New month, new list! In just a few days, on February 4th, The Devil Will Care will be released, and it’s an alien romance, though more paranormal than sci-fi. It takes place at an intergalactic prison with inmates from all corners of the universe.
My first thought was to list my favourite alien romances, but I’ve already done that once. So instead, it’ll be a shorter list of prison romance books. I don’t read a lot of prison romance. I have a few favourites, but I can’t say it’s a genre I seek out. Which makes it a bit interesting that I wrote one 😆
Are you ready? Here we go!
Prisoner 374215 by Angel Martinez
This is a short story, and it’s sooo good. It’s dark and a bit claustrophobic for lack of a better word, but check it out if you haven’t.
The cracks had opened wide one day, let the monsters out, and swallowed every bright thing.
While the cell is sparse and cold, at least this one has a bed. The figure resting there is too thin; too still, the prominent bones the result of long starvation, the stillness the product of too much anguish and abuse. He watches, though. An anxious, intelligent mind still occupies this frail and failing body, one that watches and wonders about the new guard occupying his cell each night.
https://books2read.com/Prisoner374215
Brute by Kim Fielding
A magical fairytale story with giants (the gentle kind) princes, and magic. Well worth the time to invest!
Brute leads a lonely life in a world where magic is commonplace. He is seven and a half feet of ugly, and of disreputable descent. No one, including Brute, expects him to be more than a laborer. But heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and when he is maimed while rescuing a prince, Brute’s life changes abruptly. He is summoned to serve at the palace in Tellomer as a guard for a single prisoner. It sounds easy but turns out to be the challenge of his life.
Rumors say the prisoner, Gray Leynham, is a witch and a traitor. What is certain is that he has spent years in misery: blind, chained, and rendered nearly mute by an extreme stutter. And he dreams of people’s deaths—dreams that come true.
As Brute becomes accustomed to palace life and gets to know Gray, he discovers his own worth, first as a friend and a man and then as a lover. But Brute also learns heroes sometimes face difficult choices and that doing what is right can bring danger of its own.
https://books2read.com/BruteFielding
Protection by S.A. Reid
Ah, one of my all-time favourites! I’ve read this several times, and I think I’ll read it again to honour the list 😊 It comes with trigger warnings and they should be taken seriously.
When Gabriel MacKenna enters Wentworth Prison in 1931, he promises himself two things: never to be buggered and never to turn prison queer. Tough, smart, and ruthless in a fight, he quickly makes a name for himself inside. But Gabriel, saved from the noose by a social crusader, is serving two life sentences. And life is a very long time to endure Wentworth with no comforts but prison food, card games and cigarettes. To survive endless days without the touch of another human being…
Five years after Gabriel’s incarceration, Joey Cooper arrives at Wentworth. Every convict claims imprisonment through a miscarriage of justice, but Joey is truly blameless. Trained at Oxford as a physician, the young doctor is innocent of prison culture and too handsome for his own good. Facing eighteen years behind Wentworth’s towering gates, Joey cannot hope to survive without protection. And protection is just what Gabriel MacKenna offers. At a price…
https://books2read.com/Protection
The Last Rebellion by Lisa Henry
While we’re on a dark theme… This is a freebie you can grab off Lisa Henry’s website, and it’s good, but it’s dark with several trigger warnings.
Rho is a prisoner of war. Miller is the man who intends to break him.
Warnings: contains scenes of violence, torture, and non-consensual m/m sex.
The God Eaters by Jesse Hajicek
I need to reread this. It’s a fantasy adventure, and while I don’t remember everything about it, it’s a story that often pops up in my head.
Imprisoned for ‘inflammatory writings’ by the totalitarian Theocracy, shy intellectual Ashleigh Trine figures his story’s over. But when he meets Kieran Trevarde, a hard-hearted gunslinger with a dark magic lurking in his blood, Ash finds that necessity makes strange heroes… and love can change the world.
https://books2read.com/TheGodEaters
Cold by Brandon Shire
This is similar to S.A. Reid’s Protection, and before I’d read it a zillion times, I mixed the two up 😄 This has its moments too.
