Book picks similar to
Always Love You by Megan Smith
adult
best-friends
love
family
Say You'll Be Mine
Maria Luis - 2017
Twelve years, three cities, and too many pairs of stilettos later, Shaelyn Lawrence is back in the one place she vowed never to return: New Orleans.Thankfully, her hometown stint is temporary. Better yet, she has a plan guaranteed to get her out ASAP: Return her aging-but-still-crazy grandmother back to health;Help her cousin with her boutique;Evade Brady Taylor, her high school sweetheart, a.k.a the reason she fled Louisiana in the first place.Brady isn't even a footnote... until one unexpected run-in with him changes everything. She shouldn't be tempted by his drawl, she shouldn't be tempted by the promise of his kiss, she shouldn't want him.But she does.Oh, boy, this was so not the plan.----------Twelve years, one city, and too many issued traffic tickets later, Homicide Detective Brady Taylor is all geared up for being promoted to sergeant within the New Orleans Police Department. Or, he would be — if he wasn't sitting in third place.Thankfully, he's cut out every possible distraction:Hanging out with his buddies;Women;And, God help him, football.His life should be distraction-free... but then Shaelyn Lawrence waltzes back into it, with her sexy red lips, curvy body, and her f***-me heels. Brady should run in the opposite direction. He definitely shouldn't spend time pursuing her, kissing her, or landing her in his bed.But he does.Shaelyn may have left once, but Brady is determined to prove that Shaelyn belongs in New Orleans. She belongs with him. For fans of Jill Shalvis and Lauren Layne, Maria Luis’ new sexy contemporary romance will leave you laughing and desperate for more! SAY YOU'LL BE MINE is the first full-length novel in the NOLA Heart series, but can be read as a standalone.
The Wedding Game
Meghan Quinn - 2021
So it’s only natural that Luna would convince her brother and his husband-to-be to compete on The Wedding Game, a “do-it-yourself” TV show, for the title of Top DIY Wedding Expert.As a jaded divorce lawyer, Alec Baxter scoffs at weddings and romance. But when his recently engaged brother begs him to participate in The Wedding Game, Alec grudgingly picks up a glue gun and prepares for some family bonding.Both fierce competitors, Luna and Alec clash on national TV as harsh words and glitter fly with abandon. But as they bicker over color swatches and mood boards, they find themselves fighting something else: their growing mutual attraction. While Luna is torn between family loyalty and her own feelings, Alec wonders if he might have been wrong about love and marriage all along…
Never Kiss a Stranger
Winter Renshaw - 2015
His name was Wilder, and his profile was blank – just a sexy picture of a man who promised every wicked intention of a one-night stand. The agreement was simple. One night. No last names. But the second their bodies melded together in the sheets of their posh Manhattan hotel room, there was no denying they fit together like two pieces of a broken puzzle. There’s just one problem… Addison unknowingly swiped right on the one man she wasn’t supposed to be with – her new stepbrother. All it takes is one bite of forbidden fruit to become addicted, but being with him has major consequences for their entire family. And if anyone found out about them, the career she worked so hard to build would crumble to the ground. But Wilder Van Cleef doesn’t care about the possibility of a scandal. He wants her, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes. PLEASE NOTE: This is a standalone, full-length romance novel with NO cliffhanger. Contains a dominating alpha male hero and scenes of a sexual nature. Please be 18+.
Butterfly in Frost
Sylvia Day - 2019
But I’m settled now. In a place I love, in a home I renovated, spending time with new friends I adore, and working a job that fulfills me. I am reconciling the past and laying the groundwork for the future.Then Garrett Frost moves in next door.He’s obstinate and too bold, a raging force of nature that disrupts the careful order of my life. I recognize the ghosts that haunt him, the torment driving him. Garrett would be risky in any form, but wounded, he’s far more dangerous. I fear I’m too fragile for the storm raging inside him, too delicate to withstand the pain that buffets him. But he’s too determined…and too tempting.And sometimes hope soars above even the iciest desolation.Emotional and heartrending, Butterfly in Frost marks a brilliant return by global sensation Sylvia Day, the #1 international multimillion bestselling author of the Crossfire saga.
