Book picks similar to
Elastic Heart by Mary Catherine Gebhard
romance
dark
arc
dark-romance
The Rebel of Raleigh High
Callie Hart - 2019
Please be advised, this book comes with a trigger warning. Intended for readers 17+ * Silver Hit me. Kick me. Hurt me. Hate me. There’s nothing that the students of Raleigh High can do to Silver Parisi anymore. Over the past year, she’s had to endure more pain and suffering than most people are asked to bear in their lifetimes. She’s a pariah, an outcast, a ghost. She’s also never been one to take shit lying down, though…despite what half the football team might say. With only one hundred and sixty-eight days left of the school year, it won’t be long until graduation, and Silver’s planning on skipping town and leaving Raleigh firmly in her rearview mirror… Until he comes along… Alex Orphan. Degenerate. Reprobate. Deviant. Alex Moretti’s earned most of his labels, and he’s not ashamed of a single one of them. He’ll earn far worse before he’s finished with his new found ‘friends’ at Raleigh High. Having spent years being ground down under the boot heel of society, it’s time for a little payback. And if exacting revenge upon the heads of the Raleigh elite means he can also help the beautiful girl who hovers in the shadows, then that’s all for the better. Oil and water. Fire and ice. The differences between Silver and Alex are broader than any chasm. To reach one another, they must take a leap of faith and fall into the divide. And falling? Nothing good ever came from falling.
Pretty Little Things
Teresa Mummert - 2014
Colin became the one person that I could count on to protect me. He suffered for the both of us by carrying the burden of our secret.We were the lucky few that got a chance to start over. A fake family, a new home and a pretty little life built on lies. But while our lives continued to intertwine, we were put on very different paths. Now it was only a matter of time before they collide and the beast behind the beauty is exposed.
Taunt Her
Caitlyn Dare - 2020
She wants to hate him. Remi Tanner wasn’t part of the plan. But when I see my uncle doting on her, I know she’s going to help me destroy him. I’ll taunt her. Test her. In the end, I’ll break her. Ace Jagger wasn’t a good guy. But he swept into my life like a storm, and I’m caught up in the aftermath. He’s cruel. Calculating. In the end, I never stood a chance. She might be a Sterling Prep princess, and I might be the guy from the wrong side of the tracks, but one thing's for sure... I won’t stop until I get what I want. Revenge. Taunt Her is a dark high school bully romance. If possessive, tattooed, motorcycle-riding alphaholes aren't your thing, you probably won't like this book!
Chained
Jaimie Roberts - 2015
Living off her inheritance, Olivia didn’t need to work, but she knew she needed something to make her feel like life was worth living. Painting was her one true love, but that wasn’t enough. So she started a part-time job in a bar, and the rest of the time she spent at a local soup kitchen, feeding the homeless. In the mornings, she bought hot beverages for her homeless friends, but there was one who never asked. This man, having the most facial hair she’d ever seen, the most captivating eyes she’d ever stared at, remained aloof. He never said a word to anyone, and never once looked her way. However, all this did was make Olivia want to find out more about this mysterious man hiding behind a face full of hair. One perilous evening, her wish came true. On the way back from working at the bar, Olivia was attacked. She screamed for help, relieved when her cries are answered...but surprised when she saw who her rescuer was. It was the eyes. It was the hair. It was none other than the mysterious homeless man. That night, Olivia learned two things. One, his name was Kit, and two, Kit had skills… skills which didn’t fit a man living on the streets. Day after day, Olivia slowly pushed the boundaries, coaxing out the man hiding behind the hair. Kit Chain wasn’t only trained like men she watched in movies, he was also the most beautiful. Bit by bit, Olivia managed to break down his walls, revealing secrets that would change her life. Secrets that would put both of them in terrible danger. However, there was one thing about secrets... Everyone had them. WARNING: This is NOT a traditional love story. It contains disturbing subject matter, including themes of questionable consent for both male and female, as well as graphic sexual content. This is a work of fiction intended for a mature, 18+ audience only. The author neither endorses nor condones this type of behaviour.
