Book picks similar to
The Perfect Life by Callie Anderson


arc
romance
standalone
emotional-abuse-trauma

Underneath the Sycamore Tree


B. Celeste - 2019
    Cared for. Loathed. And … loved.⁣ Somewhere along the way, I’d found solace in the boy with brooding eyes.⁣ But everything happens in stages.⁣ And nothing good ever lasts.⁣

Fade In


M. Mabie - 2014
    She wouldn’t change a thing. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have a choice. She's losing her sight.Tripping over her tongue and her heels, Tatum all too quickly realizes that the things which appeared so important before are slowly slipping away leaving room for what really matters. With the support of her best friends, family and colleagues, she begins to see that there’s much more to life… and herself.When Ben Harris enters her life as her new personal assistant, she can’t tell if it’s his good looks and charm that are working on her libido, or his kind and helpful nature working on her heart? Whatever it is, neither one of them can resist it. As her vision fades out, a world of love and happiness just might…Fade In.Fade In is a contemporary-romance novel about laughing through your tears and telling life to, quite frankly, “Suck it.” This novel contains sexual situations that the author may or may not have tried at home… for your safety, of course. Research is research.

Mists of the Serengeti


Leylah Attar - 2017
    It fluttered around me like a newborn butterfly and settled in a corner of my heart. I held my breath, afraid to exhale for fear it would slip out, never to be found again.”When a bomb explodes in a mall in East Africa, its aftershocks send two strangers on a collision course that neither one sees coming.Jack Warden, a divorced coffee farmer in Tanzania, loses his only daughter. An ocean away, in the English countryside, Rodel Emerson loses her only sibling.Two ordinary people, bound by a tragic afternoon, set out to achieve the extraordinary, as they make three stops to rescue three children across the vast plains of the Serengeti—children who are worth more dead than alive.But even if they beat the odds, another challenge looms at the end of the line. Can they survive yet another loss—this time of a love that’s bound to slip through their fingers, like the mists that dissipate in the light of the sun?“Sometimes you come across a rainbow story—one that spans your heart. You might not be able to grasp it or hold on to it, but you can never be sorry for the color and magic it brought.”A blend of romance and women’s fiction, Mists of The Serengeti is inspired by true events and contains emotional triggers, including the death of a child. Not recommended for sensitive readers. Standalone, contemporary fiction.

Hate You (Not)


Ella James - 2020
    You know—the one who gets the kids. But that’s what the will said. June Lawler: Legal Guardian. My niece and nephew are 6 and 9, and all they’ve ever known is San Francisco. I arrive the day after the wreck, pack up my sister’s mansion, and fly them back to Georgia. The small-town farm where their mom and I grew up isn’t what it once was, but it’s home. That’s all they really need.*I was courting an investor when it happened. Tromped all up and down the Himalayas, and he didn’t even buy in. It was a week before I found out what I’d lost. My little brother meant the world to me. Now even his kids are gone. Spirited away to Heat Springs, Georgia—population 298. They’re living on a farm that’s half a breath from bank foreclosure with a 26-year-old who didn’t finish high school. Nowhereville is not the place for little Mastersons. But I’ll get them back. It’s the money she must want, and I’ve got lots of that. “June Bug” Lawler is poorer than that red dirt she comes from. I can make her dreams come true—and do one last thing for my brother. I hate him.She makes me crazy.He thinks he can buy me off! I’ve never met a man so arrogant. There’s no woman anywhere more stubborn. I wish I had never met him.But that’s not the story.

