Book picks similar to
Beautifully Brutal by Dani René
dark
dark-romance
dnf
mafia
Secrets
Aleatha Romig - 2018
Web of Sin is a dangerous, gritty romance, complete with an all-new alpha anti-hero who will haunt your dreams and your fantasies. “Have you been Aleatha’d?”SECRETS is book one of Sterling and Araneae’s story, Web of Sin. Their story continues in LIES and concludes in PROMISES.
Birds of Paradise
Anne Malcom - 2018
I was all of the hideous and ugly realities of the world packaged into one broken human being.He came to kill me.That was his business.Death.He ripped me out of my natural environment, the prison I'd created, and locked me away with all of his beautiful dead things.I hated him.I still hate him.But if I was given the choice and the ability to leave this cage, come back to life, I'd stay dead.In all of my hideous splendor.Because my murderer can only possess dead things.And I can only be possessed by someone more broken and ugly than me.
Brick
Jen Davis - 2019
During the day it’s mud and grime on the construction site. At night…it’s the blood I spill. A drug lord’s enforcer does what needs to be done. It’s my obedience, my loyalty to the boss that keeps my family alive. I know I’m teetering on the edge. I’m losing my humanity, I can feel it. It’s changing me, and it’s only a matter of time before the darkness takes over.Then I meet her. Liv. The only person who sees past my busted knuckles and brutal exterior. She sees…me. But being with me will get her killed. The only way I can keep her safe is by staying away. Until her own actions catapult her into the center of my world—a world which will swallow her whole. Now I’m forced to be the ruthless bastard I’ve been for so long. Only this time it’s not to destroy…but to defend.
The Imperfections
Sam Mariano - 2019
Alyssa Walton never meant to find herself on Brant’s bad side—never even met the man until he showed up in her bedroom with a loaded gun and a plan to destroy her.When Alyssa and Brant collide, his simple problem-solving mission gets a whole lot more complicated. Turns out, Alyssa is nothing like he expected, and she just might be everything he’s ever wanted. Sure, she’s a little afraid of him, but every relationship has its obstacles.Brant’s never had anyone like Alyssa around, someone loyal and kind who smoothes over his rough edges like she was born to do it. Alyssa’s never met a man like Brant, either, and while she admires the way he looks out for those he loves, she can’t help wondering, who’s looking out for Brant?Now, faced with wanting the girl he was never supposed to keep, Brant has to make an impossible choice. Does he give up the girl who has brought sunshine into his lonely life, or does he hold on tight, even if it might mean letting down the people he’s spent his whole life protecting?
***The Imperfections is a full-length standalone forbidden romance that includes dark themes. ***
Sweet Surrender
Sav R. Miller - 2020
Everyone has a debt to collect, and somehow that burden falls to me.I’m being forced into a loveless marriage to pay off my father’s debts when the capo of the Montalto outfit intervenes with an offer I can’t refuse: his hand in exchange for protection.But I’m not the one who needs protecting.EliaThe men in my life value loyalty to our family over everything.I’m supposed to, but my dark heart has a mind of its own.My offer to marry Caroline is half-hearted; I set my eyes on the beautiful nymph and want her for myself.I want to use her. Break her.Turns out, someone else beat me to it.Now all I want is her heart.Sweet Surrender is an enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience, dark, erotic, small town mafia romance. Due to adult themes and scenes, it is recommended for ages 18 and older.
Savage Beginnings
J.L. Beck - 2020
Like a thief I came in the dead of night and stole her away from her protected castle and placed her in a gilded cage made of gold. The arrangement had been made. Her father knew I was coming, knew I had intended to make him pay. His empire was crumbling. He had no money, nothing of value to me, nothing except... her. Which is why he agreed. His precious, virgin daughter in return for a debt paid. He thought I would break her, kill her, he had no idea what I had really planned. She would become my wife. She would bear my children. She would bend to my will. And I would go to any lengths to keep her by my side. *This is a dark mafia romance that contains mature themes, graphic violence, and sexual content. This is a standalone with a HEA.*
Ruthless Princess
Rachel Van Dyken - 2020
A mafia romance about best friends turned enemies by Rachel Van Dyken, the number one New York Times bestselling author of the Eagle Elite series.The enemy of my enemy is my friend…I never thought my father would ask this of me, to become the second generation at Eagle Elite University, to rule with an iron fist, and to take care of anyone who gets in our way.But ever since the incident.Ever since Him.There’s been a war in our little clique.After all, a house divided cannot stand.He’s the problem, not me.He used to kiss me like I was his oxygen.Now he looks at me like I’m his poison.But we both drank it, again and again, never believing there would be a day when our love would start a war.And our friendship would shatter into a million pieces.Then again, the worst thing you could do in the mafia is hang on to hope that your life will be normal.The second worse thing?Fall in love with your best friend.Enemy.And heir to the Nicolasi throne.
