Book picks similar to
Alone Before You by Claire Scott
romance
arc
suspense
cliffhanger
Split
J.B. Salsbury - 2016
Her unforgettable new novel is a story of romance and suspense, with a twist no one will see coming . . .What do you do when you wake up with no memory of what you did last night?Lucas spent the first half of his life protecting himself from others, but now his own mind is his biggest enemy. He doesn't know what happens when the blackouts overtake him, but he can recall the feelings--the rage, the confusion, the fear. Thankfully the quiet life he's found in Payson, Arizona has kept the darkness at bay. Until his boss's estranged daughter shows up in town, asking questions she shouldn't and sparking a desire Lucas can't control. Getting close to Shyann is the best thing that's ever happened to him, but when his blackouts return, unleashing the truth he's battled so long to hide, he may just lose her forever . . .
The Maiden
Celia Aaron - 2018
But I've discovered so much more, and the darkness here is seducing me, pulling me down until all I can think of is him. Adam Monroe, the Prophet's son, a dark prince to an empire that grows by the day. He is tasked with keeping me safe from the wolves of the outside world. But the longer I stay at the Cloister, the more I realize the wolves are already inside and under the Prophet's control. If Adam discovers the real reason I'm here, he'll bay for my blood with the rest of them. Until then, I will be Delilah, an obedient servant of the Prophet during the day and Adam's Maiden at night.Author's Note: If you have a trigger, this book will pull it. The Maiden is the first book of The Cloister Series. The Prophet will release in May, and the conclusion to the series, The Church, will release in June.
Wreck Me
J.L. Mac - 2013
People can be ruthless and evil. The world can be cold and uninviting. No one knows these things better than Josephine Geroux. By her own definition, she is a twenty-five year old “nobody with nothing,” and she is content to stay that way. Growing up an orphan has made her tough and indifferent to the people around her until she meets a strangely familiar man with a face that haunts her for reasons she can’t understand.Despite the pain that will inevitably ensue, she makes it her mission to discover what parts of her tragic puzzle she is missing. On her journey to discovering why the she feels an alarming connection to an absolute stranger, her greatest fear is reawakening the demons and darkness from the past that will surely overtake her if she lets her guard down. Little does Josephine know that the past should be the least of her worries. She is toying with a man who has already broken her heart once. She just doesn’t realize it.Although she makes it a point to avoid interactions with others, Josephine’s life becomes entangled with the enigmatic stranger. Before she realizes it, she has given herself over to the one person who is close enough to wreck her.Word Count: 60,230
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.”
Blood Red Rose
Fawn Bailey - 2018
I'll make you." Stolen. Kidnapped. Taken. He snatched me off the street, ending my dream of becoming a dancer. Now, I'm locked away in a mansion with girls who've met the same fate. My captor is always rough, rarely kind. He punishes me for every little mistake. He's training me. Preparing me. Getting me ready. Slowly, my body is starting to break. Obey. Bend to his will. Time's ticking. My body is learning to submit. I've almost stopped fighting. Almost given in. Still, the promise of something darker hangs in the air. The real monster is lurking. And soon, he will come for me. Cover reveal for Blood Red Rose coming February 2018.
Illusion
J.S. Cooper - 2014
Cooper introduces the Swept Away series—three new, dark and sexy romances about a woman marooned on a desert island with a mysterious stranger—but is he friend or foe?The day started like every other day... Bianca London finds herself kidnapped and locked up in a van with a strange man. Ten hours later, they’re dumped on a deserted island. Bianca has no idea what’s going on and her attraction to this stranger is the only thing keeping her fear at bay. Jakob Bradley wants only to figure out why they’ve been left on the island and how they can get off. But as the days go by, he can’t ignore his growing fascination with Bianca. In order to survive, Bianca and Jakob must figure out how they’re connected, but as they grow closer, secrets are revealed that may destroy everything they thought they knew about each other.
Throne of Power
Rina Kent - 2021
In the mafia world, women don’t reign.I’m the exception of that rule.I didn’t choose this life, it chose me.I have a legacy to protect, a power to snatch, and no one will stop me.If an arranged marriage is what it’ll take to lead, then so be it.What I don’t count on is that my chosen husband is a ghost from my past.Kyle Hunter.He was once my guard, my protector. Now, he’s after my kingdom.The road to the throne is paved with thorns, blood, and casualties.To win, I’ll risk it all. My heart included.This book is part of a duet and is not standalone.
Jacked
Tina Reber - 2014
Since that moment, she has made it her life goal to pursue emergency medicine, pouring her heart and soul into assuring another innocent life isn’t lost to the hands of the wicked.
We all have secrets we've never shared.
Detective Adam Trent has lost control of everything, starting with losing his partner to a punk with a gun and then everything else to the crushing guilt. Now a member of the elite Auto Theft Task Force in Philadelphia, it's his job to be one step ahead of the criminals stealing expensive cars in the city. Too bad the television cameras keep getting in the way of his investigation.
We all have pasts that we can never escape.
A stolen car, a tragic chase, and a traffic stop crosses the fates of these two, tying them together in ways that are unimaginable. As their love and trust grows, so do the enemies that threaten their survival, testing the strength of their commitment. Can true love endure half-truths, past pains, and secrets never meant to be shared?
Some things are just out of our control.
Love Unscripted spin-off featuring Kyle Trent's older brother, Adam.
