Book picks similar to
A Missing Heart by Shari J. Ryan


arc
contemporary-romance
standalone
ugly-cry

Life's A Cappella


Yessi Smith - 2013
    How I lived without regrets. With constant laughter. Without any tears. I want to tell you how I lived each moment to the fullest. How each breath I took was fresh and full of life. With eagerness. Without any fear.I want to tell you all of that, but then my story would be masked with lies and not worth telling.My life didn’t start until I left my past. And I left everything. My mother, my friends, my name.My new name, the name everyone knows me by is Erin Lewis.Four years after finding the courage to leave her hometown in Alabama, Erin is finally happy with where her life has led her. Not only is she secure in her environment, but the relationships she has formed center her, making her forget how damaged she once was. Before she can fully settle into her new life, her past crashes into her present, unraveling a set of events that destroy the very foundation she has built her new life on.

For Lucy


Jewel E. Ann - 2021
    Ann comes a novel so heartfelt and real it redefines the meaning of love. I’m the wrong guy in the right place the night I steal Tatum Bradshaw from another man. When she mistakes me for her blind date, I decide she deserves a man who shows up on time … like me. Emmett Riley, Mr. Punctual. Once I confess my true identity and convince her I’m not a creep—just a thief—it’s only a matter of time before my sexy smile and quick wit claim her heart, her hand in marriage, and the perfect life. Unfortunately, perfection is an illusion, like the promises of our wedding vows. No one can prepare for the unimaginable—the heartbreaking exception to all the rules in life.When thirty seconds destroys everything, I have to find a new existence and keep my promise to always love our daughter, Lucy, the most. For Lucy, I will keep a secret, and I will watch my wife drift into the arms of another man.Given the chance … can I reclaim my wife and the pieces of our life?

Just Human


Kerry Heavens - 2013
    She knows she loves him more than he loves her, so she lets him go without a fight when his parents make him move back to America. She knows she will never love anyone like she loved him, but she has to move on.Danny loves Liv. He knows he loves her more than she loves him, because she does nothing to get him to stay, so he goes quietly when his parents leave the UK. He knows he will never love anyone like he loved her, but he has to move on.Twelve years on, they have made a good job of pretending, they may have almost forgotten. But when they get in touch via Facebook, it seems that it is all still there. They quickly find that they are intensely compatible in ways they hadn’t even begun to explore before they were forced apart. Can they put aside their fears and give it a go? Or will deep rooted doubts and insecurities tear them apart?

Muscle


Lexi Whitlow - 2018
    Now I'm a star. The hottest director in Hollywood wants me. All I want is his daughter. Hourglass figure. Legs that don't quit. She'll take my commands, then I'll take her to bed. Too bad her daddy hates me, because Winter's pregnant. If the tabloids get hold of this, I'm done. If her daddy finds out, I'm dead. But Winter's mine. And SEALS don't quit. Screw the fame and fortune. I'm about to show my muscle, and this display ain't for the cameras. Can I convince Winter's dad I'm all she needs... or will this be our last take? Muscle is a 60,000 word romance novel with lots of steamy second chance scenes, love and redemption, absolutely no cheating, and a bit of well-cooled revenge. Enjoy!

Crazy Sexy Love


K.L. Grayson - 2018
    Hard work, sweat, and determination have gotten him where he is today—and that’s holed up in a hospital room, wondering how he let that damn bull buck him off. He’s also wondering why he thought it was a good idea to let his twin brother talk him into returning home to heal.Rhett has a million reasons to come home to Heaven, Texas, and only one reason to stay away. That reason comes in the form of a sweet and feisty girl who stole his heart long before he ever thought to give it away. The only problem…that girl has turned into a stunning woman.Monroe Gallagher is downright sexy with more curves than County Line Road. It’s been six years since he’s seen her, six years since he’s felt any form of peace, and six years since she gripped his heart in her delicate little hands and squeezed the life out of it. The longer he’s in Heaven, the more he starts to realize that the heart she took from him—the one she crushed into a million pieces—she also never gave back.★ Release date: March 21★ Request an ARC here --> http://bit.ly/CrazySexyLoveEVENTS

Bouquet Toss


Melissa Brown - 2012
    Be it a blessing or a curse, Daphne (a hopeless romantic and perpetual single girl) catches the bouquet at every single wedding she attends. Daphne’s love life is a mess. Her first love, Mayson, haunts her heart and keeps her from pursuing happiness with any man who comes along. As she struggles to move on from the one who got away, Daphne wonders if she will ever break her curse and find her happily ever after.

