Books like 'The Haunting of Esmerelda'

Readers who enjoyed The Haunting of Esmerelda by R. L. Marcelain also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

paranormal  dark romance  fantasy  urban fantasy  suspense  horror  mystery

  • The Magnus Archives: Season 5 by Johnathan Sims

    The Magnus Archives: Season 5 by Johnathan Sims

    Rated: 4.69 of 5 stars
    · 23 ratings
    The Magnus Archives is a horror audiobook written by Jonathan Sims, directed by Alexander J. Newall and distributed by Rusty Quill. Sims narrates the stories in-character as the main character, Jonathan Sims, the newly-appointed head archivist of the fictional Magnus Institute; an institution based in London centred on research into the paranormal...
  • Ascension Day by Vanessa Nelson

    Ascension Day by Vanessa Nelson

    Rated: 4.59 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 28 ratings
    Caught in the middle of two powerful forces, can Thea find a way to survive?The Archon has ordered a day of celebration to mark her ascension to power. While most people in the city are looking forward to a day off and an excuse to drink and eat too much, Thea and the rest of the city's Watch are on high alert...
  • Sponsored links
  • Ashes to Ashes by Karina Halle

    Ashes to Ashes by Karina Halle

    Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 38 ratings
    It’s been two months since Perry Palomino and Dex Foray’s relationship reached a new turning point, two months since Perry started a new life in Seattle, and two months since their Experiment in Terror show took on a new partner, ex-Wine Babe Rebecca Sims, and found a new level of success. But whenever there is light in their lives, the madness still has a way of coming back in...
  • Turns of Fate by Anne Bishop

    Turns of Fate by Anne Bishop

    Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    A young detective investigating crimes of the uncanny will learn that bargains can change your fate—for good or ill—in this darkly enthralling fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of the Others and the Black Jewels series.Words have power. Intentions matter.Most people come to Destiny Park for entertainment. They come to have their cards read to tell them a bit about their future...
  • Witches Brew by Shayne Silvers, Cameron O'Connell

    Witches Brew by Shayne Silvers, Cameron O'Connell

    Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars
    · 23 ratings
    ***OVER ONE MILLION READERS HAVE BEEN PLEASURED BY THE TEMPLE VERSE NOVELS. NOW IT’S YOUR TURN…*** Fae are missing all over Boston, and apparently, no one else is suicidal enough to look into it. Good thing Quinn MacKenna—black magic arms dealer and Fae half-breed—has been searching for a way to earn back some of Boston’s goodwill after almost destroying the city…twice...
  • And With Madness Comes the Light by Karina Halle

    And With Madness Comes the Light by Karina Halle

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 40 ratings
    The Man. The Mystery. The Madness. Dex Foray has never been anyone’s fool – until he missed his chance for happiness with Perry Palomino. Broken and alone, Dex has no choice but to rise from the ashes Perry left behind and find his own path to redemption. But nothing in Dex’s life has ever come easily, especially when there’s a dark madness waiting in the wings...
  • Be the Serpent by Seanan McGuire

    Be the Serpent by Seanan McGuire

    Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    October Daye is finally something she never expected to be: married. All the trials and turmoils and terrors of a hero’s life have done very little to prepare her for the expectation that she will actually share her life with someone else, the good parts and the bad ones alike, not just allow them to dabble around the edges in the things she wants to share...
  • Bishop's Flight: A Paranormal Mystery Romance by Elizabeth Hunter

    Bishop's Flight: A Paranormal Mystery Romance by Elizabeth Hunter

    Rated: 4.68 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    The sins of the past will burn you.Four nights. Three days. The human son of two powerful vampires has been taken from his home, and if Carwyn and Brigid can’t find him, the delicate balance of power in an immortal haven might just go up in flames. Las Vegas holds a special appeal in the immortal world...
  • Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures vol 1 by Laurell K. Hamilton

    Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures vol 1 by Laurell K. Hamilton

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 47 ratings
    New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton brings Anita Blake to the world of graphic novels. Anita Blake lives in a world where vampires, zombies and werewolves have been declared legal citizens of the United States. Anita Blake is an "animator" - a profession that involves raising the dead for mourning relatives...
  • Come Alive by Karina Halle