No Prince
Stevie J. Cole - 2020
He was the top of the food chain. And I was next in line to be dragged into the lion’s den. At least that’s what he thought… Good girls wanted to tame him. Bad girls want to be tainted by him. Everyone bowed down to him. And me?I hated Zeppelin Hunt with every fiber of my being.Which was why I stayed away from the arrogant bad boy with tattoos and a rap sheet.Until I couldn’t.Until we traded favors, and I owed him three months of my life. I never thought I would end up in his bed, and when I did, I had to remind myself that he hated me as much as I hated him.Until I didn’t. Zepp Hunt was no prince, and I absolutely refused to be his damsel in distress…
Tears of Tess
Pepper Winters - 2013
Happy, content, everything neat and perfect.Then it all changed.I was sold.”Tess Snow has everything she ever wanted: one more semester before a career in property development, a loving boyfriend, and a future dazzling bright with possibility. For their two year anniversary, Brax surprises Tess with a romantic trip to Mexico. Sandy beaches, delicious cocktails, and soul-connecting sex set the mood for a wonderful holiday. With a full heart, and looking forward to a passion filled week, Tess is on top of the world.But lusty paradise is shattered.Kidnapped. Drugged. Stolen. Tess is forced into a world full of darkness and terror. Captive and alone with no savior, no lover, no faith, no future, Tess evolves from terrified girl to fierce fighter. But no matter her strength, it can’t save her from the horror of being sold.Can Brax find Tess before she’s broken and ruined, or will Tess’s new owner change her life forever?A New Adult Dark Contemporary Romance, not suitable for people sensitive to grief, slavery, and nonconsensual sex. A story about finding love in the strangest of places, a will of iron that grows from necessity, and forgiveness that may not be enough.
Stalk Her
Ker Dukey - 2019
(A collection of standalone novella sized, dark reads.) Ever get that feeling you’re being watched? You probably are. Her sad eyes. Her thick lips. Her long dark hair. Her quickening of breath. Her hurried footsteps. Her undiluted fear. The anxiety a woman has when she knows she’s being followed does something to the sadistic animal inside me. We all have issues, mine just run a little deeper than most. My sister and I had a childhood tarnished by an abusive parent. We grew up two very different breeds of our mother’s creation. Then I discover the beautiful, yet broken, Alice Young. She’s seeking advice, a place to unburden her thoughts. What she gets is a dangerous, callous predator who wants to quench his thirst with her tears. My precious, Alice, feels so alone, but she’s not alone. I’m watching her. I feed on the fear of others. Alice Young may prove to be too damaged, even for my appetite.
Unloved
Katy Regnery - 2017
My name is Cassidy Porter...My father, Paul Isaac Porter, was executed twenty years ago for the brutal murder of twelve innocent girls.Though I was only eight-years-old at the time, I am aware - every day of my life - that I am his child, his only son.To protect the world from the poison in my veins, I live a quiet life, off the grid, away from humanity.I promised myself, and my mother, not to infect innocent lives with the darkness that swirls within me, waiting to make itself known.It's a promise I would have kept...if Brynn Cadogan hadn't stumbled into my life.Now I exist between heaven and hell: falling for a woman who wants to love me, while all along reminding myself that I must remain...Unloved.**NOTE: This book is intended for readers 18+**
Veiled Innocence
Ella Frank - 2014
Tick, tick, tock.Time.That’s all I have now.A small room, a photograph, and time.They want me to trust them and confess my sins.They told me they wouldn't judge me—they lied.I thought we could convince the world that this wasn't a crime.We were wrong.Time doesn't stand still.The clock keeps ticking, the world is unconvinced, and now…Now he is gone.
Collared
Nicole Williams - 2016
. .Brings her home. Jade Childs spent ten years in captivity, but now that she’s back, the real battle for survival begins. The media shadows her. Flashbacks haunt her. Her old life evades her. Her so-called new life rejects her. She spent too many years in the dark to recognize the light. She spent too long repressing her feelings to remember how to express them. She spent a decade abandoning hope and cannot dare letting it back into her life. Jade’s not just defined by what happened to her—she’s collared to it.When the twenty-seven-year-old woman is found,A community wants to know the story,Parents want to forget the story,Friends want to be a part of the story,And the man who still loves her faces the greatest challenge yet: letting her go.
