Book picks similar to
Pink Slip by Katrina Jackson


romance
contemporary
contemporary-romance
lgbtq

Dirty Kisses


Kenya Wright - 2018
    He was the boss. He walked like one, like he owned the ground his feet stepped on. Like he owned the air that we all breathed in. Like he could eat up the universe, if he wanted to. Someone killed Rumi, the Russian Mafia's top washer in New York. Kazimir, the head of the Bratva, has come to NY to find the murderer. They call him The Russian Lion, known for having over two hundred kills. By the age of twenty, the FBI placed him ten steps away from Usama Bin Laden on the Most Wanted List. To kill his washer begins a dark and deadly war. Unfortunately, Emily falls on Kazimir's radar. Her brother is suspected of being involved in the murder. To save her brother, she is forced to launder Kazimir's money; but she's a perfect fit for the job. Known as a con to others, called a hustler by many, she's the best washer in Harlem, keeping low-key gangsters on their toes. At first, Kazimir and Emily have a tricky arrangement based on fear and danger. Her working for him is like balancing on a tight rope. He's a monster wrapped in a gorgeous package. Still, there's an air of sensuality around him that makes her forget sometimes how terrifying he can be. Sexual tension heats up between the two, but one violent night changes everything, pitting everyone against each other--Russians, Jamaicans...anyone in Harlem with a gun. Kazimir and Emily must somehow learn to trust each other before they end up being one of the dozens of dead bodies left on the streets of New York.But there are hidden secrets and twists intertwined with Rumi's murders. When the truth comes to light, Kazimir's money won't be the only thing that's dirty. And, unfortunately, their rising attraction may not survive.From the Erotica Bestselling Author of No Ordinary Love, Filthy Lies, and Power. Steamy sex and mind-blowing suspense collide in this BWWM Romance of a Russian mafia boss and the one street smart woman he can't control.

I'm So (Not) Over You


Kosoko Jackson - 2022
    Maybe Hudson wants to profusely apologize for the breakup. Or confess his undying love. . . But no, Hudson has a favor to ask--he wants Kian to pretend to be his boyfriend while his parents are in town, and Kian reluctantly agrees.The dinner doesn't go exactly as planned, and suddenly Kian is Hudson's plus one to Georgia's wedding of the season. Hudson comes from a wealthy family where reputation is everything, and he really can't afford another mistake. If Kian goes, he'll help Hudson preserve appearances and get the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in media. This could be the big career break Kian needs.But their fake relationship is starting to feel like it might be more than a means to an end, and it's time for both men to fact-check their feelings.

Truth or Dare


Danielle Allen - 2020
    The secret exposing truths and the harmlessly fun dares bonded our close-knit friend group in college and kept us close throughout the years. So, when Kingston Wright was dared to kiss me, I didn’t think anything of it. Harmless kisses were always a part of Truth or Dare.But there was nothing harmless about that kiss.I felt something between us that I shouldn’t have.Truth or Dare can be risky when you’re twenty.But when you’re thirty, it can be reckless.

Writing Her In


Holley Trent - 2019
    Their marriage may be unconventional, but it’s satisfying and loving, and they’ve never needed anything or anyone else.Until they met writer Stacia Leonard.Stacia built a career on maintaining close ties with her fictional characters while keeping everyone else at arm’s length. She avoids intimacy, apart from a few one-night stands when the loneliness and need become too much. But when Adrien Valliere, her cover model and long-distance friend, invites her for drinks, she’s too fascinated to refuse.Dara recognizes the physical attraction between her husband and Stacia and sees it for what it is: an opportunity to help Adrien get what he needs. Dara can breathe easy knowing that both she and her husband are happy.Before long, though, it’s clear that Stacia’s connection isn’t just with Adrien… She and Dara have something special, and it’s something neither of them can—or want to—deny.One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise : all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!

Set


Alexandria House - 2019
    When love creeps into the equation, neither is sure how to feel or what to do. The only thing either is certain of, is their need for the other. Set is book one of the Them Boys novella series. This novella includes strong sexual content and profanity. If these elements do not appeal to you, this may not be the read for you.

Escaping Exodus


Nicky Drayden - 2019
    Her clan has just now culled their latest ship and the workers are busy stripping down the bonework for building materials, rerouting the circulatory system for mass transit, and preparing the cavernous creature for the onslaught of the general populous still in stasis. It’s all a part of the cycle her clan had instituted centuries ago—excavate the new beast, expand into its barely-living carcass, extinguish its resources over the course of a decade, then escape in a highly coordinated exodus back into stasis until they cull the next beast from the diminishing herd.And of course there wouldn’t be much of a story if things didn’t go terribly, terribly wrong.Escaping Exodus is scheduled to be in readers’ orbit Summer 2019.