    Come Alive by Karina Halle

    Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 44 ratings
    It’s one thing to bring the woman you love back into your life. It’s another to try and keep her there. For Dex Foray, con­vinc­ing Perry Palomino to open her­self to their bur­geon­ing rela­tion­ship has been more chal­leng­ing than hunt­ing ghosts, bat­tling demons and stalk­ing Sasquatch com­bined...
  • The Facts of Midlife by Robyn Peterman

    The Facts of Midlife by Robyn Peterman

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    Midlife is sheer madness, and the facts of midlife are not taught in school. Unfortunately, some lessons are hellishly hard to learn.I thought I had it figured out. I was wrong.Proving I’m the Angel of Mercy is turning into a sh*tshow of epic proportions.Not too long ago, I was a forty-year-old gal with a stable and boring life ahead of me. Now? Not so much...
  • A Broken Contract by Vanessa Nelson

    A Broken Contract by Vanessa Nelson

    Rated: 4.53 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    A promise broken. Her future torn up. But she still has a job to do.Betrayed by her blood family, all Hallie's plans for her future are in ruins. She has no time to lick her wounds as Special Investigator Girard wants her help looking for some members of the elite who have gone missing in Hallie's territory...
  • Dust to Dust by Karina Halle

    Dust to Dust by Karina Halle

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 39 ratings
    (New to this angsty, sexy, scary romance series? Start with book #1, Darkhouse, FREE on Amazon and other retailers. Warning: this series contains harsh language, violence, gore and sexual scenes of a graphic nature - reader discretion is advised) **The dramatic conclusion to the Experiment in Terror Series.** Perry Palomino and Dex Foray. On their own, they’re uniquely brilliant...
  • A Usual Suspect by Vanessa Nelson

    A Usual Suspect by Vanessa Nelson

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    She can see the truth, but when she's accused of murder, no one believes she's innocent.Hallie works as a skip tracer - hunting down people wanted by the law, for one reason or another. It's not glamourous, and it doesn't pay all that well. But it's legal work, and that's hard to come by in the cramped quarters of old town...
  • The Neon Boneyard by Craig Schaefer

    The Neon Boneyard by Craig Schaefer

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Daniel Faust has clawed his way from the gutter to a penthouse suite, carving a bloody swath across the Las Vegas underworld. He's buried his enemies and more than a few friends along the way. If there's one thing a modern-day sorcerer knows for certain, though, it's that the past never stays buried forever...
  • Psychopomp by Angela Roquet

    Psychopomp by Angela Roquet

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    In war, everyone loses...Reaper Lana Harvey is finding out the hard way. When Grim's new second in command, Jenni Fang, recruits her for a special mission, the biggest victory over the rebels is tainted by a crushing and immediate reprisal. The rebels have a new general working in the shadows of Limbo City, luring gods, reapers, demons, and souls to the dark side...
  • The Castle Doctrine by Craig Schaefer

    The Castle Doctrine by Craig Schaefer

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 23 ratings
    Out of prison and back on the streets, Daniel Faust returns home to a city on fire. The Chicago mob is making their play for control of Las Vegas, with an army of gunmen and a lethal shapeshifter on their side, while Daniel's friend Jennifer marshals the forces of the Vegas underworld...
  • Bring the Fire by Craig Schaefer

    Bring the Fire by Craig Schaefer

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    “We brought you here to answer a single question. God is dead. Vanessa Roth and Marie Reinhart are responsible. We want to know how they did it.” That was where the story began. This is where it all ends. Believing her lover has been killed, Nessa — the living archetype of the wicked witch and a fairy tale brought to murderous life — flies across the Mojave Desert on a mission of vengeance...
  • The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

    The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 2 of 5
    Behind closed doors [?] · 110 ratings
    Something hasn’t been right at the roadside Sun Down Motel for a very long time, and Carly Kirk is about to find out why in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York...
  • The Killing Floor Blues by Craig Schaefer

    The Killing Floor Blues by Craig Schaefer

    Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    Nobody has ever escaped from the Iceberg. It's a privately-owned prison deep in the Mojave Desert, staffed by brutal guards and surrounded by desolate wasteland. Inside the walls, gangs and predators are constant threats; outside the walls, there's nothing but a sniper's bullet or a slow death in the desert heat...
  • The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin

