Recommendations based on "Betting on Fate"

A love so forbidden, it would shake the heavens ...My father called them messengers.He once told me they walked among us, and that somewhere in this dark and godless city, there shined a faint sliver of hope. I had only to look for the signs.Well, I've spent my whole life investigating the inexplicable, and all I've found are the unsettling vestiges of iniquity - the evidence of another world shrouded by the obscure. Purgatory to some, where depravity hides in shadows, and girls like me are little more than delicious bites of temptation.Others call it Nightshade.This peculiar place is where I first met the cold and callous recluse living in a decaying cliffside cathedral. Jericho Van Croix is the epitome of everything I've been told to fear. A raven-winged harbinger who wears intrigue like a warm black cloak. An enigma that I'm determined to unravel - even if it means getting closer than I should.One touch is forbidden. Even so much as a kiss would be my demise. But the sin on his lips burns me up like a wild flame, and his growing infatuation weakens my resolve.Giving him what he wants, though, will mean no chance for redemption, or escape. What's worse is, the signs I've followed yet failed to see all these years begin to unmask a terrifying reality:That falling may be my only saving grace.

SloaneI'm not proud of the things I've done.The things I've had to do.The things I've given away.but I'd give it all over again to find her.Even if i die trying, I have to find Alexis.ZethShe wants me to help her,But I won't.She wants me to save her sister, But I can't. She wants me to be her hero, But I'm not a good man.I am her damnation.

#1 New York Times bestselling author J. R. Ward explores what really happens when good and evil toy with humanity in her new novel of the Fallen Angels....When Cait Douglass resolves to get over her broken heart and lose her inhibitions, she’s unprepared for the two sensual men who cross her path. Torn between them, she doesn’t know which to choose—or what kind of dire consequences could follow.Jim Heron, fallen angel and reluctant savior, is ahead in the war, but he puts everything at risk when he seeks to make a deal with the devil—literally. As yet another soul is unwittingly caught in the battle between him and the demon Devina, his fixation on an innocent trapped in Hell threatens to sidetrack him from his sacred duty....Can good still prevail if true love makes a savior weak? And will a woman’s future be the key, or the curse, for all of humanity? Only time, and hearts, will tell.

Fourth Wing meets The Hunger Games in this spicy, page-turning romantasy where humans and direwolves forge unbreakable bonds and fight for survival at all costs. Only the worthy survive the Bonding Trials. She'll risk her life--and her heart--to be one of them. Meryn Cooper has always hated the Bonded, elite warriors who form mental links with the massive, vicious direwolves they ride. While they live in luxury, Meryn struggles to keep her family out of poverty. When her little sister, Saela, is kidnapped--stolen across the border by the immortal monsters her country has spent centuries fighting--Meryn's world falls apart. Desperate to cross the front and save her sister, Meryn enlists in the army and is thrown into the deadly Bonding Trials, where any mistake will cost her life. Now Meryn must survive four months of training at the castle. She is bound to a feral direwolf who refuses to communicate. The other trainees would love to spill her common blood. And her cold and beautiful instructor, Stark Therion, is eager to punish any weakness. Everything is a competition, and everyone is out to get her--everyone except the dangerously handsome crown prince, whose attention adds another target to her back. In the castle, every smile hides a knife...and the halls hide dark secrets. It's bond or bleed. Duel or die. Failure is ruin. Dire Bound contains mature content including depictions of graphic violence, and is therefore recommended for readers 17+. For a full list of tropes and TWs, please visit the author's website. Readers are already falling in love with Direbound: "ONE OF THE BEST READS OF THE YEAR! This book was insanely good." Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Stop it right now... I'm actually quite feral for the next book..." Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "The plot was THICK, the tension and banter? Flawless. And the world with the wolf bond, and trials NEED MORE NOW." Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "I just finished and still trying to mentally and emotionally recover to what just happened to me. You need to read it IMMEDIATELY." Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "If you're into dark romantasy with high stakes, fierce characters, and just the right amount of emotional wreckage, Direbound is your next obsession." Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "What an incredible read!! ... I am blown away. ... The romance, the anguish, the BANTER! I love a book with good banter and this was FULL OF IT!" Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "I. Am. OBSESSED. ... Left me spiraling in the best way possible. The morally grey anti-hero? Perfection. The slow-burn tension? Electric. ... I was completely immersed." Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Perfect for fans of: Slow burn romance Found family Morally grey characters One bed Touch her and die Who did this to you Enemies to lovers Forced proximity Vampires vs. wolves!

When I signed myself away in marriage, I should have read the fine print. Ink fades—blood binds.I'm a prisoner, trapped behind gilded gates, my freedom traded for safety. Magic pulses beneath my skin, wild and forbidden. In our world of ruling Houses, wielding such power means death. One slip, one spark—everyone I love dies.As a princess of the Great House, I should have been untouchable. But in a cruel twist of fate, a ruthless family of enforcers claims the right to choose any bride. Now I'm to marry the infuriating Graysen Crowther. Our loathing is legendary, but with only a wall between us each night, hatred burns into something far more treacherous. One touch and I might lose something far worse than my life—my traitorous heart.As my control fractures and betrayal tightens its noose, my only chance at survival lies in escaping to seek the monster who holds the truth about my magic. Yet when a bargained kiss unleashes an unbreakable bond, dark suspicion whispers through my bones that I’m caught in a blood-soaked web.For in this deadly game of power, where trust is a luxury I can't afford, Graysen moves like someone who's been playing long before I knew there was a game.And his secret might prove more lethal than any forbidden magic.BOUND IN INKED FLAME is the first book in the OF CROWS AND THORNS SAGA, an epic dark romantasy. Perfect for readers who crave plot-heavy, character-driven sagas drenched in atmosphere and rich world-building—where dark mysteries unravel alongside a slow-burn romance and heart-wrenching choices that threaten to destroy everything. Please note this book ends on a cliffhanger. For content warnings, please check the author’s website.