Away


B.A. Wolfe - 2013
    One night of pure weakness and lust has her running away from it all and seeking refuge in Alamosa with her best friend. But it seems life has other plans for her when she finds herself lost in the small town of Keaton. Jason Bradley is a charming country guy. He lives a simple life that’s nothing like what Cassandra is used to. A single moment in life changed everything he thought he once knew, leaving him with a broken heart and an unplanned future. What happens in Keaton is nothing Cassandra or her heart could have ever prepared for. The instant connection she shares with Jason is no secret, but what they're keeping hidden from one another is. Will these two be able to find a way to trust each other or will their secrets tear them apart?

Divided


Livia Jamerlan - 2013
    A great job, amazing friends, and a loving fiancé. Traveling to Las Vegas for her bachelorette party, she never expects to come across someone who rocks her world the way Ryan Kraft does. Though they only share a few hours together, the connection she feels with him is undeniable. Thinking that her feelings for him may be cold feet she brushes it off and attempts to focus on her fiancé and their impending nuptials. Heartbroken by her fiancé only days before their wedding, she finds herself needing to escape, needing to hide from reality. Though Alani knows that Ryan lives in Grand Forks, North Dakota, she never thought their paths would cross again while she is there.Their friendship changes to something more with a good night kiss. Needing to be with Ryan, she leaves her old life in New Jersey behind and moves halfway across the country. As they journey together in a new relationship Alani has to adapt to life in a new city, new job, as well as dealing with Ryan's ex-girlfriend Stephanie, who is waiting for the perfect moment to get Ryan back. But will her fiancé let Alani walk away from him without a fight? Will Alani's love for Ryan be enough for her to stay with him through turmoil? Or will Stephanie’s secret tear them apart?

Ignite


Tessa Teevan - 2013
    One to the Army; the other in a tragic car accident. Two years after the latter, a ghost from the past reappears, igniting feelings in Alexa she’d thought long dormant.Jace McAllister has spent the last ten years in the Army, defusing bomb after bomb, trying to forget the girl who once set his world on fire. For him, she’s always been the one who got away. After a not-so-chance encounter places her back in his line of sight, he’s locked eyes on target, and won’t let her go without a fight.Ten years ago their chemistry smoldered, and now the sparks threaten to light a fuse leading to an explosion between them even Jace can’t control. Not that he wants to. But when love has slipped through your fingertips before, how can you trust it will once again remain?Will Alexa’s fear of love and loss destroy their second chance at a beautiful future before it can even begin?

One Day Soon


A. Meredith Walters - 2016
    I stayed with him through darkness and fire. We loved each other in the moment between innocence and bitter truth. We were the kids easily ignored, who grew into adults we hardly knew. We weren’t meant to last forever. And we didn’t. He ran away. I tried to move on. Yet I never stopped thinking about the boy who had fought to keep me alive in a world that would have swallowed me whole. He was the past that I buried, but never forgot. Until the day I found him again, years after believing I had lost him forever. And in cold, resentful eyes, I saw the heart of the man who had been everything when I had nothing at all. So I vowed to hold onto the second chance that was stolen from the children we had been. Sometimes fate is ugly. Life can be twisted. And who we are can be ruined by who we once were. For two people who had survived so much, we would have to learn how to hold on before we were forced to let go.