This Thing Called Love
Miranda Liasson - 2015
When her sister dies in a car accident, the career-oriented Olivia suddenly becomes the guardian to her four-week-old niece, Annabelle. She also becomes a challenge for Annabelle’s uncle, Brad Rushford, an old flame whose gorgeous green eyes bring Olivia’s fevered memories rushing back.As the two circle each other in their small hometown of Mirror Lake, Olivia finds that Brad is as sexy and charming as ever—and now he’s the darling of the town as he expands his successful lakefront restaurant. Is his flirting designed to get serious, or to lower Olivia’s defenses to give up guardianship? When she finds out about the turreted, brick Victorian house Brad tours with a realtor and an attractive, no-strings-attached reporter—the same place where he and Olivia shared an unforgettable night years ago—Olivia wonders if he’s looking for a future with her, or planning to start a new life with someone else?In the first heartwarming Mirror Lake story, steamy trysts and surprising twists lead two people to a future neither one expected.
Material Girl
Julia London - 2003
Glamorous jet-setter Robin Lear gets a crash course in Reality 101 when her father demotes her from her cushy job in the family business. And thanks to a sexy contractor, her scrap-metal love life is about to undergo some major renovations.
Home Tears
Tijan - 2016
Her mother died. Her two sisters loathed her. One aunt hated her. The other was strangely distant, but the worst storm—being dumped by her childhood best friend/high school boyfriend/first love for her younger sister. There went the one person who was hers and with that, the main reason she stuck around. So, she left for ten years. But now she’s back, and nothing’s the same. With help from Jonah Bannon, a reformed—kind of—bad boy she remembers from high school, Dani uncovers family secrets that have spanned generations. And along with those, she’s about to face the biggest sh*t storm of her life. Only this time, she may not survive.
Worth the Wait
Jamie Beck - 2015
James. Since then, her love for David has only intensified thanks to years of friendship with his family, who rescued her from a lonely, tumultuous childhood. As she travels to Block Island to vacation with the St. James siblings, Vivi daydreams about reuniting with David, hoping he’ll finally see her as his soul mate.After his mother’s death, David distanced himself from his siblings, determined to hide a devastating family secret. Now, he’s brought a new girlfriend along to his homecoming—one who’s pushing for a serious commitment. The last thing he needs on his growing list of problems is his budding attraction to Vivi.With tensions running high, David’s behavior triggers a series of events that might cost him the love he’s always taken for granted and Vivi the only real family she’s ever known.
The Start of Us
Lauren Blakely - 2013
Last Times. Connections. And No Regrets...I only wanted a tattoo. A mark on my body to remind me of who I used to be. Something to hold onto when I started my penance for all the things I’d done wrong, the bad choices I’d made by the time I turned nineteen. Instead, I found a night of possibility, of truth, of hope for the future. And the most intense physical connection I’ve ever had. The only one I’ve ever had, and one I will never forget.Trey...When she walked into my tattoo shop, I knew she was like me. Harley had secrets. She had a messed-up past, and things she wanted to run from, or forget ever happened. I couldn’t let her go. So we agreed on one night – to spend it together wandering around the city, getting to know each other, the clock ticking because we knew tomorrow would bring an end to the possibility of an us.Unless tonight was only the start.How can one night be the start of something when tomorrow it has to end?
180 Seconds
Jessica Park - 2017
For Allison Dennis, all it takes is 180 seconds…After a life spent bouncing from one foster home to the next, Allison is determined to keep others at arm’s length. Adopted at sixteen, she knows better than to believe in the permanence of anything. But as she begins her third year in college, she finds it increasingly difficult to disappear into the white noise pouring from her earbuds.One unsuspecting afternoon, Allison is roped into a social experiment just off campus. Suddenly, she finds herself in front of a crowd, forced to interact with a complete stranger for 180 seconds. Neither she, nor Esben Baylor, the dreamy social media star seated opposite her, is prepared for the outcome.When time is called, the intensity of the experience overwhelms Allison and Esben in a way that unnerves and electrifies them both. With a push from her oldest friend, Allison embarks on a journey to find out if what she and Esben shared is the real thing—and if she can finally trust in herself, in others, and in love.
Breaking Up with Barrett
Katy Regnery - 2014
(Except Alex. He's a womanizing manwhore. And maybe Stratton, because he's wicked hot, but super awkward around girls.)Barrett English, aka "the Shark," is the fair-haired, first-born of the English brothers, and the CEO of the oldest, most prestigious investment banking firm in Philadelphia. He rules the boardroom with an iron fist, refusing to take no for an answer and always getting his way.Emily Edwards, a first-year doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, grew up in the gatehouse on the outskirts of Barrett's childhood estate. The daughter of his family's gardener and housekeeper, she was always looking through the window of privilege, but forced to remember her place at the very periphery of the kingdom.When business partners suggest that a fiancee might soften Barrett's image over business dinners, he approaches Emily for the "job" of fiancee. And while love wasn't necessarily on Barrett's radar, he begins to realize that Emily always has been. But will his take-no-prisoners boardroom tactics work on the heart of the woman he loves.____________________________*All books in The English Brothers series are approximately 200 pages. The RWA classifies this as "Mid-length Contemporary Romance."
