Books like 'Darkness Matters'

Readers who enjoyed Darkness Matters by Jay McLean also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  dark romance  new adult  forbidden love  college

  • Ethic 2 by Ashley Antoinette

    Ethic 2 by Ashley Antoinette

    Rated: 4.69 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    Love should burn slow, but with Ezra "Ethic" Okafor it is always fast and fleeting. After an accidental killing affects Alani, the woman he loves, she thinks he's a monster. Separated by tragedy, the pair endure a loss like nothing they have ever felt and their connection is impossible to repair. Ethic is reduced to misery and raising his children alone once again...
  • Tangled Promise by Ella Miles

    Tangled Promise by Ella Miles

    Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    I can’t keep my promises. I’ve made too many, to too many people. All the promises have tangled into a web of sin and truths. But there is one thing I’m certain of…I have to end this—us. This is Book 4 in the Sinful Truths series...
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  • Broken Anchor by Ella Miles

    Broken Anchor by Ella Miles

    Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    I’m broken. He’s broken. We are broken. But sometimes you have to shatter to pick up the pieces. To start over. To overcome our enemies. And find out if we can love again. He’s my anchor, but can our love be repaired? This is the final book in the Sinful Truths series...
  • Dylan by Jaymin Eve, Tate James

    Dylan by Jaymin Eve, Tate James

    Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 16 ratings
    Dylan Grant.One of Forbes’ 30 under 30.One of the most eligible yet unattainable men in the country.One of the Delta Five.Together with his friends, Beck, Riley, Jasper and Evan, Dylan runs half the damn world. He is the epitome of power... and the definition of emotional baggage. Too damaged from his shitty upbringing. Too hung up on his best friend's girl...
  • Chasing The Dragon by T.K. Leigh

    Chasing The Dragon by T.K. Leigh

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    He’s trying to protect his heart… She’s a shell of the girl she once was… Can he chase away the demons threatening to destroy her? Mackenzie Delano craves control. After tragedy strikes during her freshman year of college, she compensates for the helplessness she felt by micro-managing every aspect of her life, from her business life to her social life…to her love life...
    Categorized as:
    new adult  suspense  dark  contemporary
  • Falling by E.K. Blair

    Falling by E.K. Blair

    Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars
    · 19 ratings
    Sometimes it takes someone else to show us what we are truly capable of becoming. Suffering from years of violent abuse, Ryan Campbell has learned how to keep people from getting too close. But when you shut yourself off, people get hurt along the way. Never caring much about others, Ryan creates a world in which he doesn’t have to feel...
    Categorized as:
    college  new adult  contemporary  bad boys  rape  dark  abuse  male-pov
  • Cake by J. Bengtsson

    Cake by J. Bengtsson

    Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    Jake McKallister was famous for more than just being a rockstar. When he was thirteen-years-old, he would survive a crime so brutal and so harrowing that his name would forever be linked to tragedy. And, although he had managed to put the horrors of his youth behind him in order to find success as a musician, the memories of his past still haunted him...
  • Endless by W. Winters

    Endless by W. Winters

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    From USA Today bestselling author W Winters comes an emotionally captivating and thrilling, romantic suspense. He holds a power over me like no one else ever could. Maybe it’s because my heart begs to beat in time with his. Maybe it’s because my body bows to his and his alone. Maybe it’s because he thought he loved me before he even laid eyes on me...
  • Make Me Burn by C.R. Jane, May Dawson

    Make Me Burn by C.R. Jane, May Dawson

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 5 of 5
    Explicit and plentiful [?] · 16 ratings
    One night changes everythingOne fight gone viral can win Paxton a million dollars, endorsements, UFC recruiting. And another video gone viral could cost him it all.Because now a stalker is sending him videos from the night his mother was killed. Pax thought he’d killed her murderer. He thought he could move on...
  • The Revenge by Tijan

    The Revenge by Tijan

    Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    The Revenge is the taut, edgy, sexy, explosive conclusion to The Insiders trilogy by New York Times and USA Today bestseller Tijan!Bailey and Kash were used to living in the shadows. Now they are thrust into the public eye. Together, they can do anything, but undeniable danger and seemingly insurmountable challenges threaten the love and passion that binds them.1...
  • Heads You Lose by Bea Paige

