a conqueror’s rights over all men. Or at least he was until his father’s death. Now, without divine intervention, he will be forced to assume stewardship over House Uyane and lose the life he has always known. At the legendary temple of Xi’Matezh, Meoraq hopes to find the deliverance he seeks, but the humans he encounters on his pilgrimage may prove too great a test even for him…especially the one called Amber, behind whose monstrous appearance burns a woman’s heart unlike any he has ever known.

Nobody's Hero


Bec McMaster - 2016
    Can love heal them? Find out in the first book of this explosive, action-packed post-apocalyptic series. First rule of surviving the Wastelands: don't be caught out after the sun sets...After her father was killed in a warg attack, Riley Kincaid was forced to stand on her own two feet in the brutal Wastelands she calls home. She knows how to survive, but when a lapse in judgment leaves her out after dark, Riley realizes she's in trouble. The sun has set, the monsters are out to play, and there's a band of reivers heading straight for her settlement. Riley needs to warn her people, but that's before she runs a handsome stranger down in her jeep. A stranger who might not be a man after all...Kidnapping her was the worst mistake he ever made.Dangerous outlaw, Lucius Wade, lives only for revenge. But when he kidnaps Riley in order to lure an old friend into a trap, suddenly the tables are turned. Riley has no intentions of being bait, and she tempts him in ways he hasn't felt for a long time. He's never played the hero, but suddenly a part of him wants to. Even as he knows there's no point. When dangerous secrets are revealed, and Luc realizes an old enemy is on his trail, he's forced to change his plans. The hunter is suddenly the hunted, and the only allies he has... is a stubborn blonde who thinks there should be more to live for than revenge, and the ex-friend who shoved a knife in his back ten years ago.

Draekon Warrior


Lee Savino - 2019
    Imprisoned. Sold to the highest bidder. But my biggest problem is this bossy, aggravating, impossible, alien who’s supposed to rescue me. The bossy alien I kissed. That might have been a mistake.Kadir is dangerous. I’ve seen him fight, and his body is littered with scars. He’s a soldier. A warrior. And when he loses control, he turns into a big scary dragon and breathes fire.Everyone’s terrified of him. I’m not. No, call me the biggest fool in the galaxy, because I’m attracted to the big jerk.***Kadir:When I first met the small human I was sent to rescue, she punched me in the jaw. And broke her wrist in the process. Irrational woman.Then she insists that the two of us set out immediately to find her missing friend. No, what I have to do is get Alice Hernandez to safety. She’s soft, yet she’s strong. Fragile, yet so brave. She’s everything I’ve never known I wanted. Everything I can’t let myself have. When the scientists tortured me, they broke me. And when Alice finds out the truth about the fearsome, raging dragon inside me, I will lose her.