    The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin

    Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
    · 91 ratings
    Japan's most highly regarded novelist now vaults into the first ranks of international fiction writers with this heroically imaginative novel, which is at once a detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets of World War II. In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat...
  • The Bonds of Blood by Becca Andre

    The Bonds of Blood by Becca Andre

    Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    Born without a heartbeat or a soul, James Huntsman has never felt part of the mortal world. It’s an insecurity his abusive brothers reinforced daily, and with his very existence bound to theirs through the alchemically altered blood they share, James has always been at their mercy. All that changed when James found a home within the magical community and fell in love...
  • Duck Duck Ghost by Rhys Ford

    Duck Duck Ghost by Rhys Ford

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 19 ratings
    Paranormal investigator Wolf Kincaid knows what his foot tastes like. Mostly because he stuck it firmly in his mouth when his lover, Tristan Pryce, accidentally drugged him with a batch of psychotropic baklava. Needing to patch things up between them, Wolf drags Tristan to San Luis Obispo, hoping Tristan’s medium ability can help evict a troublesome spirit haunting an old farmhouse...
  • A Plain-Dealing Villain by Craig Schaefer

    A Plain-Dealing Villain by Craig Schaefer

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    It's hard to make a dishonest buck in Sin City, especially when a rogue FBI agent is gunning for your head. Flat broke and one step ahead of the law, Daniel Faust flees Vegas and lands in Chicago, where a risky heist promises to fill his pockets with cash...
  • The Alchemist's Flame by Becca Andre

    The Alchemist's Flame by Becca Andre

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 14 ratings
    Now that the local hospital is using her burn salve, master alchemist Addie Daulton has become a celebrity. The positive press will go a long way in helping her redeem alchemy’s reputation, but Addie wishes the media would stop calling her the Flame Lord’s alchemist. She doesn’t need his sanction to validate her skills...
  • Detonation Boulevard by Craig Schaefer

    Detonation Boulevard by Craig Schaefer

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    When NYPD detective Marie Reinhart met Nessa Roth, a Manhattan socialite and dabbler in the occult, sparks flew. Then came the gunfire. Nessa and Marie are the Witch and her Knight, characters from a fairy tale brought to life and trapped in an endless curse: to meet, fall in love, and be torn from each other’s arms by violent death, again and again for all eternity...
  • The Fifth Essence by Becca Andre

    The Fifth Essence by Becca Andre

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Addie Daulton has never backed down from a challenge. After all, doing the impossible is what makes her a master alchemist. So when she learns that her best friend, James Huntsman, has been banished from the mortal world, she believes she can get him back. But finding James isn’t her only problem...
  • Ink, Blood, and Other Afflictions: Episode One by Kristen Coar

    Ink, Blood, and Other Afflictions: Episode One by Kristen Coar

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    Do not read this book. Seriously. It’s completely unhinged....Still here? Well, crap. Fine. Just remember. I warned you.Vera would have been a typical librarian—except for that one time she opened the wrong book and got possessed by a dark goddess. Now, every time she ends a life, she experiences the kind of mind-blowing orgasm that could crack the foundations of her apartment...
  • False Value by Ben Aaronovitch

    False Value by Ben Aaronovitch

    Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
    · 40 ratings
    Now in hardcover, the eighth book of the bestselling Rivers of London urban fantasy series returns to the adventures of Peter Grant, detective and apprentice wizard, as he solves magical crimes in the city of London.Peter Grant is facing fatherhood, and an uncertain future, with equal amounts of panic and enthusiasm...
  • Silver Staked by Shannon Mayer, D.G. Swank

    Silver Staked by Shannon Mayer, D.G. Swank

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    From NYT & USAT bestselling authors Shannon Mayer and D.G. Swank comes a new vision of supernatural suspense. Only these two authors could deliver two such complex heroines and their undaunted courage in a tale of unexpected twists of fate. Escape into the city that never sleeps and where nightmares live in the darkness with "Silver Staked".My name is Leah, and I am a Cazador...
  • The Keepers Box Set by Donna Augustine