Encore


Selena Laurence - 2020
    Life has been nothing but sex, drugs, and rock and roll for twenty years, and he's not sure he can stomach one more minute of the party. When an invitation to his twenty-fifth high school reunion shows up, Ross decides he has nothing to lose--after all, he already lost his daughter's love and a fair amount of self-respect. So he catches a flight back to his hometown, but when he walks in the door of the high school gym, his gaze lands on someone he never expected to see again. Carly Ellis is busy, getting by, and most days pretty happy. Life hasn't always been easy, but she has her teenage son, a good job in real estate, and an ex who doesn't cause too much trouble. Granted, she'd rather skip her high school reunion, but when your best friend is on the organizing committee, there's no getting out of it. Then she walks through the door of the high school gym and her gaze lands on someone she never expected to see again. Once upon a time, Carly was Ross's high school prom date. One very sweet night that both of them knew didn't mean a thing. Now they have a chance to do it again. Same conditions. Same game. But after a night in Carly's arms, Ross isn't sure he wants it to end. Could she be the answer to everything he's been missing? A key to the future he secretly wants? With life offering him a second act, will Ross be able to pull off his most important encore ever? Encore is an uplifting rockstar, second-chance, single parent, high school reunion romance with a hero who needs a little reboot, a heroine who's strong enough to give it to him, two sassy teens, a perfect HEA, and an iguana named Chuck--just because.

We Said Forever


Marie James - 2017
    Second chances are meant only for those that deserve them.Love isn’t enough to heal when you’ve shattered a heart.Love isn’t enough to make you forget.Love isn’t enough to make you look back when you’re supposed to be moving forward.Love just—isn’t enough.I broke Fallyn McIntyre, and in doing so I broke myself.Betrayal, addiction, and years separate us.I’m no longer the man I used to be.But I’m still not sure I’m man enough.

Find Me Alastar


T.L. Swan - 2016
     I had it all, dream job, boyfriend, stability. So I did the unthinkable, I packed up and left everything that was dear to me. Set out on the journey of a lifetime and it was all going to plan until I met him. Alastar O’Shea. An enigmatic, artistic Irishman who had more sexual energy in his pinky finger than anything I had ever dreamed of. I should have stayed away from him. He was hot, toxic and the most exhilarating experience of my life. Like a drug he entered my bloodstream. Like a drug he brought me undone. Did I meet him by chance or was it a calculated hit? I did believe in fairy tales but he isn’t who I thought he was. Will he find me? Will it cost me my life?

Lucky Penny


L.A. Cotton - 2015
    He was my light in the dark, hope in despair. Our bond was one of survival, friendship... first love.But then we were ripped apart and Blake Weston became the memory I turned to when everything else in my life fell apart.Seven years later, a summer working at Camp Chance is supposed to be my fresh start. Beautiful scenery and the chance to better the lives of foster children - kids like me. But when my eyes land on him across the fire, time stands still and feelings come rushing back to the surface. I thought I'd moved on, tucked him away in my heart. One look into his soulful blue eyes and I know I'm wrong. Blake Weston can heal the broken parts of me. Restore my hope. Love me.It's our second chance. A sign we are supposed to be together.Isn't it?I was twelve when I survived the accident that killed my parents. Fourteen when I survived the devil. And sixteen, when I survived a heartbreak of the worst kind.But in my twenty-three years, Blake Weston might just be the first thing I won't survive.

Hope Over Fear


J.A. DeRouen - 2014
    I don’t deserve pity or sympathy. I’ve made my bed. I left Mason and ripped his heart to pieces as I ran away. The guilt and sorrow consume me, threatening to choke me everyday.But today is a new beginning. Today is the day I will wake up with a renewed resolve and determination to do better … to be better … to be worthy. My name is Sara Preston, and this is my story about what happens after.

Until Harry


L.A. Casey - 2016
    Hard because Harry, her beloved uncle, has died suddenly, but also because of him. Kale.Kale Hunt has been her best friend since childhood. But it was never that simple. He was Lane’s reason for leaving home and moving to New York. Seeing him with someone else, in love with someone else, shouldn’t have hurt. But it did. It really, really did. So she upped sticks and left, started a new life and cut herself off from her past.But now she’s back, and all the feelings are right there. As if she had never left.Emotions are running high for everyone, and tragedy has a funny way of bringing people together. But is Lane reading the signs right? Are they still just friends, or is there something more?

