Recommendations based on "Vicious Villains"

He Never Wanted To Be A Beast... As A Boy, Abyssian 'sian' Infernas Had His Heart Shattered By A Treacherous Fey Beauty Who Died Before He Could Exact Vengeance. Millennia Later, A Curse Has Amplified His Hell-demon Blood, Transforming Him Into An Unrecognizable Monster – Just As She's Been Reincarnated. Sian Fantasizes About Seducing And Spurning Her, But He Can Retain His Former Appearance For Only One Hour A Day. She Never Wanted To Be A Beauty... When A Beastly Demon King Abducts Her, Fey Princess Liliana ‘lili’ Barbot Goes From One Prison To Another. The Beast Vows Revenge For Betrayals She Can't Remember And Punishes Her With Gruelling Labour Within His Mystical Castle. Her Only Solace Is Spending Time With A Fellow Prisoner Bael, A Devastatingly Gorgeous Male Who Is Allowed To See Her For Only One Hour A Day. Can They Break The Spell Before It's Too Late...? In The Guise Of ‘bael’, Sian Toys With Lili's Heart And Body. Yet As She Falls Deeper Under His Spell, Lili Can't Help But Respond To The Beast's Vulnerability And Pain, And Her Sympathy Develops Into Something More. When Truths From A Far Distant Past Are Revealed And Identities Discovered, Can Their Tenuous Bond Withstand Ages Of Deceit – And A Looming Supernatural War?

Leader. Soldier. Pawn. Militess Halina has claimed numerous victories for her king and country. Now she's under siege inside her own castle, held by enemies determined to start a war and condemn her lover as both a king-killer and a child-slayer. Necromancer. Healer. Protector. Sun Mage Gethen commands life and death, but even such power may not be enough to free his beloved militess or defeat a resurrected evil that feeds on the kingdom's most innocent victims. Separate they're vulnerable. Together they might stand a chance. In a battle for souls and survival, a warrior fights for the kingdom she serves and the man she loves, even as her beloved mage must triumph over an undying malice to save the woman he adores and the legacies of two nations. ***** The Militess & Mage novels combine the sword & sorcery elements of epic fantasy with paranormal elements and wrap them around a romance. They also include a powerful heroine who makes no apologies for being a woman and a warrior, who uses her body and her mind, and who will never be confused for a damsel in distress.

From the author of The Phoenix Keeper comes an era-defining new fantasy universe where spicy romantasy meets the Cosmere, unmissable for fans of the world-building scale of Sarah J. Maas and the world-shifting stakes of Rebecca Yarros. Voidwalker will be your next romantasy obsession, a deliciously feral story that starts with just two words: "bite me." Fionamara is a smuggler. Antal is the reason her people fear the dark. Fi ferries contraband between worlds, stockpiling funds and stolen magic to keep her village self-sufficient - free from the blood sacrifices humans have paid to Antal's immortal species for centuries. Only legends whispered through the pine forests recall a time when things were different, before one world shattered into many, and the flesh-devouring beasts crept from the cracks between realities, with their sable antlers and slender tails, lethal claws and gleaming fangs. Now, mortal lives are food to pacify their carnivorous overlords, exchanged for feudal protection, and the precious silver energy that fuels everything from transport to weaponry. When Fi gets planted with a stash of smuggled energy, a long-lost flame recruits her for a reckless heist that escalates into a terrorist bombing - and a coup against the reigning immortals, with Fi's home caught in the crossfire. She's always known the dangers of her trade - and of the power she's wielded since childhood, allowing her to see the secret doors between dimensions, to walk the Void itself. But nothing could have prepared her for crossing paths with Antal. For the deal she'll have to make with him, a forced partnership to reclaim his city that begins as a desperate bid for survival, only to grow into something far more dangerous. A revolution. And a temptation - for how sweet the monster's fangs might feel.

"My name is Kara Gillian and I'm a homicide detective... But that's not all. I sense the 'arcane' in our world, and there's quite a bit of it, even in Beaulac, Louisiana. I'm also a summoner of demons, which comes in handy now that I work on a task force that deals with supernatural or paranormal crimes. My partners, Ryan and Zack, are attractive and smart FBI agents, but they're not summoners, which sometimes makes it tough for them to understand what I'm dealing with. To complicate things even more, I managed to get myself into a 'situation' with one of the most powerful of demons--Demon Lord Rhyzkahl--who, in exchange for saving Ryan's life, struck a bargain with me that definitely works better for him. It doesn't help that this beautiful Demon Lord finds me attractive--something Ryan doesn't appreciate. And I know Rhyzkahl has something on Ryan, but so far, I can't find out what. Meanwhile, I'm trying to solve a string of murders that are somehow tied together by money, sex, rock music and...mud. But how can I concentrate on the case when I'm not sure who--or what--my partners are?"--P. [4] of cover.

 A mage out of her element   After five hundred years as a magic teacher, Selia thought she’d seen everything. But nothing prepared her for the chaos of her assignment at Braelyn. Assassins, rogue princes, and a grown, half-human student—all had caught her off guard. Now, things have settled down, and her life has begun to take on a sense of normalcy. Until her seemingly dead husband reappears astride a dragon with a dire warning about Earth.   An adventurer far from home   For seven years, Aris was held captive on the isle of dragons, hidden so well that only his captor knew of his presence. But when a dragon claims him as her rider and flies him away on an urgent mission, Aris isn’t certain he wants to return home. Tortured and scarred, not even thoughts of his lost family renew his desire for life. Unfortunately, death isn’t on the table—not with danger threatening multiple worlds.   A widening abyss   Life might have settled on Moranaia after Prince Kien’s death, but the rogue prince hasn’t gone to his death as quietly as his people believed. As poison seeps into a crack in Earth’s energy field, a greater catastrophe looms. Now a dragon, a broken adventurer, and an uncertain mage are the only ones who stand in the way of disaster. 