    Heads You Lose by Bea Paige

    Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Beast…Beast in name. Beast in nature.Once upon a time Tales was my home.I was the second in command and the best goddamn fighter the club had ever seen.I fought. I won.Every. Damn. Time.Until one day I lost trying to protect the princess from the true monster of this f*cked-up fairy tale.She shunned me, sent me away.Now I’m back to tell her the truth, not some tale full of half-truths and lies...
  • When Darkness Ends by Marni Mann

    When Darkness Ends by Marni Mann

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    An all new angsty, dark, stand-alone Contemporary Romance in the Moments in Boston Series ...You never forget your first love … even when he becomes a memory.There was before.When we were together, when we were happy.When we had nothing but dreams.When not a single bad thing could ever happen because we were young and in love.And there was after...
    Categorized as:
    new adult  college  contemporary  dark  suspense
  • Respect by Jay Crownover

    Respect by Jay Crownover

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess who called a corrupt kingdom home sweet home. Protected and sheltered from the worst the world had to offer, she fell in love with the crumbling city that burned and blazed around her. Every dirty corner, every scary shadow, found a place within her heart. So did a man who was violent and dangerous, just like the streets she claimed as her own...
  • Soulless Saint by Elena Lawson

    Soulless Saint by Elena Lawson

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    I barely made it out of Thorn Valley alive.My savage bestie and her lethal boyfriends are the only reason I have a second chance at life and I’m not going to waste it.When I took the scholarship to CalArts, I didn’t know Daddy would cut me off, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll get a bus pass, a job, and an apartment. Easy, right?Wrong. Enter my two shadows…Kaleb. Hot as sin and he damn well knows it...
  • Turn on a Dime - Kade's Turn by Tiffany Snow

    Turn on a Dime - Kade's Turn by Tiffany Snow

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    It only takes a second, a fraction of a second, to forever change your life. That moment happened to me years ago. I did something you can’t take back, and I’d do it again. It’s a secret I’ll take to my grave—which is probably sooner rather than later—and that’s okay. I live with my choices...
  • Hear No Evil: A New Adult College Romance by Ivy Fox

    Hear No Evil: A New Adult College Romance by Ivy Fox

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    Evil cannot take hold of an unconsenting soul.Do not be amazed that hell is empty, since all the devils live here.One by one, they will meet their hellish fate.One down…Three to go.EastonA tyrannous society has discovered our most atrocious secret and decided to wage war on us.They’ve had their fun with Finn, and now it’s my turn to be their little puppet...
  • Destructive King by Rachel Van Dyken

    Destructive King by Rachel Van Dyken

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    A mafia romance about love and loss by Rachel Van Dyken, the number one New York Times bestselling author of the Eagle Elite series.…When you awaken in the morning's hushI am the swift uplifting rushOf quiet birds in circled flight.I am the soft stars that shine at night.Do not stand at my grave and cry;I am not there. I did not die. — Mary Elizabeth Fyre "I'm sorry for your loss...
  • Unhinged Desires: A Dark Romance by Kylie Kent

    Unhinged Desires: A Dark Romance by Kylie Kent

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    DominicI was awoken by an angel.That’s the only explanation I have for the sudden onset of feelings that hit my heart like a lightning bolt, the moment my eyes connected with hers.However, this particular angel doesn’t know she’s just evoked a demon.The way my body reacts to her presence, the way my soul recognizes its counterpart, it’s a dangerous fatal attraction...
  • The Air That I Breathe by Cara Dee

    The Air That I Breathe by Cara Dee

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 5 of 5
    Explicit and plentiful [?] · 12 ratings
    The Game Series, Book 3.5 “In that moment, I stopped caring about right and wrong.” The only thing that stood between us were the boundaries set by others, by society, by our parents. But together we could knock them down. Together, we could find freedom and live life on our own terms. Screw the rest of the world. He was all that mattered. He was the air that I breathed...
  • King of Souls by L.A. Cotton

    King of Souls by L.A. Cotton

    Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    From bestselling author L A Cotton comes the highly anticipated conclusion to Nicco and Arianne’s duetArianne Capizola is living a lie.Angry. Abandoned. Afraid.She'd rather spend her days locked away on her father's estate than with the guy who stole her innocence: her fiancé.Niccolò Marchetti is living a nightmare. Broken. Banished. Betrayed...
  • The Rebel by Sophie Lark

