Books like 'Happy Ever After'

Readers who enjoyed Happy Ever After by Matt Shaw also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  horror  psychological  dark  splatterpunk  steamy  existentialism  hell  madness  thriller 

  • An Evil Mind by Chris Carter

    An Evil Mind by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    A freak accident in rural Wyoming leads the Sheriff's Department to arrest a man for a possible double homicide, but further investigations suggest a much more horrifying discovery - a serial killer who has been kidnapping, torturing and mutilating victims all over the United States for at least twenty-five years...
  • Hunting Evil by Chris Carter

    Hunting Evil by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    'Every story one day comes to an end.' As roommates, they met for the first time in college. Two of the brightest minds ever to graduate from Stamford Psychology University. As adversaries, they met again in Quantico, Virginia. Robert Hunter had become the head of the LAPD’s Ultra Violent Crimes Unit...
  • The Night Stalker by Chris Carter

    The Night Stalker by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    When an unidentified female body is discovered laid out on a slab in an abandoned butcher's shop, the cause of death is unclear. Her body bears no marks, except for the fact that her lips have been stitched shut...
    Categorized as:
    dark  thriller  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary  crime  fiction
  • I Am Death by Chris Carter

    I Am Death by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    AN EVIL MIND was Chris Carters's most acclaimed novel to date, described by the Daily mail as: 'A chilling, compulsive portrait of a psychopath, and proves that Carter is now in the Jeffrey Deaver class.' It spent three weeks in the Sunday Timestop ten and received brillant reviews and sales. This terrifying new standalone thriller reunites Hunter and Garcia in their most explosive case to date...
    Categorized as:
    dark  thriller  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary  crime  fiction
  • Written in Blood by Chris Carter

    Written in Blood by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    Don't miss GENESIS, the latest must-read serial killer thriller from master of the genre, Chris Carter. Available to order now. ‘Wonderful storytelling, with a superbly drawn killer, it underlines exactly how good Carter has become’ Daily MailTHE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER    A serial killer who will stop at nothing…  The Killer His most valuable possession has been stolen...
  • Never Be Alone by Paige Dearth

    Never Be Alone by Paige Dearth

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    A fatal car crash. A young orphan. Can she survive the harsh life of the seedy city streets?Eight-year-old Joon has no time to grieve her parents’ sudden death. Ripped from the security of a loving family, she endures horrific abuse in a system intended to protect her...
    Categorized as:
    dark  thriller  abuse  adult  book  child-abuse  contemporary  fiction
  • Two Footsteps by Belle Brooks, Karen Harper

    Two Footsteps by Belle Brooks, Karen Harper

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    "My life is in the Wolf's hands." He is the Wolf. I am his Red. The game has begun and he wants me dead. But who is the Wolf? And why has he chosen me? He whistles a tune that's haunting. He glares at me through eyes that are vacant. I feel his heart beating, yet I know he has no soul. He moves like the wind...I can't hear his footsteps. I want this to end. He's playing with my mind...
    Categorized as:
    dark  madness  thriller  abuse  action-adventure  adult  alpha-mc  book
  • Morsel by Audrey Rush

    Morsel by Audrey Rush

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    My violent desires are harmless. My fantasy tends to scare most women away, but my daydreams never hurt anyone. When I find Mona, a mysterious artist with similar sensual needs, we indulge in roleplaying.It seems like I found my dream girl. But while we grow closer, Mona’s desires become more extreme, and my primal cravings become harder to control...
    Categorized as:
    dark  steamy  splatterpunk  romance  horror  cannibalism  crime  abuse
  • Fallen by Karin Slaughter

    Fallen by Karin Slaughter

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    There's no police training stronger than a cop's instinct. Faith Mitchell's mother isn't answering her phone. Her front door is open. There's a bloodstain above the knob. Her infant daughter is hidden in a shed behind the house. All that the Georgia Bureau of Investigations taught Faith Mitchell goes out the window when she charges into her mother's house, gun drawn...
  • Primal Fear by William Diehl