    The Keepers Box Set by Donna Augustine

    Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    For the first time, get all four books in The Alchemy Series in one ebook bundle. Or start the series with The Keepers, free for the Kindle.The KeepersTwo days ago, Jo Davids was a waitress by night and a college kid by day, with the unnerving problem of objects floating around her...
  • White Silence by Jodi Taylor

    White Silence by Jodi Taylor

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    The first instalment in the gripping supernatural thriller series from international bestselling author, Jodi Taylor.'I don't know who I am. I don't know what I am.'Elizabeth Cage is a child when she discovers that there are things in this world that only she can see. But she doesn't want to see them and she definitely doesn't want them to see her...
  • Violets and Violence by M. Kato

    Violets and Violence by M. Kato

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    The Violet Killer—as nicknamed by the media because of the violets discovered alongside his victims—returns to Tōkyō’s streets.For homicide detective Hayashi Teruo, this case marks a haunting return to the scene of his first investigation as a rookie detective and his biggest failure...
  • Disassembled Creatures by Albany Walker

    Disassembled Creatures by Albany Walker

    Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    It all started with a game.It was supposed to be fun, a night with friends. No one was supposed to die, but that’s not what happened.There’s a killer on the loose. People I know are dying, and I think I might be next.We called the boogeyman, and he answered...
  • Winter by Josh Lanyon

    Winter by Josh Lanyon

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 31 ratings
    First in a NEW series! Still grieving over the sudden death of his lover, antiques dealer Flynn Ambrose moves to the ramshackle old house on Pitch Pine Lane to catalog and sell the large inventory of arcane and oddball items that once filled his late uncle's mysterious museum. But not all the items are that easy to catalog. Or get rid of... ˃˃˃ The Haunted Heart series. Four seasons...
    Categorized as:
    suspense  mystery  horror  m-m  paranormal  magic  age difference  dark
  • First and Last Sorcerer by Barb Hendee, J.C. Hendee

    First and Last Sorcerer by Barb Hendee, J.C. Hendee

    Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    National bestselling authors Barb and J. C. Hendee present the newest breathtaking chapter in the epic Noble Dead saga....Waylaid in their quest for the orb of the Air, Magiere, Leesil, Chap, and Wayfarer have all been wrongly imprisoned. But it is Magiere, the dhampir, who suffers the most as a cloaked interrogator employs telepathic torture...
  • The Mirror by Nora Roberts

    The Mirror by Nora Roberts

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 2 of 5
    Behind closed doors [?] · 48 ratings
    #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts continues the hauntingly spectacular Lost Bride Trilogy with book two, The Mirror.When Sonya MacTavish inherits the huge Victorian mansion on the coast of Maine, she has no idea that the house is haunted. The footsteps she hears at night, the doors slamming, the music playing, are not figments of her imagination...
  • Fangs and Family by Olena Nikitin

    Fangs and Family by Olena Nikitin

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    The only person who can save my brother is the vampire who hates me.The only person who can save my brother is the vampire who hates me.My brother disappeared, his friends were slaughtered, and the man searching for him used mind control to force me to help find him...
  • See No Evil by Pippa DaCosta

    See No Evil by Pippa DaCosta

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    “Wanted dead or alive sounds like a lot more fun when it’s not my head on the block.” Word is out, the soul eater has gone rogue and not even the might of Osiris can stop him. Or so everyone believes. That would suit Ace just fine, but after he narrowly escapes an assassination attempt, he knows it’s just a matter of time before those around him end up in the gods' crosshairs...
  • The Sinner by Amanda Stevens

    The Sinner by Amanda Stevens

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 2 of 5
    Behind closed doors [?] · 25 ratings
    I am a living ghost, a wanderer in search of my purpose and place…  I'm a cemetery restorer by trade, but my calling has evolved from that of ghost seer to death walker to detective of lost souls. I solve the riddles of the dead so the dead will leave me alone.  I've come to Seven Gates Cemetery nursing a broken heart, but peace is hard to come by…for the ghosts here and for me...
  • Tuesday: A Dark Monster Romance by Adrian Blue

