Book picks similar to
A Little Broken by Juli Valenti


contemporary-romance
emotional
contemporary
stand-alone

The Summer Remains


Seth King - 2015
    The first is that due to a quickly worsening medical condition, she faces a risky surgery in three months’ time that may or may not end in her death. The second is that she would like to fall in love before then.As spring sinks into her namesake season on the Florida coastline, Summer plays the odds and downloads a new dating app - and after one intriguing message from a beautiful surfer named Cooper Nichols, it becomes clear that the story of what may be her last few months under the sun is about to be completely revised. All she has to do now is write something worth reading.Tender, honest, devastating and triumphant, The Summer Remains explores a very human battle being waged in a very digital age: the search for a love that will outlast this temporary borrowing of bones. In an era when many feel compelled to share and re-share anything about everything, prepare to feel a love so special, you will want to hug it close and make it yours forever.

A Wish for Us


Tillie Cole - 2018
    A story of healing. A story of love conquering all.Nineteen-year-old Cromwell Dean is the rising star of electronic dance music. Thousands of people adore him. But no one knows him. No one sees the color of his heart.Until the girl in the purple dress. She sees through the walls he has built to the empty darkness within.When Cromwell leaves behind the gray skies of England to study music in the South Carolina heat, the last thing he expects is to see her again. And he certainly doesn’t expect that she’ll stay in his head like a song on repeat.Bonnie Farraday lives for music. She lets every note into her heart, and she doesn’t understand how someone as talented as Cromwell can avoid doing the same. He’s hiding from his past, and she knows it. She tries to stay away from him, but something keeps calling her back.Bonnie is the burst of color in Cromwell’s darkness. He’s the beat that makes her heart skip.But when a shadow falls over Bonnie, it’s up to Cromwell to be her light, in the only way he knows how. He must help her find the lost song in her fragile heart. He must keep her strong with a symphony only he can compose.A symphony of hope.A symphony of love.A symphony of them.

Between Here and the Horizon


Callie Hart - 2016
    You think you want to know me. But trust me, Miss Lang. Pursuing me will be the worst mistake you ever make. I’m broken beyond repair......and I take great pleasure in breaking everyone else around me.”Ophelia Lang needs money, and she needs it bad. Her parent’s restaurant is going under, and ever since she lost her job teaching third grade elementary, scraping enough cash together to pay the bills has proven almost impossible. Her parents are on the brink of losing their home. The vultures are circling overhead. So when Ophelia is offered an interview for a well-paid private tutoring gig in New York, how can she possibly say no? Ronan Fletcher is far from the overweight, balding businessman Ophelia expected him to be. He’s young, handsome, and wealthy beyond all reason. He’s also perhaps the coldest, rudest person she’s ever met, and has a mean streak in him a mile and a half wide. A hundred grand is a lot of money, however, and if tolerating his frosty temperament, his erratic mood swings and whatever else he throws at her means she’ll get paid, then that is what Ophelia will do. Her new boss is keeping secrets, though. Awful, terrible secrets. The ghosts of Ronan Fletcher’s past are about to turn Ophelia’s future upside down, and she can’t even see it coming. Note: Between Here and The Horizon is a brand new standalone contemporary romance novel from USA Today bestselling author, Callie Hart. Between Here and the Horizon does contain some scenes of violence and sexual content, and so is directed at audience 18+.

Don't Make Me Beautiful


Elle Casey - 2013
    If you liked the movie "Sleeping With the Enemy", then you might like this story too. No one knew a woman lived there or that she even existed. A monster, living in darkness...At twenty-two, Nicole doesn't even look human anymore. The beast made sure of that. So she hides. A monster, consigned to a life of fear and solitude. This is all she deserves, she is quite sure of that.  And then one day out of the blue, the autographed baseball caught by Brian Jensen at the latest Marlins game enters her prison and manages to turn her world completely upside down.Temptation comes in the form of pity at first, and then perhaps something more. Does she dare to believe the things she's told, that this is not the life she was meant to live? That being a monster is not her forever-fate? And will she be willing to risk everything, to reach out and accept the helping hands around her and share her deepest, darkest secrets? She knows only too well that hands can hurt. Finding out whether they can also heal is a risky proposition, especially when the beast is still out there. Looking for her.Content warning: Violence, foul language, and adult situations. Not meant for younger readers. A note from Elle about this book: A really long time ago, I read an article in a newspaper or a magazine (I haven’t been able to locate the original) about a woman who was so badly beaten over a long period of time, she couldn’t leave her house. I thought about that woman a lot over the years and about what her thoughts might have been, her fears, her reality … and this book was my attempt to both exorcise those thoughts from my brain and also shed some light on a subject —domestic violence— that I feel should never be left in darkness.