Hailed as "the Anne Rice of the text message generation," Alys Arden's sparkling debut, The Casquette Girls, entranced over a million readers online, and the series has since garnered a cult following around the world."A Southern Gothic love letter." -Publishers Weekly, Starred Review, on The Casquette GirlsThe fourth volume, The Gates of Guinée, picks up where the third book left off with Macalister LeMoyne held hostage by the Ghost Drinkers' coven and Adele willing to risk it all to save her father, even if it means opening a portal to the Voodoo Afterworld to hunt down the spirit of one of the greatest witches who ever lived.A trip to the Afterworld might be the end of the supernatural world.As the Ghost Drinkers seep into the crevices of the Crescent City, leeching the French Quarter of magic, the local witches are consumed with a new fight for survival. Adele has one chance to save everyone she loves, but it will mean breaking away from her coven and trusting a vampire.For the first time in four hundred years, Niccolò Medici feels on the precipice of finding his stolen grimoire. But in order to restore his family's legacy, he'll have to succumb to his darkest desires.New York transplant and first responder Isaac Thompson will stop at nothing to protect Adele, even if he has to give in to his Spektral magic to unearth the truth about Nicco's monstrous past.For those who choose to pass through the Gates of Guinée, the rules of the Afterworld are simple: Don't eat the food. Tell no lies.In a whirl of lucid dreams, fetish markets, and ancestral reunions, only those who bare their souls will survive this ghostly hunt, or else they'll join the land of the dead permanently.Teetering on the razor's edge between everything she desires and utter madness, only her heart and her magic can lead Adele back home... if only Callisto Salazar hadn't stolen her Fire, and the most secretive one of them all hadn't stolen her heart.

The degradation of Queen Clara's sphere continues without apparent end. She must ask for assistance from the neighboring Kingdom of Kentucky to combat the demise of their way of life. However, the alliance isn't as strong without the promise of marriage, which in the past stood to unite the spheres. Tensions run high, the ruination of additional spheres an imminent threat, causing strife and conflict. When Clara is seen as a pawn in a greater scheme and change of leadership, the Travelers interfere in an unforeseen way. When two different groups of Travelers' objectives collide, a cataclysmic event ends in a scenario of unprecedented upheaval and resolution. Can Clara and the Band save the sphere and in so doing the people of the future? Will Clara find the peace and love she deserves?

What else are friends for, but to rescue you from a deranged reincarnated dark Viking shaman serving a lazy lesser Celtic god? Ex-Angel Tyrel Hanson is cursed. He must send all demons back to Hell before he can be with the woman he loves. The mission is enough to drive him to darkness.Elizabeth McAllistar discovers she is magic-blind. A dangerous condition which could end up killing her and her best-friend Madison. Madison Porter is a scientist. When she suddenly discovers she has magic and a past-life with Tyrel her world is thrown into chaos. Her magic might be the only thing that can free Tyrel from his cursed destiny and keep them all alive.

The Master of the Wild HuntIn a single cataclysm of magic shattering a centuries-old bond of servitude, the Unseelie Queen of Forest Park loses her fiercest huntsman. Now Hunter is free to abscond with half her court and the Wild Hunt is his to command. Yet between the Queen's deadly incursions and a mysterious sickness spreading through his followers, Hunter's rebellion is doomed unless he turns to an even deadlier poison—mortal iron, and hands capable of shaping it.The Mistress of Cold IronDove Paisley ekes out a living as a modern-day blacksmith and office cleaner. Accidentally swept up in the Wild Hunt, Dove finds herself prisoner in a plague-stricken fae mound and forced to confront Hunter, the harsh, forbidding King in the East. Dove must drive the hardest bargain of her life: her freedom in exchange for forging the weapons that can turn the tide in a supernatural war.But fae bargains twist on those who make them. The Master of the Hunt may have met his match, and if he isn't careful he'll be bound to a human woman by more than her iron sorcery. Together, the fae hunter and the mortal blacksmith must break the Queen's malevolent enchantments before she binds them all forever in Death's cold hands.Welcome back to Portland, After Dark.

Sometimes evil has to be the hero. Her brother throws the first stone. Her family tries to kill her, but Celaise chooses to live, even if it means leaving humanity behind. She weaves a gown from strands of night and despair. The forbidden magic protects her. It isolates her, and it binds her to a three-headed overlord. Her lord commands Celaise to save lives, on pain of death. She rescues Jerani, a warrior adorned by a sunburst of scars from a tribal ritual. Jerani fights to defend his family and their sacred cows from crystal-eyed monsters roaming the savanna. He learns to rely on Celaise's magic, she on his strength. Jerani thinks her divine, a volcano goddess. Celaise dares not confide in him. Engulfing the throngs of beasts in the inferno of her dress will loose her magic's hunger. Then the greatest threat to Jerani and everyone else she has come to care for will be herself.