Book picks similar to
One Little Lie by Whitney Barbetti


romance
new-adult
fake-relationship
contemporary

Shameless King


Maya Hughes - 2018
    Voted Biggest Flirt. Highest goal scorer in Kings of Rittenhouse Prep history. Everyone’s impressed, well except one person…After a blow out in high school, Makenna Halstead and I were happy to never have to cross paths again. Except life has a way of knocking you straight in the teeth with a puck when you least expect it. She hasn’t just returned to my life, she crashed into it like a wrecking ball...into my college kingdom, into my class, and smack dab into the seat next to mine. My new lab partner to be exact. For years we hated each other... I may be King on the ice, but she is the Ice Queen. She has no problem calling me out, doesn’t back down, and her piercing blue eyes have me picturing more than than just my arms wrapped around her. Now we’re stuck with each other and there’s no getting around that fact that we have to work together. My hockey career hangs in the balance. Problem? Oh, yeah.I can’t deny it. I want her. More than I ever thought I could want a woman. I’ve got one semester–only four months–to convince her everything she thought about me was wrong. Will my queen let me prove to her I’m the King she can’t live without? Only one way to find out...

A Pizza My Heart


Teagan Hunter - 2019
    Foster Marlett was always there...until he wasn't.After disappearing for four years without so much as a goodbye, he's back, and something has definitely changed about him other than his marital status.Long gone is the boy who left on a whim.He's taller.Darker.And have his arms always been that big?When he starts sending looks my way I know I should ignore, I can't help but wonder if there's something between us that wasn't there before.But that can't be possible.He's always just been my brother's best friend.I can't fall for him...can I?

When I Was Yours


Samantha Towle - 2015
    “I love you, Evie. I look into the future, and the only thing I see clearly is you. Marry me.”What’s an eighteen-year-old girl who was madly in love with her nineteen-year-old boyfriend say? Of course, I said yes.Twenty-four hours later, I married Adam Gunner at a Vegas chapel to the sounds of “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi. Not the best omen. I get that now.Then, exactly one week later, I left him. I walked out, leaving behind my wedding ring, annulment papers, and my heart, and he never knew why. I haven’t seen him since. Not in ten long years.Now, he’s here, standing before me. Looking at me with nothing but hurt and hatred in his eyes, he wants answers. Answers I can’t give.

Close to Me


Monica Murphy - 2020
    My first crush.My first kiss.The boy who ripped my heart out of my chest again and again. Over and over. I let him have it every single time.Willingly.We are that toxic high school couple you hear about, the one you witness in the hallway avoiding each other. You laugh at them in class when they’re forced to work together, their gazes full of hatred. We are the couple you gossip about when they win homecoming prince and princess their sophomore year…The back and forth is what kills me the most. I’m not his princess, I’m the girl he toys with when he’s bored. And he’s definitely not my prince, no matter how badly I want him to be.Our senior year and we’re months away from never having to see each other again when disaster strikes—and brings us closer together. All it takes is one touch, and I’m burning for Ash. Hotter than I ever have.But will that burn turn into a devastating fire? Or can we actually make it work this time?

Heartless Hero


Mary Catherine Gebhard - 2019
    with cruel protection.Love is off limits with Abigail Crowne, but no one said anything about hate.Heartless Hero is the first book in the Crowne Point universe. You do not need to read any of the others to enjoy it, though it is recommended. It will enhance your reading experience as you will catch easter eggs and the timelines overlap.

Run Posy Run


Cate C. Wells - 2021
    He didn't care about my past. The talk. The stain on my family's reputation.Then he saw something I never wanted anyone to see.He cares now.This isn't a breakup, it's a warning shot, and if I want to get out of this bad romance alive, I have to run and never look back.Dario Volpe is no storybook hero. He's a psychopath, and he can't decide--kiss me? Or kill me?DarioI'm the man behind the curtain, the power behind the throne. I could have killed her, and no one would have blinked an eye. Posy Santoro isn't exactly a mafia princess.No one sees her as clearly as I can--the perfect mind hidden by that knockout body in the tight dress.I made a mistake, running her off, but now I get to play one of my favorite games.Posy can run, but she isn't made to be free. She's made for me. And when I catch her? Game over.Run Posy Run is a standalone mafia romance with dark elements. Intended for adult readers.HEA guaranteed.

Reputation


Rebecca Sharp - 2021
    America’s Sweetheart. The biggest pop star in the world.It began with one guy and then the next. Until my reputation preceded me. Yes, I dated them - all of them. Yes, I also broke up with them. All of them.Was it too much? The world said yes. Too many, too quickly. My reputation was falling faster than a shooting star and the only way to save it was with the boy who never wanted me.Zach Parker. Singer, songwriter, and sexy as sin. To him, I was just the neighbor’s little sister. A pest that had grown into a famous annoyance.Zach wanted nothing to do with me. But he could be tempted - with a stepping stone to fame, that is.The plan was simple: Childhood Sweethearts Fall in Love on US Tour.The plan was to let them see what they wanted to see: our ‘romance’ blossom right in front of their eyes.A romance that Zach had made painfully clear to me years ago would never exist.I’m told that it was the only thing that could repair my image.So, every night I’ll stand on that stage and give Zach my heart piece by piece, note by note.We’ll give them a show they’ll never forget - and a love story that I may not survive.Because who cares that in order to put my reputation back together, I’ll have to tear my heart apart?