Saved by Her
Michelle Horst - 2015
Degraded. Ravaged. Dirty I fuck. It’s all I’m good for. People pay thousands just to have a taste of me. I have to obey for the sake of my brother. As long as I’m the perfect slave, David remains safe. A life of depravity and cruelty is all I’ve ever known … until her. I might be damaged, but I’m not destroyed. I crave revenge for what was done to me. I have a need to kill, to feel their lifeless blood dripping from my fingers. But I also crave her. She makes me feel. She makes me want. I just have to make her see me. The man. The fighter. Freedom. No one is ever truly free. She doesn’t want to enslave me, but damn, I’ll willingly be a slave to her heart. When my past threatens to take her from me, revenge and wrath burn hot through me. She’s not just worth living for. She’s worth killing for. ** Not recommended if you don't enjoy dark romance with sensitive scenes. +18 Only **
Don't Kiss the Bride
Carian Cole - 2021
He was my own personal hero who seemed to be in all the right places at the right times. Like when my car broke down and I needed a ride home, and when I face planted on the sidewalk right in front of him and had to be taken to the emergency room.Those weren’t exactly my best moments, but they were his. We became friends, and it didn’t matter that he was sixteen years older than me. We had a lot in common—like our love of old rock music and vintage fast cars, and our aversion to relationships.When he approached me with a crazy idea to help me out, I couldn’t say no.The arrangement was supposed to be temporary. A marriage on paper and nothing else.It should’ve been easy, but it wasn’t.Because here I am, eighteen years-old, still in high school, and married to a man I was never supposed to fall in love with.We had just one rule—no kissing the bride.But we broke that rule, and it sealed our fate forever.
Dirty Filthy Rich Men
Laurelin Paige - 2017
I didn’t know he was filthy. Truth be told, I was only trying to get his best friend to notice me.I knew poor scholarship girls like me didn't stand a chance against guys like Weston King and Donovan Kincaid, but I was in love with his world, their world, of parties and sex and power. I knew what I wanted—I knew who I wanted—until one night, their world tried to bite me back and Donovan saved me. He saved me, and then Weston finally noticed me, and I finally learned what it was to be in their world.And then what it was like to lose it.Ten years later, I’ve found my way back. Back to their world. Back to him.This time, I’m ready. I've been down this road before, and I know all the dirty, filthy ways Donovan will try and wreck me. But it’s hard to resist. Especially when I know how much I’ll like it.From NYT Bestselling author Laurelin Paige, discover a whole new world filled with sex, love, power, romance and dirty, filthy rich men.
A Vow Of Hate
Lylah James - 2021
We were poison together and there was no antidote.Our story began like any other fairy tale ended.With a beautiful wedding.One kiss.Two rings.Three vows.Killian Spencer became my lawfully wedded husband and I, his dutiful wife.But he was no Prince Charming. He didn’t come to save me… and he vowed there would be no happily ever after.And me?Just like the legends I'd read as a little girl, I always thought I’d be the princess in my fairy tale.Well, I was the villain of our love story.“Till death do us part…”
Swear on This Life
Renee Carlino - 2016
As an adjunct writing instructor at UC San Diego with her own stalled literary career and a bumpy long-term relationship, Emiline isn’t thrilled to celebrate the accomplishments of a young and gifted writer.Yet from the very first page, Emiline is entranced by the story of Emerson and Jackson, two childhood best friends who fall in love and dream of a better life beyond the long dirt road that winds through their impoverished town in rural Ohio.That’s because the novel is patterned on Emiline’s own dark and desperate childhood, which means that “J. Colby” must be Jase: the best friend and first love she hasn’t seen in over a decade. Far from being flattered that he wrote the novel from her perspective, Emiline is furious that he co-opted her painful past and took some dramatic creative liberties with the ending.The only way she can put her mind at ease is to find and confront “J. Colby,” but is she prepared to learn the truth behind the fiction?