Fear of Falling


S.L. Jennings - 2013
    Security seemed more like a luxury to me, reserved for those who were fortunate enough to have picture perfect childhoods. For those who didn’t bear the ugly scars that keep me bound in constant, debilitating fear. I’ve run from that fear my entire life. But when I met him, for once, I couldn’t run anymore.He scared the hell out of me in a way that excited every fiber of my being. It wasn’t the tattoos or the piercings. It wasn’t the warmth that seemed to radiate from his frame and blanket me whenever he was near. It was just…him. The scary beautiful man that threatened to alter 23 years of routine and rituals, and make me face my crippling fear.My name is Kami and I am constantly afraid. And the thing that scares me the most is the very thing I want.“Don’t worry,” he smiled, pulling me into the hard warmth of his chest. “I’ve got you. I’ll always catch you when you fall.”And just like that, Blaine had staked his claim on the untouched part of me that no living soul had ever moved. He had captured every fear, every reservation, and crushed them in the palm of his inked hand.Author Disclaimer: Abuse is real- verbal, emotional, physical and sexual. It takes place all around us; it doesn’t discriminate against race or gender, wealth or poverty. It affects us all- those of us who’ve had to live through it, or watch it happen, even those of us who’ve only heard about it. We are all affected. We are all forever changed. This is not a story for the faint of heart; this is the story of one woman’s very real struggle through a world against her, the people who hurt her, her real life demons and the people who showed her that every gray sky, no matter how dark, has a sun waiting to break through.***Inspired by true events***

Sawyer Says


Carey Heywood - 2014
    Never shying away from outwardly showing her love, she struggles accepting it herself. Stubbornly, she vows to never risk her heart. Dealing with revelations she never saw coming, her impulse is to distance herself from emotional entanglements. When her past collides with her present, can Jared Keller help prove to her just how wrong her assumptions are? He is the exception to her argument that everyone leaves. Will she ever see him as something she deserves?

Sins of Sevin


Penelope Ward - 2015
     What happens when the one you want is the only one you can’t have? My name is Sevin. Homeschooled and sheltered by my ultra-religious family, I was always taught that lust was a sin. Elle was the girl who’d been carefully chosen for me. After a long-distance courtship, I’d be moving into her family’s guesthouse so that we could get to know each other in the months before the wedding. Boundaries were set: no inappropriate touching, no kissing, no sex before marriage. I’d accepted those rules and my fate. Until I met the one I wanted to sin with. That was when restraint became a problem…especially since THE ONE wasn’t Elle. It was her sister, Evangeline. You know what they say about best laid plans. My name is Sevin, and I have sinned. **Told in alternating points of view, Sins of Sevin is a full-length standalone novel. Contains graphic sexual content and harsh language. Only appropriate for adult readers age 18+.

Miss Me Not


Tiffany King - 2012
    Madison Hanson's past demons have given her a shadow of an existence with little hope. With the sudden tragic death of a fellow student, Madison questions her own life choices, and is now forced to evaluate everything she thought she believed in. When fate intervenes and partners her with Dean Jackson, a popular "all around good guy" from school, Madison gets a glimpse of a life that is filled with sunshine that has the power to break through the darkness she has cloaked herself in. With Dean's help, Madison discovers a desire to finally step out of the shadows, and embrace life and all its gifts.

Binding Arbitration


Elizabeth Marx - 2011
    The undefeated defense attorney is prepared to take her fight all the way to the majors.Circumstances force Libby to plead her case at the cleats of celebrity baseball player Banford Aidan Palowski, the man who discarded her at their college graduation. Libby has worked her backside bare for everything she’s attained, while Aidan has been indulged since he slid through the birth canal and landed in a pile of Gold Coast money. But helping Libby and living up to his biological duty could jeopardize the only thing the jock worships: his baseball career.If baseball imitates life, Aidan admits his appears to be silver-plated peanuts, until an unexpected confrontation with the most spectacular prize that’s ever poured from a caramel corn box blindsides him. When he learns about his son’s desperate need, it pricks open the wound he’s carried since he abandoned Libby and the child.All Libby wants is a little anonymous DNA, but Aidan has a magical umpire in his head who knows Libby’s a fateball right to the heart. When a six-year-old sage and a hippy priestess step onto the field, there’s more to settle between Libby and Aidan than heartache, redemption, and forgiveness.