    Primal Fear by William Diehl

    Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    Martin Vail, the brilliant "bad-boy" lawyer every prosecutor and politician love to hate, is defending Aaron Stampler, a man found holding a bloody butcher's knife near a murdered archbishop...
    Categorized as:
    dark  spirituality  thriller  adult  book  contemporary  crime  drama
  • The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean

    The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    A woman being held captive is willing to risk everything to save herself, her unborn child, and her captor’s latest victim in this claustrophobic thriller in the tradition of Misery and Room. On an isolated farm in the United Kingdom, a woman is trapped by the monster who kidnapped her seven years ago...
  • Appetite for Innocence by Lucinda Berry

    Appetite for Innocence by Lucinda Berry

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    Be careful what you post online. Your next check-in might lead him right to you...A serial rapist is kidnapping teenage girls. But he’s not interested in just any teenage girls—only virgins. He hunts them by following their status updates and check-ins on social media. Once he’s captured them, they’re locked away in his sound-proof basement until they’re groomed and ready...
  • I See You by Ker Dukey, D.H. Sidebottom

    I See You by Ker Dukey, D.H. Sidebottom

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    This is a DARK novel, 18 only. Standalone title. I watch you, I see you in ways no one else can, and through my lens I create a life of you for someone to dissect. I capture you in your vulnerability; that smile, your laugh, those tears. I document you and sell your secrets. When I watch you through my lens you’re mine until I pass you to the buyer...
  • A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck, Sergei Burbank

    A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck, Sergei Burbank

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    An ordinary family man, geologist, and Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he'll be reunited with his loved ones after death in an eternal hereafter. Then, he dies. Soren wakes to find himself cast by a God he has never heard of into a Hell whose dimensions he can barely grasp: a vast library he can only escape from by finding the book that contains the story of his life...
  • Seven by Anthony Bruno

    Seven by Anthony Bruno

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Mismatched partner cops Somerset and Mills are on the trail of a psychotic murderer who intends to avenge the seven deadly sins, starting with gluttony...
  • I Will Make You Pay by Teresa Driscoll

    I Will Make You Pay by Teresa Driscoll

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Every Wednesday, like clockwork, the terror returns. It seems like an ordinary Wednesday, until the phone rings. A mysterious caller with a chilling threat. Journalist Alice Henderson hangs up, ready to dismiss it as a hoax against the newspaper. But the next Wednesday, the stalker makes another move—and it becomes clear that this is all about Alice...
  • Wallflower by Chad Lutzke

    Wallflower by Chad Lutzke

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    After an encounter with a homeless man, a high school graduate becomes obsessed with the idea of doing heroin, challenging himself to try it just once. A bleak tale of addiction, delusion, and flowers."Bleak as hell and honestly horrific."~John Boden, author of JEDI SUMMER"Using his strong narrative, he (Lutzke) conveys the everyday realistic horror and pulls the reader right into the ugliness...
  • The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

    The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective.Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying… yet enticing...
    Categorized as:
    dark  thriller  horror  fiction  contemporary  mystery  feminism  crime
  • Wicked Little Words by Stevie J. Cole, B.T. Urruela

    Wicked Little Words by Stevie J. Cole, B.T. Urruela

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Edwin Allen Mercer I want them all to read my words. And they do. Every last blood-stained sentence, they've read and praised me for. They love the gore and violence, the realness. And I get a sense of power with it all because I know a secret: the victims in my books—they’re real and have all died on my table. And maybe that’s why the last book had such awful reviews...
    Categorized as:
    dark  steamy  thriller  adult  book  contemporary  crime  fiction
  • All of Us Are Broken by Fiona Cummins

    All of Us Are Broken by Fiona Cummins

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    It’s been a long time since the Hardwicke family has been on holiday. But thirteen-year-old Galen has wanted to see the wild dolphins at Scotland’s Chanonry Point for as long as she can remember, and her mother Christine – a lone parent since her beloved husband left – is determined she gets her wish. But their serene trip is about to be interrupted...
    Categorized as:
    thriller  dark  crime  mystery  suspense  fiction  audiobook  family
  • One of Our Own by Lucinda Berry, A.J. Cook

