Book picks similar to
Lex and Lu by J. Santiago


romance
contemporary-romance
netgalley
sports

Thin Love


Eden Butler - 2014
    It isn't supposed to leave you bleeding. Kona pushed, Keira pulled, and in their wake, they left behind destruction. She sacrificed everything for him. It wasn't enough. But the wounds of the past can never be completely forgotten and still the flame remains, slumbers between the pleasure of yesterday and the thought of what might have been. Now, sixteen years later, Keira returns home to bury the mother who betrayed her, just as Kona tries to hold onto what remains of his NFL career with the New Orleans Steamers. Across the crowded bustle of a busy French Market, their paths collide, conjuring forgotten memories of a consuming touch, skin on skin, and the still smoldering fire that begs to be rekindled. When Kona realizes the trifecta of betrayal—his, Keira's and those lies told to keep them apart—his life is irrevocably changed and he once again takes Keira down with him into the fire that threatens to ignite them both.

Spinning Out


Lexi Ryan - 2016
    I had it all, and I threw it away with a semester of drugs, alcohol, and pissing off anyone who tried to stop me. Now I’m suspended from the team, on house arrest, and forced to spend a semester at home to get my shit together. The cherry on my fuckup sundae? Sleeping in the room next to mine is my best friend’s girl, Mia Mendez—the only woman I’ve ever loved and a reminder of everything I regret.I’m not sure if having Mia so close will be heaven or hell. She’s off-limits—and not just because she’s working for my dad. Her heart belongs to someone else. But since the accident that killed her brother and changed everything, she walks around like a zombie, shutting out her friends and ignoring her dreams. We’re both broken, numb, and stuck in limbo.Until I break my own rules and touch her. Until she saves me from my nightmares by climbing into my bed. Until the only thing I want more than having Mia for myself is to protect her from the truth. I can’t rewrite the past, but I refuse to leave her heart in the hands of fate. For this girl, I’d climb into the sky and rearrange the stars.SPINNING OUT is a sexy, emotional novel of 100,000 words. It is first in the Blackhawk Boys, a series of standalone novels.

Silver Heart


Victoria Green - 2013
    Since then, she's done her best to forget the past, put her dreams on hold, and play the role of the perfect, dutiful daughter. When her best friend coaxes her into a winter getaway to a mountain resort, she sees it as a chance to forget about her suffocating responsibilities and the future she doesn’t want—med-school and a fake fiancé.But then the past catches up to her. Sexy Olympic snowboarder Sawyer Carter is the last person she expected to encounter on the slopes after all these years. Being around him again is intoxicating, and as bittersweet memories mix with dark desires, she starts to wonder if maybe they really are meant to be.But Dylan doesn't believe in fate, and a future with Sawyer no longer factors into her risk-free plans. As he dares her to be the person she has always wanted to be, can she find it within herself to abandon her fears and seize this opportunity for a second chance? One thing is certain: after a week in Whistler, Dylan’s life will never be the same.

Falling for Autumn


Heather Topham Wood - 2014
    Everyone thought they knew what happened the spring night Autumn’s world fell apart. Vicious rumors about the incident circulated, and she had to be homeschooled the last year of high school to escape her tormentors. All she wants now is to get away from it all and start over at Cook University. She leaves everything but the memory behind—something she swore she’d never forget—and sets off to rebuild what was broken.Blake Preston is precisely the type of guy Autumn wants to avoid. He’s gorgeous, arrogant and the college’s beloved football star. As much as she believes he’s someone she should steer clear of, avoiding him proves to be impossible. He shows up everywhere around campus, offering her a no-strings attached friendship. Autumn can’t deny Blake stirs up emotions she thought fled years ago. But things he’s been hiding begin to emerge and collide with her past, leaving her heart ravaged in their wake.Standalone New Adult Romance-Ages 17+ Due to Strong Language and Sexual Situations

On the Rocks


Sawyer Bennett - 2014
    Now he’s returned home to the sand and salty breeze of the North Carolina Outer Banks so he can open The Last Call, a beach bar nestled among the dunes of the Atlantic.Five years ago, Gabby Ward drunkenly threw herself at her best friend’s brother, only to have her young heart crushed. Hunter is back but Gabby is content to stay far away from him and his dangerously charming ways. Gabby’s well-schemed plans to ignore Hunter go up in flames when he presents her an offer she simply can’t refuse. Working together day in and day out proves problematic for two reasons—Gabby realizes her feelings for Hunter are still very much alive, while Hunter struggles to break through to Gabby’s cold heart. What starts out as a mutual business arrangement soon turns into a passion that neither can deny.But when the pro surfing tour comes knocking and Hunter has a chance to reclaim his former glory, hard choices lie ahead for both of them.Choices that could destroy what they have built or take them further than they could ever dare to hope in their second chance at romance.