Prison is a brutal, heartless, and demeaning environment. No one knows this better than a man sentenced to life in prison for murder. Lem Porter is a high-profile prisoner who had a solid career ahead of him in a field he loved until he killed his brother. He has spent almost eighteen years behind bars and doesn’t have much hope left.
Anderson Passero had it all. He built a career, a name, and a relationship with a man he thought he loved. Only after he very publicly landed in prison did he realize how ignorant he’d been. He has eight months left on his sentence and he is eager to go home and put prison life behind him. He doesn’t know it yet, but he will always carry these eight months with him, and they may just help him to understand what love really means.
https://books2read.com/ColdShire
Mind Fuck by Manna Francis
Dystopic. It’s dark and gritty, political murders and dare I say romance. Yeah, there is romance. I only ever read this first story in the Administration series, and I’ve been a little afraid to get back to it. It has the potential of sucking you in.
There are no bad guys or good guys. There are only better guys and worse guys.
One of the worse guys is Val Toreth. In a world in which torture is a legitimate part of the investigative process, he works for the Investigation and Interrogation Division, where his colleagues can be more dangerous than the criminals he investigates.
One of the better guys is Keir Warrick. His small corporation, SimTech, is developing a “sim” system that places users in a fully immersive virtual reality. A minnow in a murky and dangerous pond, he is only beginning to discover how many compromises may be required for success.
Their home is the dark future dystopia of New London. A totalitarian bureaucracy controls the European Administration, sharing political power with the corporations. The government uses violence and the many divisions of the feared Department of Internal Security to maintain control and crush resistance. The corporations fight among themselves, using lethal force under the euphemism of “corporate sabotage,” uniting only to resist attempts by the Administration to extend its influence over them.
Toreth and Warrick are more natural enemies than allies. But mutual attraction and the fight for survival can create unlikely bonds.
https://books2read.com/MindFuck
Linhart’s Beautiful Beast by Mel Bossa
This too has a lot of similarities with Protection, almost more than Cold has. It’s great!
The Great North, Quebec, 1934. Joe Vega, the Beast, has been locked up in Linhart Prison for three years. The brutish guards harass him because of his size, but Joe remains cool.
Until Christophe Dubois, the disowned son of an affluent politician, is led into Joe’s cell. From the moment Joe sees him, he suspects the ginger-head is trouble. Christophe is bold, curious, and feisty, and Joe can’t resist the temptation of climbing into the man’s bunk for long. However, the beautiful spoiled Christophe is a furnace to which both guards and convicts want to warm their hands, and Joe must fight to keep Christophe safe.
Linhart Prison may be a cruel place, but when the two men are released from its walls, they find an even tougher world out there.
Is the flame burning between Joe and Chris enough to keep them together?
https://books2read.com/LinhartsBeautifulBeast
That’s it, I’m afraid. I’m sure I’ve read more prison romances, but these are the ones that have buried their claws in my soul ❤️
The Devil Will Care
What would you do if the devil claimed you were his destined mate?
Khaal Lupehell isn’t really the devil, but he’s a red-skinned, horn-wearing, tail-waving, eight feet tall alien who claims Azrail Crow is his mate. For eight months, Azrail has been in an intergalactic prison, and for the most part, he’s managed to keep his head down and melt into the interior. That all changes when he runs into Khaal.
Khaal has to get out of prison. He’d planned to escape even before he met Azrail, but now he has to find a way out. He can’t live with his mate in a prison cell. It’s out of the question. So he’ll steal a ship, take Azrail, and they’ll run for their lives. It’ll work out fine. Hopefully.
Azrail has read stories about destined mates, but surely it can’t apply to him. He’s human, and humans don’t have mates. But when Khaal talks about escaping, Azrail wants to come with him. Being mated to the devil can’t be worse than being locked up in prison, can it?
Buy links:
Paranormal Gay Romance: 35,225 words
Holly Day 