Book picks similar to
Darkness Brutal by Rachel A. Marks


fantasy
young-adult
paranormal
urban-fantasy

The Mind Readers


Lori Brighton - 2010
    Fortunately, no one but her family knows the truth... that Cameron can read minds. For years Cameron has hidden behind a facade of normalcy, warned that there are those who would do her harm. When gorgeous and mysterious Lewis Douglas arrives he destroys everything Cameron has ever believed and tempts her with possibilities of freedom. Determined to embrace her hidden talents, Cameron heads to a secret haven with Lewis; a place where she meets others like her, Mind Readers.But as Cameron soon finds out some things are too good to be true. When the Mind Readers realize the extent of Cameron’s abilities, they want to use her powers for their own needs. Cameron suddenly finds herself involved in a war in which her idea of what is right and wrong is greatly tested. In the end she’ll be forced to make a choice that will not only threaten her relationship with Lewis, but her very life.

Darkness of Light


Stacey Marie Brown - 2013
    Witch. Crazy. Schizo.Ember Brycin has always known she’s different. After finding her mother brutally murdered, her mind begins to see things that shouldn’t exist. The more she feels her sanity slipping, the more bizarre and inexplicable things constantly happen around her.When the latest school explosion lands her in a facility for troubled youth, she meets Eli Dragen—a hot as hell, darkly mysterious, bad boy from a notorious biker gang. Their connection is full of passion, danger, and secrets. Secrets that will destroy her life and lead her down a path she could never imagine.A pawn in a war between the Fae.In the middle of Light and Dark, Ember finds another world where truth and knowledge are power and no one can be trusted.No one.**New Adult/Mature YA: sexual content, language, alcohol, violence, death, and other mature content intended for readers 17 and older.

Graveyard Shift


Angela Roquet - 2009
    She resides in Limbo City, the modern capital of the collective afterlives, where she likes to stick it to the man (the legendary Grim Reaper himself) by harvesting the bare minimum of souls required of her. She’d much rather be hanging out with Gabriel, her favorite archangel, at Purgatory Lounge. But when a shocking promotion falls in Lana's lap, she learns something that could unravel the very fabric of Eternity. If the job isn’t completed, there could be some real hell to pay.

Let the Sky Fall


Shannon Messenger - 2013
    Instead, he woke up in a pile of rubble with no memories of his past — except one: a beautiful, dark-haired girl standing in the winds. She swept through his dreams ever since, and he clings to the hope that she's real. Audra is real, but she isn't human. She's a sylph, an air elemental who can walk on the wind, translate its alluring songs, even twist it into a weapon. She's also a guardian — Vane's guardian — and has sworn an oath to protect him at all costs. When a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both their families, Audra has just days to help Vane unlock his memories. And as the storm winds gather, Audra and Vane start to realize that the greatest danger might not be the warriors coming to destroy them, but the forbidden romance growing between them.

Marking Time


April White - 2012
    a mother who mysteriously disappears, a stranger who stalks her around London, and even the noble English Grandmother who kicked Saira and her mother out of the family. But when an old graffiti tag in a tube station transports Saira to the 19th Century and she comes face-to-face with Jack the Ripper, she realizes she needs help after all. Saira meets Archer, a charming student who helps her blend in as much as a tall, modern American teen can in Victorian England. He reveals the existence of the Immortals: Time, Nature, Fate, War and Death, and explains to Saira that it is possible to move between centuries – if you are a Descendant of Time. Saira finds unexpected friendships at a boarding school for Immortal Descendants and a complicated love with a young man from the past. But time is running out for her mother, and Saira must embrace her new identity as she hides from Archer a devastating secret about his future that may cost him his life.

Paranormal Public


Maddy Edwards - 2011
    . .Charlotte Rollins is an elemental, but she doesn't know it yet. Now, with the help of her old friend Cale and her new friend Keller, she will fight against an evil whose only goal is to consume her.From Kobo:There is no such thing as a mage. There is certainly no such thing as a vampire, pixie, werewolf, or fallen angel. And they certainly do not all attend a college together called Paranormal Public University.One minute Charlotte Rollins is a normal girl about to go to a normal college. She is at once excited and nervous, getting ready to start this new phase in her life. The next minute she is a freshman not at a normal college, but at Paranormal Public University, a school where paranormals of all kinds must co-exist. Charlotte must learn magic, that is, if she could actually do magic, which unlike every other mage at Public she can’t seem to manage.Her transition to this new and wonderful world is difficult. On top of trying to learn magic, make new friends, and confront forbidden love, the archenemy of the paranormals, the demons, are getting stronger. They are looking for something. It turns out that Charlotte might just hold the key to finding it.Can Charlotte get a handle on her powers in time to save the school she loves? Can she fulfill a destiny the paranormals scarcely dared to hope for? Or will she be too late?