    The Rebel by Sophie Lark

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    I Want The One Girl I Can’t Have...Zoe Romera is trapped in a marriage contract with the most sadistic psychopath at Kingmakers.She couldn’t be more off-limits. Stealing her from Rocco Prince would break the most ironclad rules of the mafia world.But I have to have her. She’s my soulmate. I want her, or no one at all.I’ll do anything to save her. Rocco will do anything to destroy her...
  • Pretty Little Killer by A.J. Merlin

    Pretty Little Killer by A.J. Merlin

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    I should’ve been able to leave them in the past, especially once I’d gone home for winter break.Yet as soon as my plane touches down in St. Augustine, my sweetest nightmares are waiting for me, reminding me of all of the reasons I can’t stop thinking about them...
  • Forgive Me For I Have Sinned by Carmen Rosales

    Forgive Me For I Have Sinned by Carmen Rosales

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 6 ratings
    What if everything they thought about you was a lie?After Victoria's best friend dies, everything around her ceases to exist.The man she loved all her life didn't want her anymore.Her world crumbled.Depression took her under.All she has left is the will not to let others suffer under the Order's rules, but she has to play the part under the hands of the dangerous and depraved to save them...
  • Unhinged Desires: A Dark Romance by Kylie Kent

    Unhinged Desires: A Dark Romance by Kylie Kent

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    DominicI was awoken by an angel.That’s the only explanation I have for the sudden onset of feelings that hit my heart like a lightning bolt, the moment my eyes connected with hers.However, this particular angel doesn’t know she’s just evoked a demon.The way my body reacts to her presence, the way my soul recognizes its counterpart, it’s a dangerous fatal attraction...
  • Mercy by Ruby Vincent

    Mercy by Ruby Vincent

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    MaverickThe more answers I unearthed, the less I understood. I stepped into this game not knowing the rules, and now, they’re playing me to their beat.Old faces reappear. New friends circle. I got closer to the puppeteer as they got ever closer to me. And when they struck, I wasn’t ready.ValentinaA queen sacrifices for her subjects. A president makes the hard decisions...
  • Son of a Gun: A Marked Men and The Point crossover novel by Jay Crownover

    Son of a Gun: A Marked Men and The Point crossover novel by Jay Crownover

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Heavy is the head that inherits the crown. The only thing on Daire Archer’s mind when she pulled a disappearing act on Christmas was proving she was worthy of being her father's daughter. She was born an Archer, which was a blessing and a curse, and Daire was determined to show everyone she deserved to carry the legacy that came with her name...
  • The Arrangement 10: The Ferro Family by H.M. Ward

    The Arrangement 10: The Ferro Family by H.M. Ward

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 19 ratings
    When Avery realizes that her latest client wasn't Sean she doesn't know what to do. This person has invaded her life on a personal level and to make matters worse she doesn't even know who he is. The only good thing that came from it has been seeing Sean again, but now that he's in front of her, she doesn't want to let him go...
  • Reckless & Ruined by Bethany-Kris

    Reckless & Ruined by Bethany-Kris

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Play dirty. It’s the only way to win in a war. Alessa Trentini follows the rules, or so it seems on the outside. A certain Conti has always been able to sway her inner rebel and keep her out of trouble, but even Adriano won’t be able to get her out of her brother’s mess. In a war, no woman is safe if her hand in marriage can advance her family in the world of the mafia...
  • The Savage by Daniela Romero

    The Savage by Daniela Romero

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    I wasn’t supposed to fall for him.I officially cut boys out of my life.They’re untrustworthy, vicious, and cruel.So, if you told me this past summer that PacNorth University's notorious bad boy was going to become my dark knight, I wouldn’t have believed you.I’m not the same reckless, carefree girl I was three months ago.That girl was naïve.That girl was stupid.That girl was destroyed...
  • Cross + Catherine: The Saga by Bethany-Kris