    One of Our Own by Lucinda Berry, A.J. Cook

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    A suicide prevention hotline volunteer answers a call that turns her world upside down in this edge-of-your-seat audio original thriller by the bestselling author of The Perfect Child and The Best of Friends, performed by A.J. Cook (Criminal Minds) and Tessa Albertson (Younger)...
  • Faithless by Karin Slaughter

    Faithless by Karin Slaughter

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    The victim was buried alive in the Georgia woods–then killed in a horrifying fashion. When Sara Linton and Jeffrey Tolliver stumble upon the body, both become consumed with finding out who killed the pretty young woman. For them, a harrowing journey begins, one that will test their own turbulent relationship and draw dozens of life into the case...
  • Gwendolyn vs. the Band of Barren Hearts by Mary E. Palmerin

    Gwendolyn vs. the Band of Barren Hearts by Mary E. Palmerin

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Monsters. They don't hide in your nightmares. They steal you away from the good life and prevent you from living your dreams. That's where 17-year-old Gwendolyn Fitzpatrick found herself; surrounded by wicked fiends after everything she thought she had was gone in the blink of an eye...
    Categorized as:
    dark  steamy  abuse  adult  book  child-abuse  contemporary  fiction
  • One Fear by Belle Brooks

    One Fear by Belle Brooks

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    “My one fear is now my reality.” He didn’t offer his name when he fulfilled his need to include me as a player in his game. I’m number thirteen. Just a number given to the bitches who wronged him. I was blindsided. Stolen from my life. In his devilled eyes, I have a debt to pay…he wants my final breath to see us even...
  • A Child for the Devil by Conrad Jones

    A Child for the Devil by Conrad Jones

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    A Child for the Devil is a full length dark thriller based on the novella 'Nine Angels'. When the author Conrad Jones was asked to help the police with the investigation into a double murder by identifying occult symbols, which had been carved into the victims, he is plunged into a nightmare and forced to go on the run...
  • My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon

    My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    A spine-tingling psychological thriller about a woman who, after taking in her dying, alcoholic mother, begins to suspect demonic possession is haunting her family.Alison has never been a fan of Christmas. But with it right around the corner and her husband busily decorating their cozy Vermont home, she has no choice but to face it. Then she gets the call...
  • The Pale White by Chad Lutzke

    The Pale White by Chad Lutzke

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    After being held against their will in a house used for trafficking, three girls plan their escape.Alex: A hardened goth-punk who’s convinced she’s a vampire with a penchant for blood.Stacia: A seventeen-year-old raised by an alcoholic mother, her fellow captives the only family she’s ever truly had.Kammie: The youngest of the three—a mute who finds solace in a houseplant...
  • Vicious by Kevin O'Brien

    Vicious by Kevin O'Brien

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    NO MOTIVE For more than two years, he held Seattle in a terror grip. A cold-blooded killer who abducted young mothers right in front of their sons and murdered them execution style. Then, as suddenly as the killings began, they seemed to stop.NO MERCY Susan Blanchette is looking forward to a relaxing weekend getaway with her fianc�, Allen, and young son, Matthew...
    Categorized as:
    dark  thriller  adult  book  contemporary  crime  espionage  family
  • Mirrors by Ted Dekker

    Mirrors by Ted Dekker

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    The journey that began with IDENTITY, Book One of Eyes Wide Open, continues with the second episodic book, Mirrors.Who am I? My name is Christy Snow. I'm seventeen and I'm about to die. I'm buried in a coffin under tons of concrete. No one knows where I am. My heart sounds like a monster with clobber feet, running straight toward me...
  • All the Pretty Faces by Rita Herron

    All the Pretty Faces by Rita Herron

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Josie DuKane is on shaky ground. Having narrowly escaped the notorious Bride Killer, she penned a tell-all memoir that dug up a town’s dark past. Now the book is being made into a movie, and Josie must visit the very place that will trigger an avalanche of unwanted memories—Graveyard Falls...
    Categorized as:
    dark  thriller  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary  crime  female-mc
  • The Girls He Adored by Jonathan Nasaw

