Books like 'By a Thread'

Readers who enjoyed By a Thread by R.L. Griffin also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  dark romance  young adult  suspense  mystery  college

  • Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

    Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 161 ratings
    Check out the #1 New York Times bestseller Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, called “a surefire hit” by Entertainment Weekly.   "The secrets burrowed in this seemingly placid small town...are so suburban noir they would make David Lynch clap with glee..
    Categorized as:
    suspense  mystery  contemporary  abuse  dark  young adult  humor  rape
  • Elicit by Rachel Van Dyken

    Elicit by Rachel Van Dyken

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Cursed, numb, rejected, scorned, wicked, sinister, dark, twisted...my name is Tex Campisi and this is my legacy. I killed my father in cold blood and lost my soul right along with him. I crave war more than peace, and I'm about to take my place in history as the youngest Capo dei Capi in the Cosa Nostra...that is until someone stops me, saves me from myself...
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  • Almost Broken by Portia Moore

    Almost Broken by Portia Moore

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 2 of 5
    Behind closed doors [?] · 35 ratings
    Lauren Brooks fell in love with Cal Scott at 21, married him at 22 and had her heart broken at 23 when he walked out of their marriage. At 25, though raising his daughter on her own, Lauren was finally moving on with her life. Until, she learned the reason for Cal's abandonment, the walls she’d carefully built around her collapsed.
  • Always Crew by Tijan

    Always Crew by Tijan

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    For the longest time, I was Bren Monroe.I lived in Roussou, California.I had no parents, no brother, but I had a crew.Then things started to change.I never planned for any of it.I didn’t think I’d fall in love.I didn’t think I’d have a relationship with my brother again.I didn’t think that he’d come back.Now I’m in Cain.My crew is in college.They’re growing, going through their own things...
  • Still Jaded by Tijan

    Still Jaded by Tijan

    Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars
    · 39 ratings
    Sheldon, Bryce, and Corrigan ruled their school until a killer wanted to rule them. Three years later, Bryce’s back home from Europe the local celebrity jock. Corrigan’s busy running his fraternity and Sheldon's about to be pulled back into the social world of drama...
  • Pieces for You by Genna Rulon

    Pieces for You by Genna Rulon

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Samantha Whitney survived unimaginable tragedy only to discover she had been betrayed by a man who claimed to love her. Shattered, Sam spends months at a safe haven trying to piece herself back together. Ready or not, the time has come for her to return home. As Sam struggles to resume a life that no longer feels familiar, she finds unwavering support in an unexpected, familiar face...
  • The Havoc We Wreak by Becca Steele

    The Havoc We Wreak by Becca Steele

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 35 ratings
    The final part of Caiden and Winter's story...Secrets and lies are being revealed. Loyalties are being tested, and betrayal cuts deep.My mother needs to be stopped, but at what cost? At the end, who will be left standing? And...WhoWillFall…Eeny, meeny, miny, mo.You underestimated the Four and Snow.You thought you were on a winning streak...
  • The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

    The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 56 ratings
    A contemporary YA novel that examines rape culture through alternating perspectives. Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it.Three years ago, when her older sister, Anna, was murdered and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best—the language of violence. While her own crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people...
  • Reckless Dynasty by Tracy Lorraine

    Reckless Dynasty by Tracy Lorraine

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 5 of 5
    Explicit and plentiful [?] · 16 ratings
    USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Tracy Lorraine brings you the next installment of her dark mafia, high school bully romance story set in the Knight's Ridge Empire world.My life has been full of half-truths tangled in lies—I’d been to hell and back more times than I could count...
  • Game by Barry Lyga

    Game by Barry Lyga

    Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    Billy grinned. “Oh, New York,” he whispered. “We’re gonna have so much fun.” I Hunt Killers introduced the world to Jazz, the son of history’s most infamous serial killer, Billy Dent. In an effort to prove murder didn’t run in the family, Jazz teamed with the police in the small town of Lobo’s Nod to solve a deadly case...
  • Before I Break by Portia Moore

    Before I Break by Portia Moore

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    Out of the past six years of my life, I only remember about half of it. After a dozen doctors and thousands in medical bills, I was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder--one that causes me to lose track of time. Sometimes it’s hours, days or even weeks with no recollection of anything. The good thing is it's been almost two years since I had my last ‘black out’...
  • Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas, Abby McDonald

    Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas, Abby McDonald

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    It's Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives. But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations...
  • The Old Wheel by Gregory Ashe

    The Old Wheel by Gregory Ashe

    Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    Blackmail. Breakups. Boys. Trouble always comes in threes.Life is different for Jack Moreno. Good. Definitely good. Well, better, anyway.He’s back in school (although classes are harder than he expected). And his dad is healthy (which means he’s worrying again about things like Jack’s curfew and, oh yeah, grades)...
  • A Whole New Crowd by Tijan

