Book picks similar to
Taming Zach by Amy Sparling
romance
sports
new-adult
ya
One Small Thing
Erin Watt - 2018
Her parents try to lock her down, believing they can keep her safe by monitoring her every move. When Beth sneaks out to a party one night and meets the new guy in town, Chase, she’s thrilled to make a secret friend. It seems a small thing, just for her.Only Beth doesn’t know how big her secret really is…Fresh out of juvie and determined to start his life over, Chase has demons to face and much to atone for, including his part in the night Beth’s sister died. Beth, who has more reason than anyone to despise him, is willing to give him a second chance. A forbidden romance is the last thing either of them planned for senior year, but the more time they spend together, the deeper their feelings get.Now Beth has a choice to make—follow the rules, or risk tearing everything apart…again.
Becoming Me
Staci Stallings - 2018
Just ask her. She’ll tell you. After all, he is her sister’s best friend, “royalty” in her high school, a senior, and so talented he would never notice a nobody like her. So Paige resorts to pouring her non-existent feelings for Nelson into a very special notebook, a notebook of the words that cascade through her without her knowing how or where they come from. She’s always been like that, writing words that are poetic, ephemeral, and too precious to share with anyone else. But what happens when she loses the notebook that contains the words that are such a part of her? Worse, when Nelson starts to want to hang out, can she play it cool or will he learn all the secrets she’s been keeping from everyone, even herself? Nelson Samuels knows he’s always been a little weird. For as long as he can remember, he’s done his best to keep just how weird a secret from those closest to him. Yes, they know he writes music. What they don’t know is that he hears music in haunting melodies all the time. Having learned to capture some of them into notes on a page, he struggles to share just enough of his talent without risking anyone knowing all of it. It’s only when Nelson starts to notice his best friend’s younger sister that life is about to dare him to open the deepest secrets he holds about himself to someone else. Will he be brave enough to share the imagination side of him, or will he forever stay trapped in knowing he has this amazing gift but being too afraid to share it with anyone? “Becoming Me” begins The Imagination Series by USA Today Best-Selling Christian author Staci Stallings. This set of stories begins in the very real world and takes the reader on a journey to learn that we all have gifts and talents, and those were placed inside of us by a God Who loves us and wants us to learn to use them—for ourselves, for our friends and family, for the world, and for His Kingdom. Come along on this journey that dares to ask what would happen if we all stopped judging our differences and started celebrating them instead.
Kate Unmasked
Cindy M. Hogan - 2015
After years of every lead drying up and every hope turning false, Kate finally lucks onto a promising lead.Determined to find the truth once and for all, Kate travels to the gritty New Jersey shore. But what she finds is worse than she ever could have imagined. She can't hide from who she is, and now she must face the awful consequences of finding the very people she should have been hiding from.Some secrets should stay dead and buried.
XOXO, Piper
Ginger Li - 2021
He hates donuts.2. He hates chocolate.3. He hates me.Ash may be East Beach High’s valedictorian and captain of the water polo team, but to me, he’s always been a grade-A jerk.Now, I'm taking on a project to help a local preschool, and guess who shows up to plan the fundraiser?Yup. Him.It doesn't make any sense. Why would Ash help someone he hates so much? And why does my heart race every time he’s near?XOXO, Piper is the first book in the East Beach High Series. Fans of enemies-to-lovers, first love, romantic grand gestures, and donut puns will adore this sweet novel.
His Rules
C.C. MacKenzie - 2015
And for the fans of Nico and Bronte - we meet them again in this fast-paced, hilarious read! Ambitious, workaholic Anastacia Morgan runs Ferranti Communications with a cool-head and an iron will. Her latest project is ensuring sports star Olivier Conti does what he's told in a series of adverts. Olivier is impossible with a huge ego she's more than able to handle. His smile may do wonderful things to her libido, but Ana is determined to succeed where other women fail and resist the gorgeous soccer star. However, in this game there are no rules and Olivier's never missed scoring a penalty, yet.