No Attachments


Tiffany King - 2013
    She knows she left behind a trail of pain, but in the long run, her betrayal will hurt less than the truth. She now has one goal: Live life to the fullest with no regrets and no attachments. She has high hopes that a move to new surroundings will provide the escape she desires, but what Ashton doesn't count on is how fate always seems to find a way to screw up any good plan. Sometimes, when love comes knocking, the pull is too strong not to answer. Suddenly, what she thought she wanted to escape from is what Ashton now wants more than anything.Nathan Lockton has one mission: find his target and complete the task he was hired to do—no attachments and no emotion necessary. He's done it over and over again. What he thought was a typical lost-and-found job has turned into a life examining moment as Nathan is forced to deal with something he has always ignored--his feelings. Now faced with a decision, Nathan must choose to either follow his heart or complete the job.Love can come when you least expect it. The question is: If the odds are stacked against you, how far are you willing to go for the one you love?Recommended for ages 17+ due to sexual situations, language and mature subject matter.

The Hard Way


Katie Ashley - 2016
    Because of his talent at football, coupled with his father’s wealth, he’s always gotten his way. But when a night of drunken debauchery lands him in hot water with the college athletic board, neither his influential father nor his charming grin can save him. He finds it a total buzz kill when he is sentenced to community service with troubled youth at an inner-city shelter. But his nightmare is only beginning when his greatest high school regret is the very one in charge of the program, and she has him by the balls in more ways than one.For Avery Prescott, senior year was a nightmare of epic proportions, and Cade Hall played the lead villain. After she fled her small town for college in the bright lights of Atlanta, she thought she had escaped the painful memories of her past. She never could have imagined Cade would waltz through the door of the outreach program she presided over. But Avery has news for Cade--she isn’t the same shy, doormat of a girl she was in high school. Since she holds Cade's football future in her hands, she’s more than ready to make payback a real bitch.Will the two stay in the defensive zone or discover that sometimes life's greatest lessons are learned the hard way?

There's Only Been You


Donna Marie Rogers - 2008
    Two weeks after he accused her of cheating and disappeared from her life, Sara discovered she was something she never expected to be--an unwed pregnant teenager.But with the love and support of her annoyingly alpha-male family, she's managed to make a good life for herself and her young son. She even owns her own business, Sara's Bakery, which she's built into a thriving success. Sure, she works too hard and her social life is nonexistent, but for the most part, she's content.Until the day Detective Mike Andrews walks into her bakery and back into her life...

Fighting For a Second Chance


Nikki Ash - 2016
    I’m starting college and can’t be distracted. Besides, he has his own life to get back to.  CooperThe moment I saw her I knew she was the one, but what my heart wants it doesn’t get. I know how life works. I’ve been fighting most of my life. My dad was a fighter, and so was his dad. I watched my mom cheat on him, and in return, he destroyed her. I will never do that to a woman. I get thirty hours with Liz and then we’re both walking away. At the end of the day, all we’ll have are the memories we have created here in Miami. ***Five years later, Liz runs into Cooper, only he has no idea that memories weren’t the only thing they created in Miami. He broke her heart once the day he left and now she’s guarded. Will he succeed in winning her heart over a second time? The only thing he knows for sure is that he’s fighting for a second chance, and this time, he won’t let her go that easily.

One Pink Line


Dina Silver - 2011
    With heart, humor and compassion, this debut work of women's fiction is certain to stir anyone who relishes a good laugh, can stand a good cry, and, above all believes in the redemptive power of love.This unique, contemporary story gives readers a dual perspective. Sydney Shephard, a sweet-tempered, strong-natured college senior is young, in love with an exceptional man, and unexpectedly pregnant. Faced with a child she never planned for, she is forced to relay this news to her neurotic mother, relinquish her youth, and risk losing the love of her life. Then there's Grace, a daughter, who believed she was a product of this great love, grows to realize her existence is not what she assumed, and is left with profound and puzzling questions about who she really is.Spanning generations and every imaginable emotion, One Pink Line reveals how two points of view can be dramatically at odds, and perhaps ultimately reconciled. Simultaneously deeply felt and lighthearted, One Pink Line deftly mines how the choices we make are able to alter so many lives, and how doing the right thing and living honestly can bring unexpected, hard-won happiness. It's a must-read for anyone who craves a great love story, absorbing characters, and plenty of laughs along the way.