    Cross + Catherine: The Saga by Bethany-Kris

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    Once upon a time, a wild boy fell in love with a sly girl … From high school sweethearts to a criminal King and Queen, Cross Donati and Catherine Marcello’s love became a force—even destructive, it was unstoppable. They were meant to be. Even when everything stood in the way. Always. Fall in love with the saga of Cross + Catherine, and their story of a love revered, and a life lived so unruly...
    Categorized as:
    college  new adult  dark  contemporary  mafia  angst
  • Black Promises: A Dark New Adult Romance by B. B. Hamel

    Black Promises: A Dark New Adult Romance by B. B. Hamel

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    I sold myself to a monster.He gets my body. And in exchange?He'll murder the demon that's haunted me for years.Jarrod Hale is the cruelest boy at school.A gorgeous fallen angel with a wicked streak.He dominates our campus with his clique of handsome jackals.And I promised him my virginity.We made a bargain, and I sealed my fate in blood and promises.One death, and then I'm his...
    Categorized as:
    new adult  college  contemporary  mystery  suspense  dark
  • Toxic Obsession by J.A. Owenby

    Toxic Obsession by J.A. Owenby

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.I need a fresh start where no one knows me, and Whitmore University seems like my chance — if I can keep my secrets hidden. But everything I've built is shattered by Quinn Astor, a powerful football god, and he sees me as his next target.Quinn has a relentless drive and a cruel streak. He’s toxic. He's not the prince I thought he was, but a devil I can't resist...
  • Regrets by Nicole Dykes

    Regrets by Nicole Dykes

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Healing after a tragedy is hard enough. Doing it when you’re haunted by past betrayal and so many things left unsaid?Feels nearly hopeless...
  • Royal Bully by Rachel Van Dyken

    Royal Bully by Rachel Van Dyken

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Something dark this way comes. He's gorgeous, mean, and mine. He catches me dreaming about him, and then just like my dream, he decides to make me his. I should have said no when he asked me to swear fealty to him. The knife clued me in first. The blood second...
  • DIG by L.A. Ferro

    DIG by L.A. Ferro

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    I was supposed to be attending a friend's birthday party, not used as bait to lure out the elusive Holden Hayes. Holden was the last thing I needed. My life was already spiraling, a slow-moving head-on collision that you couldn’t swerve to avoid. In hindsight, so was his. Neither of us was looking for a relationship, but that is precisely what we found...
  • Immoral Ties by Marissa Farrar

    Immoral Ties by Marissa Farrar

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 5 of 5
    Explicit and plentiful [?] · 6 ratings
    I never thought we’d survive the wilderness.Making it out with all our lives intact has been our main focus for so long.But now we’re safe.Except our lives have all been irrevocably changed.How are we supposed to go back to the people we were before the crash when those people no longer exist?Darius finds himself thrown back into a superstardom like he’s never known before...
  • Kept by Cate Corvin

    Kept by Cate Corvin

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    I already had to leave college once to care for my sick mother. Thanks to the Second-Chance Scholarship, I have one last shot to finish my degree at Bourdillon University, a prestigious academy for the arts. But the three professors who control my future don't see a student, or an assistant librarian. They see prey.The Dean of Students, gentleman on the outside, beast on the inside...
  • Believing Bailey by Linda Kage

    Believing Bailey by Linda Kage

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    All Bailey Prescott wants is to wrangle a certain cowboy on campus. She spends most weekends searching the party crowds for him. One night, at a lame frat house, she finds herself trapped in a bathroom and ends up the sole witness to a crime...or not a crime?Bailey’s one small voyeuristic moment has gigantic implications...
  • Thin Lives by Bethany-Kris

    Thin Lives by Bethany-Kris

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    The Final Donati Bloodlines Novel *** Emma Donati Some days, it felt like Emma had just imagined it all. Like maybe everything she had been with Calisto was just a dream. Emma knew it was crazy—it was impossible to forget what she had shared with Calisto Donati. All their love, the stolen moments, their foulness together, and the beauty underneath it all were real. They were real...
  • Very Wicked Beginnings by Ilsa Madden-Mills

    Very Wicked Beginnings by Ilsa Madden-Mills

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    A Prequel Novella Girls say I’m a walking, talking sex god. Guys call me Hollywood because my life is golden. It’s not. But, ESPN did rank me as a four-star recruit, calling me one of the best defensive players since Briarcrest Academy opened its esteemed doors. So yeah, with football and a stellar GPA, my future seemed good...
  • Kiss a Stranger by R.J. Lewis

