They say love is complicated. It can cloud your judgment, distort reality, and even change your priorities. In the literary world, when characters trust the wrong person, love may cost them more than they ever imagined.
From flings going awry to unwanted past lovers coming back into the picture, here are five thriller books that show the dark side of love.
You Shouldn’t Have Come Here by Jeneva Rose
Searching for a reprieve from her fast-paced lifestyle, New Yorker Grace Evans books an Airbnb on an isolated ranch in the middle of Wyoming. She arrives to find the owner is Calvin Wells, a handsome man who seems friendly and accommodating. The more time they spend together, the more Grace grows wary of Calvin’s inner circle, but they start to fall for each other anyway. As she prepares to leave, Calvin suspects Grace is hiding something, and Grace worries Calvin’s feelings for her are morphing into obsession.
Matchmaking for Psychopaths by Tasha Coryell
Lexie has made a career of pairing up psychopathic singles, providing her with the balanced life she used to crave growing up. But when her boyfriend and best friend get together on her birthday, Lexie is thrown for a loop. Devastated and lonely, she strikes up an unexpected friendship with a client named Rebecca. The new bond feels like a much-needed lifeline until Lexie’s ex and others around her start winding up dead, prompting her to question Rebecca’s presence in her life.
Ask for Andrea by Noelle W. Ihli
Meghan, Brecia, and Skye were all murdered by the same man, a serial killer who met and targeted his victims online. His charm was a mask that hid the truth of his first dates ending in buried bodies. The women he murdered might be dead now, but as ghosts they’re teaming up to stop him from killing again.
Too Good to Be True by Carola Lovering
Skye Starling couldn’t be happier that her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, has proposed after a whirlwind romance. But Burke, a handsome, older, and married man, isn’t who he says he is, and his motives for wanting Skye are anything but innocent. Thirty years earlier, a teenager named Heather was determined to break up with Burke, a local bad boy. In the present, Skye dives into wedding planning while Burke’s devious plans intensify, and the truth becomes more convoluted than ever.
Till Death by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Sasha Keaton is returning to her hometown ten years after escaping a serial killer known as the Groom. She wants to help run her family inn, but her efforts at being whole are thwarted when women start to go missing again. FBI agent Cole Landis has never forgiven himself for not being there for Sasha all those years ago, and he wants more than anything to make up for it. Calling cards are left for the Groom’s only survivor, and it’s only a matter of time before the person responsible comes out of the shadows.
Looks can be deceiving, and often words are too. Love is one strong drug, and it can be as terrifying as it is exciting. Using those very ideas, these books generate incredible tension and angst as romantic relationships are revealed to be more complicated than you’d ever believe.
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Find these books and more on our Heart Racingly Good Thrillers and Mysteries booklist on Bookshop.org!