The Iron Thorn


Caitlin Kittredge - 2011
    The necrovirus is blamed for Lovecraft's epidemic of madness, for the strange and eldritch creatures that roam the streets after dark, and for everything that the city leaders deem Heretical—born of the belief in magic and witchcraft. And for Aoife Grayson, her time is growing shorter by the day.Aoife Grayson's family is unique, in the worst way—every one of them, including her mother and her elder brother Conrad, has gone mad on their 16th birthday. And now, a ward of the state, and one of the only female students at the School of Engines, she is trying to pretend that her fate can be different.

The Light Tamer


Devyn Dawson - 2012
    Now that Jessie and her mom are living with her grandma, she finds out the split up of her parents is more complicated than she thought. Living in a retirement community is not how she wanted the summer before her junior year to start. Things begin to look up when she is reintroduced to Caleb, the boy that saved her life one summer at the beach. Caleb is no longer scrawny and nerdy, he is now tall, dark and handsome. The instant he shook her hand, she felt warm vibrations running through her veins. They soon learn what it means to be bound to one another. Fate is more than responsible for their meeting and their future together.This book is appropriate for young teens and people of all ages. Remember what it was like to kiss for the first time, or what it was like to fall in love. This paranormal romance will keep you on the edge of your seat with humor, romance, and determination. Fall head over heels for Caleb and Jessie.

Dearly, Departed


Lia Habel - 2011
    But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead - or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie? The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria - a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible - until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses. But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead - and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.

Illuminate


Aimee Agresti - 2012
    But everything changes when she is awarded a prestigious internship at a posh Chicago hotel under the watchful eyes of a group of gorgeous strangers: the powerful and alluring hotel owner Aurelia Brown; her second-in-command, the dashing Lucian Grove; and their stunning but aloof staff of glamazons called The Outfit. As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people are not quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers the evil agenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed in wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able to thwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at the hotel?

Ethereal


Addison Moore - 2011
    When her newly remarried mother moves the family to Paragon Island, to a house that is rumored to be haunted, Skyla finds refuge in Logan Oliver, a boy who shares her unique ability to read minds. Skyla discovers Logan holds the answers to the questions she’s been looking for, but Logan’s reluctance to give her the knowledge she desires leaves her believing Logan has a few secrets of his own. Skyla’s bloodlines may just be connected to the most powerful angelic beings that roam the earth, and the more she knows, the more danger she seems to be in. Suddenly an entire faction of earthbound angels wants her dead, at least she still has Logan, or does she?

Something Strange and Deadly


Susan Dennard - 2012
    . . .Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about.Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she's just read in the newspaper:The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor . . . from her brother.Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she'll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including the maddeningly stubborn yet handsome Daniel, the situation becomes dire. And now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance.

Cursed


Jennifer L. Armentrout - 2012
    After a fatal car accident, her gifted little sister brought her back. Now anything Ember touches dies. And that, well, really blows.Ember operates on a no-touch policy with all living things--including boys. When Hayden Cromwell shows up, quoting Oscar Wilde and claiming her curse is a gift, she thinks he's a crazed cutie. But when he tells her he can help control it, she's more than interested. There's just one catch: Ember has to trust Hayden's adopted father, a man she's sure has sinister reasons for collecting children whose abilities even weird her out. However, she's willing to do anything to hold her sister's hand again. And hell, she'd also like to be able to kiss Hayden. Who wouldn't?But when Ember learns the accident that turned her into a freak may not've been an accident at all, she's not sure who to trust. Someone wanted her dead, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer she is to losing not only her heart, but her life. For real this time.

The Accidental Demon Slayer


Angie Fox - 2008
    For Lizzie Brown, that's just the beginning. Soon her hyperactive terrier starts talking, and her long-lost biker witch Grandma is hurling Smuckers jars filled with magic. Just when she thinks she's seen it all, Lizzie learns she's a demon slayer -- and all hell is after her.Of course, that's not the only thing after her. Dimitri Kallinikos, a devastatingly handsome shape-shifting griffin needs Lizzie to slay a demon of his own. But how do you talk a girl you've never met into going straight to the underworld? Lie. And if that doesn't work, how dangerous could a little seduction be...?

Redemption


R.K. Ryals - 2011
    . . .Dayton Blainey is a foul-mouthed, grief-stricken young woman forced to live with a religiously eccentric aunt who favors her moral older sister. But when Dayton's life becomes intertwined with a dangerous stranger, she suddenly finds herself at the center of a war fought since the beginning of time. Trapped between what she believes is right, and a forbidden attraction, Dayton must come to terms with betrayal and her surprising lineage to stop a war before it even begins.