Dirty Aristocrat
Georgia Le Carre - 2016
Faking the truth was a whole lot harder. * Lord Ivan de Greystoke Don’t let my fancy title fool you because I'm a bad boy. I've always been. Now I've set my sights on Tawny Maxwell the one woman who stirs a possessiveness and desire in me that makes my insides twist. She's nineteen, blonde, fabulously beautiful, and married to Robert Maxwell. Which makes her a gold digger and my f**king stepmother! Oh and completely unavailable ... until now. For the old man’s dead, she’s the heiress of a hundred million fortune, and I’m the executor of her trust, but it ain't no walk in the park. My stepbrother and stepsisters feel robbed and are of the opinion that she should join her husband a.s.a.p, and I’ve got a raging hard-on. Permanently. Then I come up with the perfect solution. A fake marriage ... to me. Tawny Maxwell Everyone thinks I’m a gold digger. Even the dazzlingly, beautiful man whom I can't stop thinking about looks at me with distrust and suspicion in his silver eyes. But they don’t know the whole story. I have a secret. It's so big it will blow their minds, but I’m not telling. Never...
Reign of a King
Rina Kent - 2020
Jonathan King is every bit his last name.Powerful.Untouchable.Corrupted.He’s also my dead sister’s husband and way older than me.When I first met him as a clueless child, I thought he was a god.Now, I have to confront that god to protect my business from his ruthless grip.Little did I know that declaring a war on the king will cost me everything.When Jonathan covets something, he doesn’t only win, he conquers.Now, he has his sights on me.He wants to consume not only my body, but also my heart and my soul.I fight, but there’s no escaping the king in his kingdom...Reign of a King is the first part of a duet and is not standalone.
Control
Olivia Ryann - 2018
Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon Bestseller Vivian Wood writes dark romance as OLIVIA RYANN. I wake up terrified, humiliated, and chained to a wall. The shackles around my wrists mean only one thing. He owns me now. With his dark glares and barked orders, he is dangerous. He is my tormentor, my captor, a threat to my very existence. Not to be toyed with. Even if my frightened mind whispers maybe… Even if I am very curious how such a man came to be. I am still his dark and twisted pet, to cherish or to scorn. And I am starting to love the darkness... Reading Order: Capture (Cherish Series FREE Prequel) Control (Cherish Series Book 1) Covet (Cherish Series Book 2) Cherish (Cherish Series Book 3)
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.
Heartless
Jade West - 2020
That’s my plan until I see her, the woman in gold with the sinful curves and the blonde curls. My will to dominate her runs as deep as the hate I have for her last name. No matter how beautifully she bends beneath my hands, I'll leave her shattered, a broken toy for her cruel family.I'm a sadist, and she's the object of my obsession."I'm speechless... My limits were tested and I even found a few hard limits of my own. I still hear that divinely, sexy man demanding those sinfully sweet words." - USA Today bestselling author B.B. Reid on DIRTY BAD WRONG
Mercy
Debra Anastasia - 2017
Murder is in my blood now. It runs through my veins and though I hide the monster I see in the mirror with ink, it doesn’t keep him from coming out. My street name is Mercy, but I never show any. Except for her. I watch Becca, though she doesn’t know. She saved me a long time ago; the day my father killed my mother. Her bravery turned her into a target.My father holds a grudge and knife with the same proficiency, and Becca is the focus of his hatred. And I’m the only monster who can save her.
The Collector
Vi Carter - 2020
My job is never easy.They fight, claw and plead for me to let them go.But I never do.I'm the collector for Victor, a ruthless Russian mob boss.I collect every time.I never fail.Until Mila.MilaI knew this day would come.He threatened to send his collector.He warned me that I would return one way or the other.That time is now.I go willingly.I don't fight or scream.I know its pointless.But the collector breaks the rules.He doesn't take me to Victor.He keeps me for himself.He has no idea what he has set in motion.He has no idea who I am.Now his fate is sealed along with mine.
Black Hearts
Karina Halle - 2017
The son of an infamous drug lord, Vicente was born to help run the family business, which means he’s been raised on a throne of sordid pasts and dirty laundry, violence and pride. But when Vicente stumbles across someone he’s not supposed to know about – a woman from his father’s checkered past – he sets out to California to find her behind his father’s back.What Vicente doesn’t expect to find in San Francisco is Violet McQueen, the woman’s twenty-year old daughter. Beautiful and edgy with a vulnerability he can’t resist, Violet tempts Vicente from afar and though he promised himself he’d stay away from her, curiosity and lust are powerful forces. Besides, Vicente has always gotten everything he wants – why shouldn’t he have Violet too?Soon his wants turn into an obsession, one that sweeps Violet into his games as they fall madly, deeply in love with each other, the type of first love that can drive a person mad.But it’s a love with tragic consequences.Both the truth – and the lies – not only threaten to tear them apart, but threaten their very lives.Someone has to pay for the sins of the fathers.And they’ll be paying the price with their souls.