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Brutal Obsession Cover
★★★★☆ 3.82 • Goodreads

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Craving more that same irresistible pull after Sweet Venom by Rina Kent? Brutal Obsession by S. Massery awaits.

Curated by NextBookAfter Editors. This read-alike match weighs tone, themes, pacing, character dynamics, and emotional payoff rather than genre alone. See how recommendations are chosen.

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Why It's Your Next Read

  • A university hockey god chooses one target
  • Revenge curdles into possessive obsession
  • A former ballerina fights his spotlight
  • Dual viewpoints make the menace intimate
  • Bullying and desire keep crossing lines

If Sweet Venom trapped you between a vulnerable heroine's fear and the rage of the hockey star hunting her, Brutal Obsession recreates that pressure with an even more personal wound. Greyson Devereux is a senator's son, the charismatic star of his university team, and the reckless driver who shattered Violet Reece's leg and her future as a dancer. When they meet again at the same school, he decides she deserves to pay for the damage his own actions did to his life. Violet wants to disappear; Greyson uses his status, cruelty, and relentless attention to drag her into view.

Every time Violet fights back, Greyson's revenge looks more like need.

Massery keeps the attraction hostile and morally abrasive. Greyson's campaign of punishment grows more obsessive every time Violet resists, while her anger and newly awakened darkness make her more than a passive victim. The rink, campus gossip, public humiliation, and the imbalance between a protected hockey celebrity and an injured former ballerina all feed the same predator-and-prey charge. This is emphatically dark bully romance, with coercive and transgressive material that rewards checking the author's content guidance before reading.

He ruined her body once; now every attempt to ruin the rest of her only makes him need her more.

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What Readers Are Saying

"Grey is top tier obsessed and I’m about it." — Kursed Reads, Goodreads

What Readers Are Saying

"The plot was so good. It kept me on my toes till the very end." — RavenOfTheSea, Goodreads

What Readers Are Saying

"i was hooked right from chapter one and was kept on my toes throughout a majority of the book from the suspense" — czarina ⋆·˚ ༘ * ♡, Goodreads

Two more ways to follow the feeling

Go Deeper—or Sideways

Cover of Dirty Hit by Heather Ashley

Under the Radar

Dirty Hit

by Heather Ashley

The Hitman Starts Watching

After Cassidy sends an angry message to Hayden Vaughn, the NHL's violently reputed "Hitman," his wounded attention turns into watching, stalking, and a barroom hat-trick wager that lets him treat her as a prize; the author's official page labels the novel a dark hockey stalker romance ( The official warning list makes clear how far the pressure goes—stalking, violence and gore, birth-control tampering, drugging, somnophilia, kidnapping, murder, and blackmail—so this is an intentionally unsafe fantasy rather than a softened sports romance (

  • One angry DM hooks an NHL enforcer
  • His trade becomes a stalking campaign
  • A hat trick makes Cassidy the prize
  • Obsession plays dirtier off the ice
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Cover of You by Caroline Kepnes

Wildcard Pick

You

by Caroline Kepnes

Love Letters Become Surveillance

Bookstore clerk Joe Goldberg turns the public traces of aspiring writer Guinevere Beck's life into engineered encounters, then reshapes himself into her ideal boyfriend while eliminating obstacles to his obsession—even through murder. The publisher classifies the result as a psychological thriller that deliberately blurs love and obsession (

Why it’s a wildcard: This is the wrong-shelf match: instead of Sweet Venom's alternating dark-romance access to a hunted woman and her violent pursuer, You locks the reader into the stalker's point of view, turning romantic attention into psychological-thriller dread ( Yet the bodily reader posture is strikingly compatible: ordinary routines become evidence, apparently chance meetings become traps, and intimacy tightens rather than relieves the sense of surveillance as Joe invisibly takes control of Beck's life.

  • The stalker narrates every rationalization
  • Digital traces become hunting tools
  • Chance encounters are carefully engineered
  • Romantic suspense crosses into murder
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What to read after Sweet Venom

Readers searching for adult books like or similar to Sweet Venom by Rina Kent usually want adult romance with qualities like hockey, bully romance, enemies to lovers, and obsession.

If your search is specifically for books similar to Sweet Venom for adults, this match keeps the grown-up stakes, voice, and reader payoff central rather than drifting into younger or purely genre-adjacent suggestions.

If you like Sweet Venom and want to know what to read next, start with Brutal Obsession. It is the closest NextBookAfter match for readers who want a book like Sweet Venom with the same core appeal.

Brutal Obsession is a similar next read for fans of Sweet Venom by Rina Kent because it shares hockey, bully romance, enemies to lovers, and obsession while moving through dark romance and sports romance.

Books like or similar to Sweet Venom: quick answers

What should I read after Sweet Venom by Rina Kent?
Start with Brutal Obsession. It is a close NextBookAfter match for readers who want adult romance with a similar mood, pace, and emotional payoff. It is especially useful if you want hockey, bully romance, and enemies to lovers.
If I like Sweet Venom, what should I read next?
Read Brutal Obsession next if you want another adult romance pick with overlapping tone, themes, pacing, and reader payoff.
What is a book like Sweet Venom for adults?
Brutal Obsession is the closest adult readalike here because it preserves the core appeal readers usually want after Sweet Venom by Rina Kent.
What are good books similar to Sweet Venom by Rina Kent for adults?
For adult romance readers, Brutal Obsession is a strong book similar to Sweet Venom by Rina Kent because it keeps the same read-alike appeal while moving through dark romance and sports romance.
Is Brutal Obsession similar to Sweet Venom by Rina Kent?
Yes. Brutal Obsession is recommended here because it carries readers from Sweet Venom by Rina Kent into dark romance and sports romance while preserving the core read-alike appeal.
Why recommend Brutal Obsession for fans of Sweet Venom by Rina Kent?
The recommendation is based on overlapping appeal signals: tone, themes, character dynamics, pacing, and the specific payoff readers look for after Sweet Venom by Rina Kent.

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