    Tuesday: A Dark Monster Romance by Adrian Blue

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 13 ratings
    Tuesday's Child is Full of GraceDr. Christina Blackwood moved to a small town for a slower pace of life. But when a child goes missing, it throws the community into a panic. All eyes immediately turn to Ashcroft Estate, whose reclusive and mysterious owner is known for fiercely protecting his privacy. But the estate is protecting far more than that. William Ashcroft has a secret...
  • Ghosted by Karina Halle

    Ghosted by Karina Halle

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Ghosted is an all-new EIT novella told from Dex's POV. It should be read after Dust to Dust (after Veiled, preferably) and before Came Back Haunted.It's available in the All the Love in the World anthology on Amazon, as well as by itself in paperback, and at Nook, iBooks and Kobo...
  • Savor by Kate Evangelista

    Savor by Kate Evangelista

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Mature and explicit content. Not recommended for readers below 18-years-old. Yup, you've got to be that old to read my story. Consider yourself warned. I’m Dakota Collins, a tough talking, eye patch wearing, workaholic photography student. Why am I important? Well, maybe because I get to spend an entire month with Vicious, only the sickest indie rock band out there...
  • Releasing the Demons by L.D. Rose

    Releasing the Demons by L.D. Rose

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    He's out to set the world on fire. She's the only one who can tame him.  Blaze Knight has been through hell and back, but the nightmares aren't over yet. Five years after being maimed and tortured by vampires, Blaze is still picking up the pieces of his shattered life. As a genetically-engineered hybrid mercenary, his mission is to protect what's left of humanity...
  • Ashes by Iona Wayland

    Ashes by Iona Wayland

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    After her brother Donny’s tragic death, Angela Soloman is instructed where to lay his ashes to bring peace to his restless spirit. She must journey and battle deviant supernatural beings, face her own traumatic past, and follow the rules of Hollow Forest to avoid the stalking creature called the Canid Carey. With help from a mysterious ally, she fights to quiet more tormented souls than one...
  • Revenant by Kat Richardson

    Revenant by Kat Richardson

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Harper Blaine was your average small-time PI until she died—for two minutes. Now Harper is a Greywalker, treading the thin line between the living world and the paranormal realm. And these abilities are landing her all sorts of “strange” cases.... Turmoil, sickness, and destruction are sweeping through Europe—and their effects are being felt all the way across the world in Seattle...
  • Broken Souls by Stephen Blackmoore

    Broken Souls by Stephen Blackmoore

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    Sister murdered, best friend dead, married to the patron saint of death, Santa Muerte. Necromancer Eric Carter's return to Los Angeles hasn't gone well, and it's about to get even worse.His link to the Aztec death goddess is changing his powers, changing him, and he's not sure how far it will go. He's starting to question his own sanity, wonder if he's losing his mind...
  • Undercover by Tamsyn Muir

    Undercover by Tamsyn Muir

    Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars
    · 38 ratings
    When a stranger comes to town, secrets are sure to come out. New York Times bestselling author Tamsyn Muir spins a twisty—and twisted—short story of revenge and survival.A fresh-faced newcomer arrives in an isolated, gang-run town and soon finds herself taking a job nobody else wants: bodyguard to a ghoul. Not just your average mindless, half-rotted shuffler, though...
  • The Element of Death by Becca Andre

    The Element of Death by Becca Andre

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    Betrayed by the first woman he ever loved, James lashes out at Rowan, the man who won her heart. When James nearly kills him, he panics and strands them both far from home, leaving them to take shelter in an abandoned crematorium. But the decaying building isn’t unoccupied...
  • Redemption Alley by Lilith Saintcrow

    Redemption Alley by Lilith Saintcrow

    Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars
    · 31 ratings
    Some cases are unusual - even for Jill Kismet. When her police contact asks her to look into a "suicide", she suddenly finds herself in a labyrinth of deception, drugs, murder -- and all-too-human corruption. The cops are her allies, except for the ones who want her dead. The hellbreed are her targets, except for the ones who might know what's going on...
Fantastic book recommendations by romance book lovers for romance book lovers.
Find out more about romance.io.


Get recommendations by genres & tropes

Use the romance book finder to mix and match over 100 content keywords to find the books that match your preferences

romance book finder

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.