Poison


Jade West - 2020
    The monster who left me in pieces over a decade ago.I swore I'd never speak to him again, that I'd never set eyes on him again as long as I lived.But I was wrong.When life gets too much and you need to escape, the poison that might kill you becomes oh so tempting.I craved his perverted ways, his smirk, his laughter as he pushed my body way past its limits.I needed a release from the crazy. Just once.Just one night. That’s what I told myself.No strings, no illusions, no promises. Nothing but the lasting thrill of his flesh on mine.The lasting hit of his poisonous touch.But when poison runs through your veins, the way he runs through mine, it’s toxic and eats you alive.This much passion always comes at a price...**This is a typically edgy Jade West novel. Please proceed with caution.**

Rock Bottom Girl


Lucy Score - 2019
    Not much has changed in Culpepper. The cool kids are still cool. Now they just own car dealerships and live in McMansions next door. Oh, and the whole town is still talking about that Homecoming she ruined her senior year. Desperate for a new start, Marley accepts a temporary teaching position. Can the girl banned from all future Culpepper High Homecomings keep the losing-est girls soccer team in school history from killing each other and prevent carpal tunnel in a bunch of phone-clutching gym class students? Maybe with the help of Jake Weston, high school bad boy turned sexy good guy. When the school rumor mill sends Marley to the principal’s office to sign an ethics contract, the tattooed track coach, dog dad, and teacher of the year becomes her new fake boyfriend and alibi—for a price. The Deal: He’ll teach her how to coach if she teaches him how to be in a relationship. Who knew a fake boyfriend could deliver such real orgasms? But it’s all temporary. The guy. The job. The team. There’s too much history. Rock bottom can’t turn into a foundation for happily ever after. Can it? Warning: Story also includes a meet-puke, a bouffanted nemesis, a yard swan and donkey basketball, a teenage-orchestrated makeover, and a fake relationship that gets a little too real between the sheets.

Before Hadley


J. Nathan - 2016
    He may have looks, charm, and the attention of every other girl in town, but he's also got heartbreak written all over his pretty face.But what Hadley doesn’t know—what no one knows—is that with Caynan, things aren't at all what they seem. His secrets have secrets and everything out of his mouth straddles the line between truth and fiction. Caynan knows better than to get involved with anyone, especially with his time limited in the new town, but he just can't seem to get Hadley out of his mind. She's the one girl who doesn't want him. The one girl who's turned off by his charm. The one girl who challenges him like no other. And, though she couldn't possibly know the truth about him, she seems to be the one girl who really sees him. Too bad for Caynan, secrets never remain secrets for long. And this one has the power to destroy more than just his life.*New Adult/Mature YA Romance spanning the course of over three years.

Rare


Briar Prescott - 2020
    Too bad the ingredients of success haven’t mixed too well for him and instead of having the world at his feet, Alex has, once again, landed himself in a hot mess of trouble. The community service his father arranges for him in a wildlife center on the other side of the country comes as a bit of a nasty surprise, though. Being shipped off to middle-of-nowhere, Oregon, is not Alex’s idea of the perfect summer vacation.What Alex never expects is to meet Noah Price. He never expects to be noticed and understood. He never expects to feel valued and special.He never expects to fall in love. Everything is not what it seems, though, and love that feels invincible turns out to be anything but.But love finds a way, and when Alex and Noah unexpectedly cross paths years later, they will have to risk it all for the love they both deserve and so desperately need. Rare is a standalone MM Second Chance romance about first loves, one perfect summer, one debilitating secret and finding your forever.

Gravity


Lauren Runow - 2017
    Spanning over twenty years—it’s raw, it’s real, asking the question if soul mates really exist.LilyAt eight years old, the boy next door changed my life. He was the force pulling me toward him despite our differences. It was like magic.We understood each other, supported each other and in the process became everything to each other.But in chasing Trevin’s dream, I lost myself along the way. TrevinThrough tremendous heartache, she was there. Through fame and fortune, she was there. Loving Lily was the one thing I got right.Eclipsing her in my shadow, I took from her until she was empty. Now I must do anything to prove I can be the man she wants, no, the man she deserves.

Best Kind of Broken


Chelsea Fine - 2014
    Once upon a time, they were childhood friends. But that was before everything went to hell. And now things are... awkward.All they want to do is avoid each other, and their past, for as long as possible. But now that they're forced to share a bathroom, and therefore a shower, keeping their distance from one another becomes less difficult than keeping their hands off each other. Welcome to the hallway of awkward tension and sexual frustration, folks. Get comfy. It’s going to be a long summer.

Want You


Jen Frederick - 2018
    It’s Leka Moore. I don’t care that he took me in when he was barely more than a kid himself. I don’t care that he raised me. I don’t care everyone thinks being with him is wrong. I know we belong together, and the only person I need to convince is him. Leka I found her in the corner of a dark alley. If I hadn’t taken her with me, she would’ve died that night—or maybe worse. Before I knew it, she became the light in my dark life, the haven from the madness. I watched her grow up. I tried to teach her right from wrong. Now that she’s an adult, I’m feeling things that no good man should ever feel. But then…I’ve never been a good man. I have a chance at redemption by saving her from the greatest danger of all—me. A stand alone novel.

Next to Never


Penelope Douglas - 2017
    And when a family friend—several years older—from her childhood captures her heart, she knows they’re going to be a problem. Lucas Morrow is a man—experienced, sophisticated, and important. And knowing her brothers, he may as well be forbidden.But Lucas left town years ago and shows no signs of returning. Quinn knows she shouldn’t wait for him anymore.But then a package turns up on her doorstep with no return address and its contents reveal family secrets that threaten to turn Quinn’s world upside down. She’s never asked about the tumultuous path of her parents’ romantic history, but she soon learns their happy marriage had a very rocky and passionate start.As she begins to see things around her with new eyes, Quinn will have to make tough choices about whether she’ll keep waiting…or finally go after what she really wants.*Next to Never is a 60,000 word novella from Quinn's point-of-view. It is not her love story. That will be a full-length novel eventually. This story covers some family history, introduces the new generation, and catches up with the original couples.