Tryst Six Venom


Penelope Douglas - 2021
    𝑮𝒆𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚!𝘾𝙇𝘼𝙔Marymount girls are good girls. We’re chaste, we’re untouched, and even if we weren’t, no one would know, because we keep our mouths shut.Not that I have anything to share anyway. I never let guys go too far. I’m behaved. Beautiful, smart, talented, popular, my skirt’s always pressed, and I never have a hair out of place. I own the hallways, walking tall on Monday and dropping to my knees like the good Catholic girl I am on Sunday.That’s me. Always in control. Or so they think. The truth is that it’s easy for me to resist them, because what I truly want, they can never be. Something soft and smooth. Someone dangerous and wild. Unfortunately, what I want I have to hide. In the locker room after hours. In the bathroom stall between classes. In the showers after practice. 𝑀𝑦 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑠𝑤𝑖𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝑀𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢𝑝 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑘𝑖𝑟𝑡. For me, life is a web of secrets. No one can find out mine. 𝙊𝙇𝙄𝙑𝙄𝘼I cross the tracks every day for one reason—to graduate from this school and get into the Ivy League. I’m not ashamed of where I come from, my family, or how everyone at Marymount thinks my skirts are too short and my lipstick is too red. Clay Collins and her friends have always turned up their noses at me. The witch with her beautiful skin, clean shoes, and rich parents who torments me daily and thinks I won’t fight back.At least not until I get her alone and find out she’s hiding so much more than just what’s underneath those pretty clothes. The princess thinks I’ll scratch her itch. She thinks she’s still pure as long as it’s not a guy touching her. I told her to stay on her side of town. I told her not to cross the tracks. But one night, she did. And when I’m done with her, she’ll never be pure again. *TRYST SIX VENOM is a standalone, new adult, bully romance suitable for readers 18+. It will release directly into Kindle Unlimited!

The Henna Wars


Adiba Jaigirdar - 2020
    the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this rom com about two teen girls with rival henna businesses.When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants—as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to hide who she is, but she also doesn’t want to lose her relationship with her family. And her life only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life.Flávia is beautiful and charismatic and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat choose to do henna, even though Flávia is appropriating Nishat’s culture. Amidst sabotage and school stress, their lives get more tangled—but Nishat can’t quite get rid of her crush on Flávia, and realizes there might be more to her than she realized.

Love & Other Disasters


Anita Kelly - 2022
    Too bad the first memorable move she makes is falling flat on her face, sending fish tacos flying—not quite the fresh start she was hoping for. Still, she's focused on winning, until she meets someone she might want a future with more than she needs the prize money. After announcing their pronouns on national television, London Parker has enough on their mind without worrying about the klutzy competitor stationed in front of them. They’re there to prove the trolls—including a fellow contestant and their dad—wrong, and falling in love was never part of the plan.As London and Dahlia get closer, reality starts to fall away. Goodbye, guilt about divorce, anxiety about uncertain futures, and stress from transphobia. Hello, hilarious shenanigans on set, wedding crashing, and spontaneous dips into the Pacific. But as the finale draws near, Dahlia and London’s steamy relationship starts to feel the heat both in and outside the kitchen—and they must figure out if they have the right ingredients for a happily ever after.

Grumpy Jake


Melissa Blue - 2019
    She blames the rumor mill at her school...and, okay, him. His adorable son has only been in preschool, but Jake has already made an impressive dent in dating the unmarried faculty. She's had to hear of his every exploit from the broken hearts he's left behind. She was fine to loathe him from afar, but now his son has entered kindergarten--and she's the teacher. It's going to be a very long school year. Jake Polaski was more than fine to avoid Ms. Thorne after it became clear she was not amused by his very existence. But then they get stuck in an elevator for an evening. He finds out that underneath that baleful glare she always gives him, lies a warm, funny and sexy as hell woman. He does his best to not be smitten after every exchange afterward. His son needs him rational, steadfast...and love is the most uncertain thing. It was the elevator's fault. Had it worked like it should, Bailey would have gone on with her life without seeing why so many of her co-workers had fallen for the grumpy single dad. (It's his dry wit, his playful teasing and the drool-worthy cut of his jawline.) And now she's caught in the way he doles out smiles and the dark depths of his secrets. If nothing else, she knows from rumor there's a clock ticking on their affair before it implodes because things always do with Jake the Rake, but she can't seem to walk away first.

You Had Me at Hola


Alexis Daria - 2020
    When she returns to her hometown of New York City to film the starring role in a bilingual romantic comedy for the number one streaming service in the country, Jasmine figures her new “Leading Lady Plan” should be easy enough to follow—until a casting shake-up pairs her with telenovela hunk Ashton Suárez. Leading Ladies don’t need a man to be happy. After his last telenovela character was killed off, Ashton is worried his career is dead as well. Joining this new cast as a last-minute addition will give him the chance to show off his acting chops to American audiences and ping the radar of Hollywood casting agents. To make it work, he’ll need to generate smoking-hot on-screen chemistry with Jasmine. Easier said than done, especially when a disastrous first impression smothers the embers of whatever sexual heat they might have had. Leading Ladies do not rebound with their new costars. With their careers on the line, Jasmine and Ashton agree to rehearse in private. But rehearsal leads to kissing, and kissing leads to a behind-the-scenes romance worthy of a soap opera. While their on-screen performance improves, the media spotlight on Jasmine soon threatens to destroy her new image and expose Ashton’s most closely guarded secret.