    A Whole New Crowd by Tijan

    Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
    · 40 ratings
    Taryn grew up in a different world. Her boyfriend was a criminal. His older brother was part of a gang. They weren’t great people, but they were her family. Then everything changes when she’s adopted by a family in the neighboring town. New family. New friends. A new world. She’s elated...
  • The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis

    The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · 34 ratings
    Anna and Abel couldn’t be more different. They are both seventeen and in their last year of school, but while Anna lives in a nice old town house and comes from a well-to-do family, Abel, the school drug dealer, lives in a big, prisonlike tower block at the edge of town. Anna is afraid of him until she realizes that he is caring for his six-year-old sister on his own...
  • Half Truths by Claire Contreras

    Half Truths by Claire Contreras

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 27 ratings
    You’ve heard of these groups – the secretive ones that only the crème de la crème are invited into, the ones outsiders speculate about for centuries – I’m the second in my family invited to attend, but to them, I’m fresh meat. New blood. New money, too. They think they’ll elbow past me, that I’m here for their amusement, for them to walk all over, they’ll find out soon enough that I’m not...
  • Salvation and Secrets by L A Cotton

    Salvation and Secrets by L A Cotton

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    Chastity Falls was supposed to be Ana Parry’s fresh start. But what started as her salvation soon became her undoing. Four months after losing the very thing that gave her reason again, Ana is back at Chastity Falls. Holding on by a thread and trying hard to forget about Jackson isn’t easy when she’s determined to uncover the Donohue’s biggest secrets...
  • Cruel Legacy by Dakota Lee

    Cruel Legacy by Dakota Lee

    Rated: 4.80 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 5 ratings
    A NEW LIFEThat’s what the move to canyon falls was supposed to offer me. A chance to leave my past behind.But day one I manage to paint a target on my back and the vindictive boys who run this school, Pax, Finn and Holdendecide to turn me into their personal punching bag.They try it all. Liquidated accounts. Public humiliation. Every prank and act of horror designed to break me.I’ve endured worse...
  • Persuasion by T.K. Leigh

    Persuasion by T.K. Leigh

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    I came to Hawaii to get answers about my sister’s death.But that all changes when I meet her.Beautiful. Charming. Haunted.And the last thing I need in my life.But that doesn’t mean I can stay away from her, a powerful force pulling me toward her when all rationale tells me to keep my distance.So we make an agreement.One week. No names. No falling in love.It’s the perfect plan...
  • Born Wrong by C.M. Stunich

    Born Wrong by C.M. Stunich

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 22 ratings
    When you're born wrong, sometimes you get bent and you get f*cked. Sometimes your life takes you places you don't want to go.Sometimes, it does. Dax McCann is as cold as ice. I'm intrigued by him. But I can't get close to him either. His music strokes my soul, butchers my broken heart. I wish he'd see me, but he only sees her...
  • The Dead List by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    The Dead List by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    It's Ella's senior year of high school and she and her best friend Linds plan to make it the best year ever. At Brock Cochran's end of summer pool party, the girls vow to have as much fun as possible before they head off to different colleges next fall. But when Ella is mysteriously attacked on her way home from the party, everything changes...
  • The Fight In Us by Becca Steele

    The Fight In Us by Becca Steele

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 18 ratings
    Lust. Mystery. Betrayal. Weston Cavendish. My brother's best friend. I'd perfected the art of pretending that I didn't want him, that he didn't affect me every time he was near.Or so I thought.When his world comes crashing down, I'm the one he turns to, and I can't deny my feelings any longer.I know there's something between us.Until he finds out that I've been hiding things from him, too...
  • I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

    I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 45 ratings
    What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad? Jasper "Jazz" Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say. But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could—from the criminal's point of view. And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod...
  • The End of Gods by Con Template

    The End of Gods by Con Template

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    In every Kingdom, every government entity, and every secret society, there is an epic era that defies the boundaries of times and immortalizes itself in the history books. These unforgettable eras are unpredictable by nature and rare in occurrence. The centuries may come and go and such an extraordinary era may never grace the lives of those who live for it...
  • Hometown Girl Memories by Kirsten Fullmer

    Hometown Girl Memories by Kirsten Fullmer

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    "I was crying one minute and laughing the next. A definite must read!" Winnie is content in her role as the reining matriarch of Smithville, but when a letter arrives from a long-lost friend, the door to her past is reopened. Memories come flooding in, drawing her back to 1968, her college days; a time filled with people and events she hasn’t allowed herself to recall...
  • Tough Luck by C.M. Stunich