    The Girls He Adored by Jonathan Nasaw

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    For ten years, the charmingly disheveled veteran FBI Special Agent E.L. Pender has been investigating the apparently random disappearances of a dozen women across the country. The only detail the cases have in common is the strawberry blond color of the victims' hair, and the presence of a mystery man with whom they were last seen...
    Categorized as:
    dark  thriller  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary  crime  fiction
  • Either Side of Midnight by Tori de Clare

    Either Side of Midnight by Tori de Clare

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    WHAT IF THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE TURNED INTO YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE? When nineteen-year-old Naomi Stone is snatched from her husband at knifepoint on the night of their wedding and taken to a deserted cemetery, she knows her life is finished. Drugged and disorientated, she loses consciousness as she lies in an open grave with a gun to her head...
  • If You Dare by A.R. Torre, Alessandra Torre

    If You Dare by A.R. Torre, Alessandra Torre

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    Equal parts Dexter and 50 Shades, this is the eagerly awaited new novel from A. R. Torre, author of the award winning erotic thriller, The Girl in 6E. The rules are the same. I can't open the door. I can't leave. I can't kill anyone. The only difference is, I don't set the rules anymore. Guards in grey uniforms do. It is everything I never wanted and everything I always deserved...
  • Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan

    Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    This harrowing mystery, winner of the Philippine National Book Award, follows two Catholic priests on the hunt through Manila for a brutal serial killerPayatas, a 50-acre dump northeast of Manila’s Quezon City, is home to thousands of people who live off of what they can scavenge there...
  • Intercepts by T.J. Payne

    Intercepts by T.J. Payne

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Joe works at a facility that performs human experimentation.His work just followed him home. The government wanted to unlock hidden abilities in the human mind.They put subjects in extreme sensory deprivation.All the test subjects went violently insane.But the research continued.Today it has been perfected.Almost perfected...
  • My Perfect Daughter by Sarah A. Denzil

    My Perfect Daughter by Sarah A. Denzil

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Most mothers hope their little girl turns out like their dad, but not Zoe. She hopes the apple falls far from the tree.Zoe didn't meet her daughter the way most mothers do. She finds five-year-old Maddie alone and dirty on a countryside road. Frightened for Maddie's safety, she picks her up and takes her back to her father, not knowing what she's about to step into...
  • People Like Them by Minka Kent

    People Like Them by Minka Kent

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Nobody’s perfect—although one beautiful couple certainly comes close. Discover the cracks beneath the polished surface in this unsettling short story from bestselling author Minka Kent.Veronica and Ryan Hartley are the envy of Auburn Drive. When the exclusive neighborhood hosts its annual progressive dinner party, the couple’s perfection is on display...
  • Thr3e by Ted Dekker, Rob Lamont

    Thr3e by Ted Dekker, Rob Lamont

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 42 ratings
    The nightmare has just begun... your world has changed forever. “Evil is beyond the reach of no man.” “But can a man remove himself beyond the reach of evil?” Kevin asked. “Indeed,” Dr. Francis said. “Can man step beyond evil’s reach? I think not. Not in this lifetime.” “Then all men are condemned to a life of evil,” Kevin said. “A lifetime struggle with evil, not a life of evil,” Dr...
  • Double Cross by James Patterson

    Double Cross by James Patterson

    Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    Just when Alex thought his life was calming down into a routine of patients and therapy sessions, he finds himself back in the game--this time to catch a criminal mastermind like no other. A spate of elaborate murders in Washington D.C. have the whole East Coast on edge. They are like nothing Alex Cross and his new girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, have ever seen...
  • Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo

    Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    Some secrets are too terrible to reveal . . .Some crimes are too unspeakable to solve . . . In the sleepy rural town of Painters Mill, Ohio, the Amish and "English" residents have lived side by side for two centuries. But sixteen years ago, a series of brutal murders shattered the peaceful farming community...
  • Trapped by Greg Iles