All Things Burn


Jodie Slaughter - 2019
    What sparks between them is just as unavoidable as it is life-changing.Halle Temple is a good person; she doesn’t know anything as surely as she knows that. A successful black woman who uses her expensive law degree to work full-time at a women’s legal aid center, she has no doubt that her entire existence is being spent in the service of others. That perfectly normal life takes a deadly turn, however, when she crosses paths with a man who is willing to go to extreme measures to take possession of her.After he sets his threats on her family, Halle begins to question every moral she has ever held dear as she realizes that there is only one way to get him out of her life for good. To do that, though, she needs a bit of help.Callum Byrne is an Irish-American hitman who has made a life out of robbing others of their own. Darkness has always lurked inside of him and he has no qualms about setting it free - especially for profit. Halle enters his life suddenly, bringing with her an intensity that he has never felt before. It isn’t long before Callum’s narrow view of himself is twisted and challenged.As the job she’s given him becomes more complicated by the minute...so do Callum’s feelings for her.Content Warning: this book contains themes of violence and murder as well as mentions of domestic violence.

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them


Junauda Petrus - 2019
    Sixteen-year-old Audre is despondent, having just found out she’s going to be sent to live in America with her father because her strictly religious mother caught her with her secret girlfriend, the pastor’s daughter. Audre’s grandmother Queenie (a former dancer who drives a white convertible Cadillac and who has a few secrets of her own) tries to reassure her granddaughter that she won’t lose her roots, not even in some place called Minneapolis. “America have dey spirits too, believe me,” she tells Audre.Minneapolis. Sixteen-year-old Mabel is lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to figure out why she feels the way she feels–about her ex Terrell, about her girl Jada and that moment they had in the woods, and about the vague feeling of illness that’s plagued her all summer. Mabel’s reverie is cut short when her father announces that his best friend and his just-arrived-from-Trinidad daughter are coming for dinner. Mabel quickly falls hard for Audre and is determined to take care of her as she tries to navigate an American high school. But their romance takes a turn when test results reveal exactly why Mabel has been feeling low-key sick all summer and suddenly it’s Audre who is caring for Mabel as she faces a deeply uncertain future.Junauda Petrus’s debut brilliantly captures the distinctly lush and lyrical voices of Mabel and Audre as they conjure a love that is stronger than hatred, prison, and death and as vast as the blackness between the stars.

The Boyfriend Project


Farrah Rochon - 2020
    But a live tweet of a horrific date just revealed the painful truth: she's been catfished by a three-timing jerk of a boyfriend. Suddenly Samiah - along with his two other 'girlfriends', London and Taylor - have gone viral online. Now the three new besties are making a pact to spend the next six months investing in themselves. No men, no dating, and no worrying about their relationship status...For once Samiah is putting herself first, and that includes finally developing the app she's always dreamed of creating. Which is the exact moment she meets the deliciously sexy, honey-eyed Daniel Collins at work. What are the chances? When it comes to love, there's no such thing as a coincidence. But is Daniel really boyfriend material or is he maybe just a little too good to be true? 'Funny, fresh, sexy, and heartfelt. This is my new favorite romance series' Suzanne Brockmann, New York Times bestselling author 'A smart, funny digital-age romance about real women living in the real world. Couldn't put it down!' Abby Jimenez, USA Today bestselling author of The Friend Zone 'A smart, sexy and completely modern romance. The Boyfriend Project is the free-spirited, tell-it-like-it-is page-turner you've been looking for!' Kwana Jackson, USA Today bestselling author ' The Boyfriend Project has it all-swoon-worthy romance, the power of true friendship, and a grand gesture that makes your heart sigh with pure satisfaction. Absolutely a must-read summer romance!' Priscilla Oliveras, USA Today bestselling author

Rise to the Sun


Leah Johnson - 2021
    Two girls. One life-changing music festival. Olivia is an expert at falling in love . . . and at being dumped. But after the fallout from her last breakup has left her an outcast at school and at home, she’s determined to turn over a new leaf. A crush-free weekend at Farmland Music and Arts Festival with her best friend is just what she needs to get her mind off the senior year that awaits her.Toni is one week away from starting college, and it’s the last place she wants to be. Unsure about who she wants to become and still reeling in the wake of the loss of her musician-turned-roadie father, she’s heading back to the music festival that changed his life in hopes that following in his footsteps will help her find her own way forward.When the two arrive at Farmland, the last thing they expect is to realize that they’ll need to join forces in order to get what they’re searching for out of the weekend. As they work together, the festival becomes so much more complicated than they bargained for, and Olivia and Toni will find that they need each other, and music, more than they ever could have imagined.Packed with irresistible romance and irrepressible heart, bestselling author Leah Johnson delivers a stunning and cinematic story about grief, love, and the remarkable power of music to heal and connect us all.