Black Box


Cassia Leo - 2014
    Their first encounter changes Mikki's life forever, but their second meeting leaves them both buried beneath the emotional wreckage of a violent attack. Mikki is left with more questions and grief than she can handle, while Crush is forced to forget the girl who saved his life.Now nineteen years old, Mikki Gladstone has decided she's tired of the mind-numbing meds. She books a flight to Los Angeles to end her life far away from her loving, though often distant, family.Twenty-one-year-old Crush has always channeled his blackest thoughts into his music, but he's never had great aspirations. He decides to fly to Los Angeles to record a demo of the only song he's never performed in public; a song he wrote for a girl he doesn't even know: Black Box. He has no expectations of fame and he's never felt like his life had any purpose... until he meets Mikki in Terminal B.When Mikki and Crush cross paths for the third time in Terminal B, neither has any idea who the other person is; until they slowly piece together their history and realize that fate has more in store for them than just another love story.

Unethical


Jennifer Blackwood - 2014
    The second she graduated, Payton left everything behind―her high school sweetheart, her family, and the controversy surrounding her mother's death—and hid within the anonymity of college. But Payton’s ex, Blake Hiller, hasn't forgiven her for leaving, and when he enrolls in the same medical ethics class, she panics. She can’t run the risk of him telling everyone who she really is. As if being at the same university isn’t enough, both Blake and Payton land the same internship. Forced together, their passion for each other reignites, but when Payton is asked to testify in her father’s high-profile trial, she must choose between risking her acceptance into medical school to help her father, and losing every connection to her past—including the only guy she’s ever loved.

Every Little Piece of Me


Lexi Ryan - 2020
    . . and the wedding invitation that changes it all. The first time I saw Brinley Knox, she was crying and heartbroken at her own sweet sixteen party. The daughter of the wealthiest family in Orchid Valley, she was off limits to someone like me—the teenage charity case, the hired help.But that didn’t stop me from kissing her. Or from promising if she were ever mine, I’d never let her go.The last time I saw Brinley Knox, I made good on that promise. Forget that it was the first time we’d seen each other in ten years, or that we were drunk in Vegas when we said I do. I meant every word, every touch, every promise.The problem? When I came back to the hotel, she was gone—the ring I slipped on her finger and the note she left behind the only reminders she had been there. Well, those and the hole she left in my chest in place of my heart.We haven’t spoken in the six months since, and I’m not the kind of guy who’d file for a divorce he doesn’t want.But when I get the invitation to her wedding to another man, it’s time to return to Orchid Valley and remind the bride-to-be that I’m a man who keeps his promises.Every Little Piece of Me is a sexy, standalone second-chance romance in Lexi Ryan’s all-new Orchid Valley series.

Off the Hook


Laura Drewry - 2016
    Perfect for readers of Jill Shalvis and Susan Mallery, the Fishing for Trouble series features three unforgettable brothers—each of whom is a great catch.Major league pitcher Liam O'Donnell knows his best days are probably behind him, but that doesn't mean he's ready to retire and become a fishing guide. Still, after all the time he's spent chasing his dreams, he owes it to his brothers to pull his weight around the lodge. The Buoys is their father's legacy, and they can't let some developer take it from them. The one snag Liam isn't counting on is a blast from the past: his ex-wife.The moment Kate Hadley steps out of the seaplane, she knows this assignment is going to be trickier than she thought. She has to persuade the owners to sell—and one of them is Liam O'Donnell. Ten years ago, she made the biggest mistake of her life when she married Liam during a fling in Vegas. Now he's her only lifeline in the middle of nowhere. Kate's trying to keep things cool, but Liam just reminds her of the scorching few nights they spent together—and tempts her to make new memories that are just as steamy as the old.

The Light in the Wound


Christine Brae - 2013
    When Jesse Cain enters her life, she falls hopelessly in love with him, and every sadness she’s ever felt is washed away by his intensity and passion. But people change as they grow up. Things can never stay the same forever.Jesse and Isabel fight to stay together, determined to hold on to what they once had. Isabel wonders if a second love can ever be enough to make her forget her first.*Kindle version also available