    Trapped by Greg Iles

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    24 HOURS --- that's how long it takes a madman to pull off the perfect crime. He's done it before, he'll do it again, and no one can stop him.But this time, he's just picked the wrong family to terrorize. Because Will and Karen Jennings aren't going to watch helplessly as he victimizes them. And they aren't going to let him get away with it...
  • PSYCHO NYMPH EXILE by Porpentine Charity Heartscape

    PSYCHO NYMPH EXILE by Porpentine Charity Heartscape

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    gurowave novella about a disgraced biomech pilot and her girlfriend, an ex-magical...
    Categorized as:
    splatterpunk  steamy  dark  romance  lgbtq  fiction  sci-fi  trans-mc
  • Do Not Disturb by A.R. Torre, Alessandra Torre

    Do Not Disturb by A.R. Torre, Alessandra Torre

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 19 ratings
    Equal parts Dexter and 50 Shades, this is the eagerly awaited follow-up to the daring erotic thriller, The Girl in 6E, by A.R. Torre.1. Don't leave the apartment.2. Never let anyone in.3. Don't kill anyone.The rules were simple and I broke them.Now I must face the consequences.Everyone else must face me...
    Categorized as:
    dark  steamy  thriller  abuse  adult  alpha-mc  angst  audiobook
  • The Line Between by Tosca Lee

    The Line Between by Tosca Lee

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    An extinct disease re-emerges from the melting Alaskan permafrost to cause madness in its victims. For recent apocalyptic cult escapee Wynter Roth, it’s the end she’d always been told was coming...
  • The Intruders by Louise Jensen

    The Intruders by Louise Jensen

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    It should be the perfect a manor house available rent free in exchange for a bit of housesitting. But when Cass and James dig deeper, they find the place has been abandoned since a robbery left almost all the inhabitants dead almost thirty years ago. But they’ve got to save for a deposit somehow, so they move in, and things quickly take a strange turn...
    Categorized as:
    thriller  dark  horror  mystery  audiobook  crime  fiction  suspense
  • Pressure by Jeff Strand

    Pressure by Jeff Strand

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Alex stared at the red pocketknife shown to him by his daughter. A pocketknife owned by somebody he hadn't seen in years …CHILDRENThey met first in boarding school at age twelve. Alex Fletcher, shy and scared. Darren Rust, always furiously scribbling away in a private journal...
  • Down in the Zero by Andrew Vachss

    Down in the Zero by Andrew Vachss

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Andrew Vachss has reinvented detective fiction for an age in which guilty secrets are obsolete and murder isn't even worth a news headline. And in the person of his haunted, hell-ridden private eye Burke, Vachss has given us a new kind of hero: a man inured to every evil except the kind that preys on children...
  • Full Brutal by Kristopher Triana

    Full Brutal by Kristopher Triana

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Kim White is a very popular cheerleader. She’s pretty, healthy, and comes from a well-off family. She has everything a girl of sixteen is supposed to want. And she’s sick to death of it. In search of something to pull her out of suicidal thoughts, she decides to lose her virginity, having heard it’s a life-changing event. But Kim doesn’t want to do it the same way the other girls do...
  • Jasmine by Jennifer Bene, Shane Starrett

    Jasmine by Jennifer Bene, Shane Starrett

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    I am his obsession. His property. His Jasmine.And he will never let me go. Trapped in the middle of nowhere, taken by a madman, I'm forced to be his wife. Obedient, meek, righteous in the eyes of God.But I am none of these things, and I can't give in. No matter what he does to me, no matter how much he hurts me, I have to get out of here.I have to escape... before I forget who I was before him...
    Categorized as:
    dark  steamy  abuse  adult  book  captivity  contemporary  crime
  • Guide by Dennis Cooper

    Guide by Dennis Cooper

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Chris is a young porn star who wants to experience death at someone else's hand; Mason has lurid fantasies about members of British pop bands; Sniffles is a teenage runaway whose need for love outweighs his attachment to life...
    Categorized as:
    dark  spirituality  steamy  adult  book  contemporary  cults  death
Fantastic book recommendations by book lovers for book lovers.
Find out more about thebooknaut.com.



Looking for more inspiration? Enter another book title to get more suggestions on what to read next.


Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.