Relatively Famous


Jessica Park - 2010
    Now meet Mark Ocean: A self-serving actor with a floundering career who sees that a daughter is just what he needs to reinvent himself as a family man and get back on track. When the two decide to spend the summer together, they must not only wrangle their own love lives, but try to figure out who they really are to themselves and to each other.Now armed with credit cards, club memberships, and a new wardrobe, Dani learns that what Mark has in wealth, he sorely lacks in parenting skills. Trying to show Mark that parenting is about more than loading her up with Prada bags and taking her to movie premieres is challenging enough, but she's also got her hands full with her new friends. Oh, and the boys... Dani meets Jason, a gorgeous young personal trainer who is easy on the eyes and wildly flirtatious. But is this smug hottie the one for her? Or will she ignore her friends eye-rolling and go for the goofy but sweet surfer?While juggling her own complicated love life, Dani tries to set her father up with someone less likely to appear on a VH1 reality show, and someone more... well, normal. And age-appropriate. And dressed in anything but a thong bikini. But whether Mark is able to heal old wounds and move forward with anything more than a meaningless fling remains to be seen.Can Dani fit in with this new, fast-moving California crowd without losing herself? With the world at her fingertips and hot boys now after her, staying grounded gets tough. And can Mark drop his egocentric approach to life and learn to appreciate how truly wonderful his daughter is? As driven as he is to get that A-list acting role, he's willing to do whatever it takes to get there, even if it means using his daughter. Or is he...? Mark and Dani's relationship hits a few highs, but the question becomes whether the lows are too much.

King of the Court


R.S. Grey - 2021
    That’s why everyone is all in a tizzy over the fact that the USA men’s Olympic basketball team will be training here of all places before this year’s Summer Games. With little else to talk about, rumors about the players have been spreading like wildfire, and there’s one man in the middle of it all holding a match.Ben Castillo.NBA champion.Olympic gold medalist.Widely hailed ‘King of the Court’.The morning he walks into my dingy diner, I have enough sense to keep my head down and go right on wiping tables, pouring coffee, and serving up short stacks. A man who looks like that—superstar or not—has only ever meant trouble, and more trouble is the last thing I need, what with taking care of Nan and scraping by on tips from truckers.If anything, he seems drawn to my indifference. His steely gaze pierces me behind the counter. My knees nearly buckle under the weight of his attention. But while Mr. Pretty Boy is probably used to snagging city girls with a smile, this gal is country strong.I won’t be some clichéd convenience for him on his way through town.So look over your choices carefully, Benny-boy. We serve up sides of hash browns here, not heartbreak.

Game Player


B.J. Harvey - 2016
    Matt Taylor’s motto:“I’m the king of the cut ‘n’ run. I wine them, dine them, then slide inside them, making sure I get up, get dressed and get out before they can even utter the words “second date.” Mia Roberts’ motto:“I’m queen of the chase. I meet them, greet them, date them and leave them. A social butterfly, I’m happily single and happy to stay that way.”The players have been found. The challenge has been set. Whatever happens, they’ll soon find out that playing the game can get you played in the best possible way.

Simply Irresistible


Rachel Gibson - 1998
    Hockey superstar John Kowalsky unknowingly helps her escape, and only when it's too late does he realize that he's absconded with his boss's bride. This bad boy isn't looking to be anybody's savior but his own. Still, a long night stretches ahead of them—a night too sultry to resist temptation.Seven years later, Georgeanne and John meet again. She is on her way to becoming Seattle's domestic darling and he is past his hellraising days. Shocked to learn that he has a daughter, John's determined to be part of her life. Georgeanne has loved John since the moment she jumped into his car, but will he risk the wrath of his boss, and one final chance at glory, to prove that this time his love will be everlasting?

Trailer Park Heart


Rachel Higginson - 2018
    It’s my legacy. That’s how my mama lived. And that’s how her mama lived. It’s the life I was born into and it’s the life I swore I would leave the second I was old enough to make it out. Only legacies have a funny way of sneaking up on you. An innocent decision the night of high school graduation led to a series of complications in my plans to escape. Seven years later, I’ve resigned myself to this small town and the roots I’m tied to. Nothing could make me leave. And nothing could make me spill the secrets that keep me here. Until he walks back into town with a chip on his shoulder and a stupid hunch nobody else in town has been smart enough to follow. Levi Cole is my opposite. Born on the right side of the tracks with family money to spare, he’s the kind of black sheep that can afford to be rebellious—because his family will always pay for his mistakes. He’s also the only living heir to Cole Family Farms, after his brother Logan was killed in duty seven years ago. He sees something in my life that he thinks he has a right to. But he’s wrong. And obnoxious. And he needs to take his stubborn good looks and that intense way he looks at me and go back to wherever it was he came from. I know better than to trust men like him. I was born and raised in a trailer park, I know nothing good happens to girls like me—girls with trailer park lives and trailer park hearts. Especially from gorgeous, kind, pigheaded men like him.