    Tough Luck by C.M. Stunich

    Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    * This is NOT the last book in the series. There will be later books featuring Turner and Naomi again, and they also appear in this volume quite a bit. ;) Ronnie McGuire is my target. But I wish he wasn't. I didn't sign up for this destruction, this pain. In his music, I hear his soul crying out for me...
  • Remember Me Forever by Sara Wolf

    Remember Me Forever by Sara Wolf

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 39 ratings
    Isis Blake hasn’t fallen in love in three years, forty-three weeks, and two days. Or so she thinks. The boy she maybe-sort-of-definitely loved and sort-of-maybe-definitely hated has dropped off the face of the planet in the face of tragedy, leaving a Jack Hunter–shaped hole. Determined to be happy, Isis fills it in with lies and puts on a brave smile for her new life at Ohio State University...
  • The Execution by Ruby Vincent

    The Execution by Ruby Vincent

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 33 ratings
    They think they won. The Elite thought it would end at the battle, but I'm taking them to war. I will topple Landon, Michael, and Cole off their thrones even if it means bringing the system to its knees. Tensions are boiling beneath the surface of Breakbattle Academy. Protests are erupting, the lower classes are fighting back, and the Elites aren’t as invulnerable as they thought...
  • Hate List by Jennifer Brown

    Hate List by Jennifer Brown

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 55 ratings
    Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets...
  • Scarred, Part 3 by Kylie Walker

    Scarred, Part 3 by Kylie Walker

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    After agreeing to attend a Gala in New York with Derek, Chloe stumbles into her worst nightmare. Vince Donovan...District Attorney of New York...Jesse Donovan's father. RUN... is the only thought firing in her head. When Derek finally catches up with her, she realizes that her world has been flipped upside down and out of control. Chloe now decides to let the flood gates open...
  • Unstable by Alexandra Ivy

    Unstable by Alexandra Ivy

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 2 of 5
    Behind closed doors [?] · 10 ratings
    WHEN IT COMES TO KILLINGA dead man in a cemetery isn’t news—unless he’s found on top of a grave, with a bullet through his head. The body belongs to Jude Henley, who was supposed to be buried below. Instead, the grave contains the remains of Staci Gale, thought to have run away nearly three decades ago...
  • Right Behind You by Gail Giles

    Right Behind You by Gail Giles

    Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    When he was nine, Kip set another child on fire. Now, after years in a juvenile ward, he is ready for a fresh start. But the ghosts of his past soon demand justice, and he must reveal his painful secret...
  • A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

    A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

    Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars
    · 43 ratings
    Faulkner’s most famous, most popular, and most anthologized short story, “A Rose for Emily” evokes the terms Southern gothic and grotesque, two types of literature in which the general tone is one of gloom, terror, and understated violence...
  • Only for You by Genna Rulon

    Only for You by Genna Rulon

    Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    “In its purest form love is self-sacrificing, eternal, selfless, enduring, truthful, forgiving and indulgent. It also feels an awful lot like a kick to the stomach when you try to fight it!” All Everleigh Carsen wanted to do was complete her final semester at Hensley University and begin the life she carefully planned...
  • Locked and Loaded by Nenia Campbell

    Locked and Loaded by Nenia Campbell

    Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer... Christina Parker agreed to go to work for the BN because she thought it would keep her and her loved ones safe. But the BN's training facility is more like a prison than a school, and rumors about her illicit relationship with an IMA assassin make assimilation difficult - if not impossible...
  • Ómorphi by C. (Cody) Kennedy

    Ómorphi by C. (Cody) Kennedy

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    "Hauntingly beautiful, a book that you never wanted to end because you were so much a part of the characters lives. When you finish the book you want to know more, to pick up the phone and call Christy. Magically written, the voices and setting of the story were so clear you lived each moment with the characters...
  • Going Under by S. Walden

    Going Under by S. Walden

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Brooke Wright has only two goals her senior year at Charity Run High School: stay out of trouble and learn to forgive herself for the past. Forgiveness proves elusive, and trouble finds her anyway when she discovers a secret club at school connected to the death of her best friend...
  • What She Found in the Woods by Josephine Angelini

    What She Found in the Woods by Josephine Angelini

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Magda just wants to forget what happened. But there's a nightmare lurking —and it's coming for her...This is Magda’s last chance. Recovering from a scandal at her elite New York City private school that threw her life into a tailspin, she’s shipped off to live with her grandparents in the Pacific Northwest for the summer...
  • Brake: A Serialized Dark Romantic Suspense by Skye Callahan

    Brake: A Serialized Dark Romantic Suspense by Skye Callahan

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    There's no stopping as the bitter feud between brothers, Colt and Devlin, speeds out of control. From Colt's pawn to Devlin's captive, Aubrey is caught even deeper in their pact to destroy one another. Imprisoned in darkness, she fights for her life--and her sanity. Her only hope is a cocky and sadistic car thief who is already wrestling with his own demons...
  • Temper for You by Genna Rulon