Vanda Barkowski is in trouble. As the owner of a hot nightclub, she's more unconventional than most of her fellow vampires, and if some think her a little out of control, then so be it. But after three former employees filed a complaint about her temper, Vanda is sentenced to an anger management class. Worse, Phil Jones agreed to be her sponsor. Phil, the mortal who is forbidden to her . . . If Vanda knew who—or what—Phil really is, she'd reconsider her attraction to him, for his true nature is wilder than anything she'd ever imagined. He has tackled the beast within and now is the perfect person to help Vanda with her rage . . . if only he can keep his cool when she makes him so undeniably hot. But with rogue vamps on the loose, will they ever have their forbidden nights?

Dragon warrior Venom lives in self-imposed isolation. Cursed by his toxic touch, he is deadly to anyone who has contact with him for too long. Set apart from others and hounded by intense loneliness, he craves the lasting connection he believes he cannot possess. Until a chance encounter with a sultry mortal offers a ray of hope...Evelyn Foxe is the woman of Venom's every desire, but she's too busy running from the Russian mob to think about love. As she accepts Venom's offer to help her escape her precarious situation, she's skeptical, afraid that he's in league with those sent to harm her. But when a biological weapon is unleashed in her hometown, Evelyn is forced to trust Venom--or risk the dangers of going it alone.Will they survive the firestorm that rages around them? And can they pull from the ashes a love that will defy all the odds and last through the ages?

A fate worse than death . . . Bastien Cabarro survived the brutal slaughter of his entire family only to have his wife pin their murders on him. Made Ravin by The League, he is now a target for their assassins-in-training to hunt and kill. The average life expectancy for such beings is six weeks. But defying the odds is what this Gyron Force officer does best, and Bastien won’t rest until he lays his betrayers in their graves. Ten years later, he has one chance to balance the scales of justice, provided he relies on his former wingman— the very sister of the woman who testified against him. Major Ember Wyldestarrin joined the outlaw Tavali the day Kirovar fell into the hands of a tyrant, and she and her sister-team were left on an outpost to die under the barrage of enemy fire. The last thing she wants is to be involved in politics again. But the one thing she wants more than anything is revenge on the tyrant who murdered her parents and forced her and her sisters into exile. Carrying a secret she knows Bastien will annihilate her over, she must find some way to trust her former wingman before he catches on and kills her. Even so, treachery doesn’t come easy to a woman who took a loyalty oath to protect her homeworld and comrades-in-arms, especially when Bastien is much more to her than just a former wingman. Yet as she tries to do right for her family, she learns that Bastien doesn’t just hold the key to the fate of Kirovar, he is vital to The Sentella-League war, and to The Tavali. If she doesn’t ensure he survives this mission, three nations fall, and time for all of them is quickly running out.

"Kiss me.""It'd hurt.""It hurts when you don't kiss me."Theo Fairgood is still the golden boy, even if he doesn't have a heartbeat these days.Kade Renfield is still trouble, even if he's too busy getting his blood sucked to cause much havoc.It's a new year, and things are looking up. The boys are on track to solve the mystery of Theo's transformation and the strange link tying them together. What's more, they've grown reluctantly fond of each other since the horrifying events of last year, and they're getting worse at hiding it. For the first time in their lives, they have somebody they can truly be themselves around. The walls both boys built around themselves are crumbling down.Then tragedy strikes. Theo's walls fly right back up, more determined than ever to uncover his sire and take him down once and for all. But to figure out who his sire is, they'll have to decide who they can trust. Enemies lurk in the shadows. Old friends lend a hand or hack it off at the wrist.In the midst of this new chaos, Kade finds himself plagued by visions of the last people locked into this burning ritual. It's a strangely familiar story, and it doesn't have a happy ending.It wasn't an accident that Theo was turned into a vampire. It's not a coincidence that his touch burns Kade. This story started a long time ago, and the next chapter might destroy them both...

New York Times bestselling sensation Gena Showalter enthralls with a dark, tantalizing world of humans, otherworlders, powers beyond imagining, and a seductive vampire undone by his insatiable hunger for one woman.Growing up poor on New Chicago’s meanest streets, Ava Sans had two options: be the predator or be the prey. No contest. Now, working for Alien Investigation and Removal, she’s been ordered to capture the biggest, baddest warrior of all—a vampire too beautiful to be real, with the abilityto manipulate time. Once the leader of the entire vampire army, McKell has been deemed savage and unstable, spurned even by his own kind. To McKell, humans should be nothing more than sustenance. Yet the petite, golden-skinned Ava is a fascinating contradiction—vicious yet witty, strong yet vulnerable, lethal but fiercely loyal. Against his better judgment, McKell craves that loyalty, and much more. When the chase leads to seduction, McKell and Ava will race to discover the truth about his past. But the answers will come at a price, even for a woman who thought she had nothing left to lose...