Wide Awake
Shelly Crane - 2013
A coma. A life she can't remember. When Emma Walker wakes up in the hospital with no knowledge of how she got there, she learns that she's been in a coma for six months. Strangers show up and claim to be her parents, but she can't remember them. She can't remember anyone. Not her friends, not even her boyfriend. Even though she can't remember, everyone wants her to just pick up where she left off, but what she learns about the 'old her' makes her start to wish she'd never woken up. Her boyfriend breaks up with the new girl he's dating to be with her, her parents want her to start planning for college, her friends want their leader back, and her physical therapist with the hazel eyes keeps his distance to save his position at the hospital. Will she ever feel like she recognizes the girl in the mirror?
Home at Last
Katherine Stone - 1999
As Lucas Hunter pursues a cunning madman called the Lady Killer who is targeting beautiful, glamorous women who have been close to Lucas, he joins forces with television journalist Galen Chandler, the vicious serial killer's next target.
The Boy Next Door
Katie Van Ark - 2015
As his figure skating partner she spends time in his arms every day. But she’s also seen his arms around other girls—lots of other girls. Gabe can't imagine skating with anyone but Maddy, and together they have a real chance at winning some serious gold medals. So, he’s determined to keep thinking of her like a sister. After all, he’s never had a romantic relationship that lasted for more than two weeks.But when their coach assigns a new romantic skating program, everything changes. Will this be the big break that Maddy’s been hoping for or the big breakup that Gabe has always feared?
Nowhere Girl
Fiona Keane - 2017
But there’s no place safe for me now. Not when the memories won’t leave me alone. I didn’t know what the universe had in store for me, but I definitely didn’t expect Jameson Burke. People think he has more secrets than I do, but he showed me his true self—his smile, his thoughtfulness, his love. I can’t afford to fall so far, so deep. Not after what happened. I should run, but somehow my heart keeps coming back to him... Jameson… I had my own reasons to run. Little did I know the most important piece of my story started and ended with the quiet girl sitting next to me in seventh period. Sophia Reid’s shy smile brought my soul out of hiding. Through her, I learned what starting over really means. But if I give in to this love, I’ll put us both in danger. For a short time, I was whole again, but what they say is right. The old me is dead, and the new one will never know love again.
Chasing Spring
R.S. Grey - 2016
I didn't belong in the small town, but my dad wouldn't listen. He dragged me back home in his beat-up truck and dropped a bomb along the way: Chase Matthews was moving in with us. He was the golden boy of my high school, my former best friend, and the last person I wanted sleeping across the hall. His presence was too great a reminder of the ghosts I was trying to forget.I didn't ask for a hero. I don't want to be saved.To me, Lilah Calloway meant late nights sneakin'; out, moonlit hair, and sparklers in July. She was my best friend until the day she left and I'd assumed Blackwater had seen the last of her. Then, like a tempest, she rolled back into town for the final half of senior year. The chopped hair and dark devil-may-care attitude warned most people away, but I knew if I fought hard enough, I could find the lost girl.I didn't want to be her hero. Some girls don't need to be saved.
Fate
Elizabeth Reyes - 2013
But this wasn’t just any guy. This was the exciting, sexy as sin, way out of her league black sheep of his family--Vincent Moreno. Even more surprising, this heart-stopping bad boy seemed interested in her. Fate always had a way of interfering in Vince’s best-laid plans. His forced attendance to his annoyingly perfect cousin’s baby shower was no different. He was sure to be bored out of his skull, but instead, he met sweet little Rosie Zendejas. What begins as a unlikely friendship between two very different people turns into one of the most intense and passionate relationships that neither ever saw coming. But just like it had so many times in Vince’s troubled past, Fate steps in once again, threatening to take away the one thing he can’t seem to even breathe without now—Rose. Mature YA - New Adult. Fate is a Moreno Brothers spinoff series. All books in the series are stand alone and can be read separately without the need to read the others in the series.