    Temper for You by Genna Rulon

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    "Life is messy. Love is messier." -Catch and Release Meg Adeio has led a life of isolation—not by choice, by necessity—until one act of heroism forces her out of seclusion. Despite a past shrouded in mystery, Meg is “adopted” by an eclectic group of friends that become the family she never had. Life was good for the first time in… ever...
    Categorized as:
    college  suspense  contemporary  abuse  mafia  humor  young adult  dark
  • Girl, Stolen by April Henry

    Girl, Stolen by April Henry

    Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars
    · 38 ratings
    Sixteen-year-old Cheyenne Wilder is sleeping in the back of the car while her stepmom fills a prescription for antibiotics. Before Cheyenne realizes what's happening, the car is being stolen. Griffin hadn't meant to kidnap Cheyenne and once he finds out that not only does she have pneumonia, but that she's blind, he really doesn't know what to do...
  • Shattered Legacy by Caitlyn Dare

    Shattered Legacy by Caitlyn Dare

    Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Mia Thompson wants only one thing: to survive Gravestone University, graduate, and get far far away from her hometown and its archaic traditions.But she’s about to become a pawn in a game she doesn’t understand.Bexley Danforth wants only one thing: to keep his head down, survive four years at college, and get far far away from his past and the mistakes that haunt him...
  • All the Little Lights by Jamie McGuire

    All the Little Lights by Jamie McGuire

    Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 30 ratings
    From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jamie McGuire comes a riveting tale of first love that starts young but runs deep. The first time Elliott Youngblood spots Catherine Calhoun, he’s just a boy with a camera, and he’s never seen a sadder and more beautiful sight. Both Elliott and Catherine feel like outcasts, yet they find an easy friendship with each other...
  • He Found Me by Whitney Barbetti

    He Found Me by Whitney Barbetti

    Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    When I was seventeen, I disappeared. I walked out the door of my apartment with a backpack and never looked back. I left the life of Cora Mitchell behind, seeking freedom from my real-life nightmare. But my freedom came with a cost. I lived a fictitious life for the next six years, never letting anyone close enough to see underneath the facade that was Andra Walker...
  • Conquer Your Love by J.C. Reed

    Conquer Your Love by J.C. Reed

    Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars
    · 44 ratings
    Meeting Jett was like bad luck. Dangerous. Unpredictable. And better avoided. In his game, the stakes are high. But are they worth the risk? Brooke Stewart, a realtor in New York, finds forgetting is hard, but forgiving is harder. When the man she trusted, betrayed her, the only way to forget is to move on...
  • Conviction by Amanda Lance

    Conviction by Amanda Lance

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Falling in love with each other was unlikely. Surviving their adventure was doubtful. Living without each other: impossible. To everyone else, it may look like she’s leaving for college, but for Addie Battes, it is the beginning of another adventure. She and her kidnapper Charlie Hays have found a way to be together and eluded authorities...
  • Clean Slate by E.J. Fechenda

    Clean Slate by E.J. Fechenda

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    In Clean Slate, Book Two of The New Mafia Trilogy, a battered and bruised Natalie Ross leaves her family and boyfriend behind in Philadelphia and makes her way to Los Angeles to seek forgiveness from her estranged best friend, Chelsea. Natalie wants to start over and forget all about the past year she spent as the girlfriend of an enforcer for the Philly Mob...
  • We Dance in Sin by M.T. Morgan

    We Dance in Sin by M.T. Morgan

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Brixley Archer has always had a taste for danger. Allured by the darkness she can't escape that lingers deep in the back of her mind. She’s spent most of her life hustling, striving for more than the poverty she’s always known. So when she gets accepted into one of the most selective colleges in the country, she thinks this is her fresh start...
  • Cheerleading Can Be Murder by Carissa Ann Lynch

    Cheerleading Can Be Murder by Carissa Ann Lynch

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Getting on the cheerleading squad is hard enough without a psycho on the loose… For Harrow High freshman Dakota Densford, life should be easy. All she has to worry about is talking to cute boys and remembering her locker combination. But when cheerleading tryouts draw near, she learns the cards are stacked against her—spots on the varsity team are limited...
  • Dead Girls Don't Lie by Jennifer Shaw Wolf

    Dead Girls Don't Lie by Jennifer Shaw Wolf

    Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Rachel died at two a.m . . . Three hours after Skyler kissed me for the first time. Forty-five minutes after she sent me her last text. Jaycee and Rachel were best friends. But that was before. . .before that terrible night at the old house. Before Rachel shut Jaycee out. Before Jaycee chose Skyler over Rachel. Then Rachel is found dead...
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