F*ck Marriage
Tarryn Fisher - 2019
Shamed and divorced, Billie retreated to her family home in Port Townsend, far from her old life in New York. After a near-death encounter, Billie decides to return to the city that took everything from her. But sometimes in the midst of heartache, hope suffocates the pain. Satcher Gable has carried a torch for Billie for ten years. When she suddenly returns to New York a single woman, he can't believe his good fortune. But convincing her to walk away from her heartache is proving more difficult than Satcher anticipated. A changed woman, Billie's only goal is revenge.
Catching Lucy
Terri Anne Browning - 2015
I’m no different. I’ve had some really amazing ups, but I’ve also had some crap-tastic downs.When I was four, my biological mother died. I don’t remember crying for her. She’d never been the type to cuddle me, tuck me in, and read bedtime stories. That job was pushed off onto my sister Lana. She did her best to take care of me until Mom died. After the funeral we went to live with our older sister, Layla and I got to see what a real mother was supposed to be like.When I was six we moved to Malibu for Layla’s new job as the housekeeper to one of the worlds most popular rock bands and their manager. When my sisters told me that we were going to live with Demons I was definitely not looking forward to it. Then I met Nik, Drake, Shane, Emmie and the man that would one day become one of my favorite people in the world. Jesse Thornton.By Christmas my oldest sister was married to the Demon’s Wings drummer. Six months later they made me theirs and adopted me. The day I became Jesse’s daughter was one of the best days of my life. I felt like I belonged to someone for the first time in my life.But you know the rules of fate, or at least the rules it feels like those bitches have specifically for me. Something truly amazing always seems to be followed by something really, really shitty. When I was nine, my real dad was released from prison and tried to take me. I still have nightmares about that night.I got through it, though. My parents sent me to a good therapist, but it was my best friend Harris who really got me through that time in my life. When I couldn’t sleep I would call him and no matter how tired he was he would stay up and talk to me until I would finally fall into an exhausted sleep. He was the kind of friend that one text and he would drop everything for me.To bad my hormones got in the way of our friendship. At twelve, puberty hit me hard, and the love I felt for my best friend got complicated with a crush. They’re called crushes for a reason, something I’d learned real quick that year. I pushed him away to avoid the agonizing pain that my crush made me feel.Now it’s been years since I’ve seen him. He’s graduated from college and moved forward with his dream by opening his first club. First Bass is the most popular nightclub in not just Los Angeles, but all of California. I’m so proud of him, but I’ve avoided going to check it out. After an email that twisted my heart into knots I’m finally going to head over there.Maybe I won’t still be crushing on him. Maybe we can go back to being best friends.Maybe…The series will have 3 novellas and end with a full length book in 2016.
Resisting
Chelle Bliss - 2014
It's only available to newsletter subscribers**--This is NOT a follow up novella to Resist Me--Can be read as a series starter and a stand alone-- I belong to no one. It’s the way I’ve chosen to live. Master of my own destiny, finding my way through this bullshit thing called life. I learned from a young age how to get my way. Being a woman isn’t a weakness. It’s the opposite. I’ve spent my life being surrounded by four overbearing brothers, but I’ve never been a wallflower. Independent and unwilling to be tied down, I grabbed life by the balls and lived it to the fullest. I was enjoying myself, minding my own business at my brothers wedding. Then WHAM. Ever have a man walk into your life and alter your entire universe? My answer would’ve been no before he tempted me into his bed. I’m talking about the big damn bang. Everything that I thought was right, suddenly spins on its axis and bitch slaps me in the face. Warning: Contains graphic language - mature audiences only
The Smallest Part
Amy Harmon - 2018
The biggest lie she’d ever told. It reverberated through her head as she said it, ringing eerily, and the girl behind her eyes—the girl who knew the truth—screamed, and her scream echoed along with the lie. “Are you in love with Noah, Mercedes?” Cora asked. “I mean . . . I know you love him. You’ve been friends forever. We all have. But are you in love with him?” If it had been anyone else—anyone—Mercedes would have stuck out her chest, folded her skinny arms, and let her feelings be known. She would have claimed him. But it was Cora. Brave, beautiful, broken Cora, and Cora loved Noah too. So Mercedes lied. And with that lie, she lost him. With that lie, she sealed her fate.She was the best friend, the bridesmaid, the godmother, the glue. She was there for the good times and the bad, the ups and the downs, the biggest moments and the smallest parts. And she was there when it all came crashing down. This is the tale of the girl who didn’t get the guy.