Break Me


Harper James - 2014
    She’s been left with a bitter taste in her mouth after her father left her mother while she was still pregnant, for another woman, and started a whole new perfect family. Gemma doesn’t feel like she belongs with her father’s family—with her family—and has done everything she can to push them all away. One summer, her last summer stuck with these people, is about to change all of that. Abe North, the hunky night guard she meets by chance, breaks down Gemma’s carefully built cinderblock walls, and shows her what she’s been missing out on. He helps her to reconnect with the brother and sister she has kept at a safe distance all these years. In the end, maybe, just maybe, Abe can show Gemma that all men aren’t bad and that he’ll be the one who’ll be there for her. But is Gemma ready to accept love? Or is she too broken?

Serenading Heartbreak


Ella Fields - 2019
    A lead singer in their band.A picture of rugged perfection. And a drunk soul mate who couldn’t commit.My second love was an arrogant baseball player.A player in every sense of the word.A smooth-talking, reliable best friend. And a chance at something beautiful and true.The problem with having a first and second love? That would be loving them at the same time. My story isn’t some sexy triangle. It’s exquisite agony.Fate gave me two men to love, but none of us knew which one I could keep.

Fragile Bonds


Sloan Johnson - 2014
    When she walked out of the house Xavier Ross bought as their forever home, she thought she was closing that door permanently, but fate had other plans. Xavier Ross tried to keep everyone at a distance until Melanie came into his life. The more he tried to fight his feelings for her, the more he fell in love. One rash decision fractured the trust that was essential to their relationship. Six years later, she is the last person he expects to see walk through his front door. Will Xavier and Mel be able to learn to trust one another again so they can fulfill a dying woman’s wish?

Fighting Redemption


Kate McCarthy - 2013
    He understands pain. He knows the hand of violence and the ache of loss. He knows what it means to fail those who need you. Being broken doesn’t stop him wanting the one thing he can’t have; Finlay Tanner. Her smile is sweet and her future bright. She’s the girl he grew up with, the girl he loves, the girl he protects from the world, and from himself.At nineteen, Ryan leaves to join the Australian Army. After years of training he becomes an elite SAS soldier and deploys to the Afghanistan war. His patrol undertakes the most dangerous missions a soldier can face. But no matter how far he runs, or how hard he fights, his need for Finlay won’t let go.Returning home after six years, one look is all it takes to know he can’t live without her. But sometimes love isn’t enough to heal what hurts. Sometimes people like him can’t be fixed, and sometimes people like Finlay deserve more than what’s left.This is a story about war and the cost of sacrifice. Where bonds are formed, and friendships found. Where those who are strong, fall hard. Where love is let go, heartache is born, and heroes are made. Where one man learns that the hardest fight of all, is the fight to save himself.

Love My Way


Kate Sterritt - 2017
    Her back is to me and her shoulders are slumped, perhaps heavy with regret. It kills me to know I am partly to blame, and for that reason alone, it’s impossible to look at her. Leaning against the rough trunk of the tree, I close my eyes. My life will forever begin and end with her, and I’m unable to witness her heart breaking. Standing still is no longer an option, so I begin to pace. Is she still waiting for him or has he already left? Fear pools in my veins at the uncertainty. Above all else, I want her to be happy. If this is too hard, I’ll have to walk away again. I let out a long breath, frustrated by the whole situation. Emerson Hart is the love of my life. Unfortunately, I’m not the only love of hers. And therein lies the problem.

Darling Venom


Parker S. Huntington - 2021
    Huntington comes a broken love story laced with angst and forbidden romance.I wasn’t supposed to be on that roof on Valentine’s Day.Neither was Kellan Marchetti, the school’s designated freak.We met on the verge of ending our lives.Somehow, the tattered strings of our tragedies tangled and tightened into an unlikely bond.We decided not to take the plunge and agreed to check on each other every Valentine’s Day until school ended.Same time.One roof.Two restless souls.We kept our promise for three years.On the fourth, Kellan made a decision, and I was left to deal with the consequences.Just when I thought our story ended, another one began.They say all love stories look the same and taste different.Mine was venomous, disgraceful, and written in scarlet scars.My name is Charlotte Richards, but you can call me Venom.