Petrified Wood (Layna Wood Book 1)
Allison O'Shea - 2018
She's accepted she might never catch the big break she's dreamed of, or ever 'make it' in Nashville's highly competitive country music scene. But when Layna returns home one day and interrupts an intruder ransacking her apartment, there's suddenly more at stake than just her musical career - like her life. Who was the intruder? What was he looking for? And - more importantly - will he be back? Layna's scared, but she's not alone. She has her best friend by her side, and a distractingly attractive cop watching her back - but will it be enough? Because if Layna's got any hope of safeguarding her future, she's going to have to look back into her past; and she might not like what she finds out.
Petrified Wood is the first of the Layna Wood series - tautly written, intense and emotional romantic suspense that fans of Barbara O'Neal, Catherine Bybee, and Tracy Buchanan will instantly embrace.
Cupid's Quest
Natalie Ann - 2020
She considers herself a successful realtor now and loves that she is doing her part to put people in their forever home. Commitment issues often remind her she may never find what she always wanted as a little girl even if she secretly dreams of love and romance, happy ever after and prince charming...that forever home of her own. Josh Turner lived through the horrific murder of his parents while he hid in the closet as a young child. He’s an investigator now sworn to protect, but those he loved...he couldn’t bear the thought of life without them. He’d lay his life on the line and make sure they never felt as scared and lonely as he had that one night. When Ruby ends up as his realtor, he realizes that she is the one he never wants to lose, if only she’d let him in.
Crossing Boundaries
Sandra Alex - 2020
An abandoned medical degree. And a woman who will make Daniel forget all that.Kayla marries Nick when she isn’t old enough to know better. With an ever-ailing mother and co-ownership of Nick’s company, Kayla is too busy to see what everyone else does until it is too late. With no children, an unfinished education, and both the intelligence and drive to move mountains, nothing can stand in Kayla’s way…until the first day of school.Daniel is hard-nosed, has a chip on his shoulder, and he has neither the time nor the desire for anything other than work. Pre-med and former military, Daniel is the chosen sibling to watch his father post-stroke, adding fuel to his ire, as his already busy life has been put on hold. He’s a loner, hard-working, he’s rich…and he is about as sexy as they come.Kayla and Daniel have a very awkward meeting….at least on the second attempt. Daniel can’t stand the once-too-forward girl he met when forced to go out with his friends, and Kayla begrudges her friends for forcing her to slip off her wedding ring and party before the ink dried on her divorce papers. Kayla never expected things to end up the way that they did, and if she could take it back, she would. But life’s like that.Everything is all perfunctory between Daniel and Kayla until Daniel learns something about her that compels him to help her in a way that nobody else can. While she refuses to take the hand that he’s offering her, she soon realizes that when it comes down to it, he is all that she’s got, and he soon realizes that she’s all that he’s ever wanted…he just never knew it. A once-hardened man softens and learns to open his heart, because his heart will take nothing less than hers.A heartbreaking yet heartwarming love story about what happens in real life when two people are forced together under difficult circumstances. Daniel and Kayla will warm your heart and renew your belief that true love is really out there, even when you’re not necessarily looking for it. Pick up your copy today!
Dark Siren
Eden Ashley - 2013
When the mysterious and passionate Rhane rescues Kali from an attacker in the theater parking lot, they form an immediate, smoldering connection. But Kali doesn't remember Rhane or anything from their past. As far as Kali knows, she's just a seventeen-year-old kid coping with an insatiable hunger for the “spark” or energy of others, feeding on classmates to survive. A unique artifact—one that may hold the key to returning Kali’s memories—is uncovered by the archaeology firm where she works part-time, sending Kali and Rhane on a dangerous journey that leads them to the Forbidden City, into the unforgiving Gobi, and into the ruins of Rhane’s ancient homeland. As they fight for survival, Kali begins to discover who she really is and the true power she possesses. But Rhane still harbors a secret that could destroy Kali…unless old enemies kill her first.