    Kiss a Stranger by R.J. Lewis

    Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
    · 19 ratings
    I loved him. I loathed him. I knew he had secrets. I knew he had darkness in him. And yet I took all of him. Accepted all his ugly the way he embraced all of mine. But sometimes loving someone isn't enough. Sometimes it breaks you apart and moulds you into somebody else entirely. And sometimes the person you loved the most can be the one to hurt you worst of all...
  • Be My December by Rachel Brookes

    Be My December by Rachel Brookes

    Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    I knew the exact moment I’d become a ‘yes’ girl. December 16th, a cold winter’s night, four years ago. The night my innocence was stolen, the night I made the mistake of saying no—a mistake I’d never make again. The dream of a ‘happily ever after' was now a locked away myth...
  • Crimson by Sophie Lark

    Crimson by Sophie Lark

    Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    Enemies From Birth…The Markovs and the Lebedevs have been bloody rivals for generations.Nadia Lebedev is the ultimate forbidden fruit: a mafia princess engaged to another man.From the moment I see her, I want her for myself.Every day that passes, I become more obsessed with her...
  • Take Care, Sara by Lindy Zart

    Take Care, Sara by Lindy Zart

    Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    You breathe in, you breathe out, and everything you know is gone. Sara Walker knows firsthand what it feels like to have your reality ripped away, scrambled, and shoved back at you in an undone puzzle where pieces are missing and nothing fits. She's lost so much and is struggling to live and to find the strength to forgive herself for being human...
  • Until You by K. Bromberg

    Until You by K. Bromberg

    Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 26 ratings
    A single dad, forced proximity, standalone romance from New York Times bestselling author K. Bromberg. Crew Madden needs to find a place to recover. For his twin girls. For himself. From the woman who left them without a backward glance. Recovering from a traumatic event, a summer in the small town of Redemption Falls was the perfect solution for him. For his family...
  • Nearly Broken by Devon Ashley

    Nearly Broken by Devon Ashley

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    We’d both gone missing at one point, but Claire had one thing I didn’t. Someone to notice. So why was I the one still here and she the one still gone? Nineteen year old Megan Smith has spent the past year working in a small town diner in the middle of nowhere. Life is quiet, simple, safe . Then comes the news that her look-a-like has gone missing. Claire...
  • Lost in the Affair by E.K. Blair

    Lost in the Affair by E.K. Blair

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 15 ratings
    *An intoxicatingly risque stand-alone book. She's an author. She's a mother. She's a wife. She's a liar, a woman marked and bound by her own deceit. This is the astounding tale of how one woman battled through a year of scandals and betrayals, how her world fell from its axis with a single choice, and how she lost herself between reality and fantasy...
  • Bloody Princess: A Dark Enemies to Lovers College Romance by Helen Scott, Zoey Shelby

    Bloody Princess: A Dark Enemies to Lovers College Romance by Helen Scott, Zoey Shelby

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    My sister’s death was ruled an accident, but it was all a lie...They’re the kings of Welhurst University, heirs to the most powerful, corrupt, and ruthless families in Ascendence Bay. Each of them is stunningly gorgeous, rich, and talented.Nobody is that perfect. All of them hide dark, dangerous secrets. And I’m going to expose them. I’m going to make everyone see exactly who they are.Murderers...
  • Because of Him by Terri E. Laine

    Because of Him by Terri E. Laine

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    From USA Today bestselling author, Terri E. Laine, comes a new standalone contemporary romance novel A love story born out of chaos. Where light and dark both meet. Every story demands to be told. This is mine. I crave normal with a fierce passion that makes absolutely no sense. The sheltered life I've lived doesn't even begin to cover it. Fear was taught. Fear was learned...
    Categorized as:
    new adult  college  suspense  dark  abuse  contemporary  sports  angst
  • Music Lights & Never Afters by C.L. Matthews

    Music Lights & Never Afters by C.L. Matthews

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    THIS IS A STANDALONE ROCKSTAR NOVEL.Some blades cut deeper than others.When I was younger, that saying never made sense. I was the child of a famous musician living my best life, learning talents of my own, and making the world my stage.I had it all, until that very first cut.Losing my parents was only a nick in the dumpster fire that became my life...
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