Never Loved
Charlotte Stein - 2015
Beatrix Becker spent most of her life under the thumb of her controlling, abusive father. And now that she’s free and attending her dream college, she has no idea how to act like the normal crowd: partying, going on dates, even having a conversation. Then she meets Serge Sorensen. Big and surly with a whole host of riotous tattoos, Serge is supposed to scare the hell out of her. But beneath his harsh exterior, Beatrix discovers a kindred spirit who knows what it’s like to be a misfit. Most exhilarating—and terrifying—is what he does for a living: illegal street fighting. There’s nothing like the rush Serge gets from the intense athleticism and brutal glory of combat—though his chemistry with Beatrix comes close. Slowly at first, he introduces her to his world, where he lives by instinct, passion, and desire. He even helps her out with her equally traumatized brother. But when Serge gets in too deep with the wrong people, he ends up paying in blood. And suddenly, just as Beatrix has been drawn into Serge’s perfectly sculpted arms, she’s thrown once and for all into the fight of his life.
Brutally Beautiful
Christine Zolendz - 2013
With blood still on her hands, Samantha Matthews is on the run, running from dark secrets and a man she prays to God will never find her. Running and hiding, just to stay alive. She had no choice but to run, to leave, to hide and forget about her life before. When Samantha believes she's gained enough distance from her past and her demons, she stops running, hoping to find her future in the heavily wooded area of the Adirondack Mountains, a place she never expected to encounter a man with secrets as dark and as sordid as hers. Kade Grayson is hiding, not from the demons after him, but from himself and from the entire outside world, wishing every day he could have just died. Arrogant and domineering, he’s tormented and terrorized by his past, seeing nothing good for his future. With the ghosts of his past still haunting him, he has exiled himself to a life of solitude, only living for his words and through his stories.Until her.An undeniable attraction, turns into hate and then ultimately obsession, an obsession that grows into a powerful story of love and redemption.Will the bond they have begun to build between them grow stronger than the tragedies that have scarred both of their lives? Or will they allow their demons to consume them?
El Santo
M. Robinson - 2017
Forced to become my own worst enemy. With so much blood on my hands, I was surprised I could still see my own skin.I killed.I tortured.I loved…I played God while I was rotting in Hell. Thriving on control and power was the only way I knew how to live. There were no other options.If you weren’t my friend, you were my foe.If you weren’t with me, you were against me.Traitors, as I called them. There were no imaginary lines. I’d crossed them all. No boundaries. No second chances. No redemption.Not for me.For them.For anyone.Only for her…She loved me. Always convinced I was a saint, never believing I was just another sinner.A fucking monster.Until it was too late.Except, I didn’t choose this life. It. Chose. Me.
The Brave Line
Kate Stewart - 2017
With a fresh perspective on life, she trades her tragic past in California for the coastal waters of Charleston. Fueled by a new career as a dispatcher, she’s determined not to let her scars weigh her down. She apologizes for nothing, especially her insatiable need for a certain police officer.Rowdy is a newly minted sergeant dedicated to his job, but the life of a Charleston police officer has never been more dangerous. With his need to take order of a city spiraling out of control, the last thing he wants is an entanglement with a mouthy dispatcher. But, there’s just one problem. He can’t get enough of her.As the heat rises between the unlikely pair, so does the tension.Three months of summer was all it took to shake their foundations, rattle their walls, and bring them crashing down.It was lust.It was love.It was real.And it would have been perfect . . . if it wasn't already over.Note to reader:This book has several elements and explores topics that some may consider triggers. For mature audiences only. Explicit sex, violence and language. (less)
The Fall of Troy
Rebecca Sharp - 2019
Rebecca Sharp comes an enemies-to-lovers epic romance with a forbidden twist...Love is angry. Love is blind. Love is envious and loathful.And I loathed Léo Baudin. My new art professor. My enemy.I didn't move to Rhode Island for this. I came to forget the Troian Milanovic I'd left behind and start fresh where the damage and betrayal couldn't follow.But Professor Baudin wouldn't let me.Cold. Caustic. Captivating. He didn't just push my buttons... He lit them all up with the indifferent smirk of an aristocratic French asshole. But how much I loathed him only made my need for him stronger. To have him would be either victory or loss. There would be no compromise.To have him would be war.So I fought back. But I was Troy, and he was the wooden horse, full of dangerous secrets I never saw coming. I was the one who invited him inside my walls, celebrating without seeing through his disguise. And under the cover of darkness, he laid siege to my body, my mind, and finally, my heart. The first may be a myth, but this time the history books would show that if Troy fell, it was with her all.The Fall of Troy is the first book in the Odyssey Duet.
The Patron
Vivian Wood - 2021
He's drawn to my provocative innocence, not realizing that I am also a ballerina in his dance company. When I dance for him, he feels something stir in his cold, dead heart.After Calum finds out my little deception, he should turn me in. After all, ballet requires sacrifice.But to my surprise, he makes me an offer I can't refuse.And now I am staring into his dark blue eyes as I dance for him privately. Trying desperately to remember rule number one of being an exotic dancer.
Don't fall for your customers.
The Professional: Part 2
Kresley Cole - 2014
Ordered to protect her, Sevastyan will do anything to possess her as well—on his own wicked terms.Rules are made to be broken...PhD student Natalie Porter had barely recovered from her first sight of the breathtakingly gorgeous Sevastyan before the professional hit man whisks her away to Russia, thrusting her into a world of extreme wealth and wanton pleasures. With every day she spends under his protection, she falls deeper under his masterful spell.Are you ready to play?Yet all is not as it seems. To remove Natalie from an enemy’s reach, Sevastyan spirits her into hiding. From an opulent palace in Russia to the decadent playgrounds of the mega-wealthy in Paris, the two lovers will discover that even their darkest—and most forbidden—fantasies can come true...