Get off on the Pain


Victoria Ashley - 2015
    Memphis is all that and more…I live for the pain; it’s what drives me to keep moving. But there comes a time when one has to push the demons aside in order to survive. I thought I buried them deep. I thought I was ready to finally live. Until… my brother, Alex; he throws me into the fire—right into the place I could never control myself, the one place I never want to be again. When I put my hands on people, they get hurt. Things happen that bring me back to that night. The one that will forever torment me. I’m doing fine, keeping to myself in order to ensure no one gets hurt by me. Then along comes Lyric, and all I want to do is touch her, to put my hands in places that I know will only lead to her being crushed by me. She’s the rush that I crave. The darkest of poison running through my veins, killing me bit by bit; like a drug I can’t get enough of even though I’m almost down to my last breath. And being around her only hurts more, but what she doesn’t understand is that I welcome the pain; I get off on it, which in the end leaves me with the hardest decision of my life—one that might get us all killed…

Never Too Late Collection


Alexis Winter - 2021
    You must have loved him at some point. I saw the pictures in there. It looks like the two of you had the perfect life together.”“Honestly, I don’t know if I’ve felt anything real since the day you left.”In the same week my husband of twenty years hands me divorce papers, the one man who walked out of my life, and shattered my heart . . . shows back up.Can I trust him again after he failed to come back for me like he promised?Or will he run again when he finds out my ex-husband . . . is his best friend?Book 2: Mia and BenHe hasn’t been back here in almost ten years, and it’s been ten years since I’ve felt like a whole person. All these years, I’ve been walking around with half my heart, half my soul.Ten years ago the love of my life walked out of this town and became a rockstar. I could never ask him to give up his dream but what I didn’t expect was to be forgotten in the process.Now he’s back, begging for a second chance. But it’s too little, too late.Book 3: Harper and RowanWhat are we doing, Rowan?” I breathe out.“If you ask me, we’re finally doing what we’ve always wanted.”Is this what I’ve always wanted? The one man I’ve hated more than anyone?Or am I just falling prey to his charm like every other girl in this small town?Book 4: Kaylee and LandonThe fact that she’s still just as forbidden as before only makes me want her more. She’s mine and has always been mine. It’s time I remind her of that little fact.Her brother warned me if I ever touched her he’d kill me, but what he doesn’t know can’t hurt . . . right?Book 5: Gabi and EastonMy whole life, I’ve wanted one thing: her. And now that she’s in my sights, in my home, working with me day in and day out, I’m going to get what I want, once and for all.You’d think the moment I showed up to my new job and realized my boss is Easton Perez, the hot-as-sin bully from school who made my life hell I’d run…Instead, I ended up in his bed.*-*This never-before-published collection of stories from Amazon best-selling author Alexis Winter is full of delicious moments you don’t want to miss, each complete with a happily ever after. Each story is a complete stand-alone with no cheating or cliff-hangers.

Under the Northern Lights


S.C. Stephens - 2019
    Every year she makes a trek deep into Alaska, but this time the unthinkable happens: she crash-lands after her plane stalls out in a storm. Injured, vulnerable, and threatened by the very creatures she loves, Mallory fears the worst—until she’s rescued by Michael Bradley, a mysterious mountain man living in self-imposed exile.Mallory is grateful for Michael’s help but desperate to return home to let her family know she’s alive. Unfortunately, neither of them can leave Michael’s secluded cabin until spring. Mallory’s stuck with a stranger for months.As Mallory recovers, a deep bond begins to form between the pair. Mallory is convinced that fate brought them together, but Michael is buried in his past, unable to move forward. Undaunted, Mallory tends to Michael’s heart as tenderly as he cared for her wounds—but will her love be enough to heal him?

The Charlotte Chronicles


Jen Frederick - 2014
    Nate Jackson always viewed her as a pesky kid…until the day she got sick. The one bright spot during her illness? He realized she was all grown up. But just when she allows herself to believe that dreams can come true, Nate disappears from her life, taking her heart with him.Nate knows he lost more than his best friend when he deserted Charlotte to enlist in the Navy. He thought he was doing the right thing, sparing the girl he loves from the shame and humiliation of his actions. Nine years later, it’s time to right his wrongs. He returns home determined to win back his first love…only to find that Charlotte's moved on without him.But if there's one thing that being a Navy SEAL has taught Nate? Never give up, even when all hope seems lost. And Nate's never going to give up on Charlotte. Ever.

Deep Blue Eternity


Natasha Boyd - 2015
    And she’s escaped to the one place nobody will ever find her.But the isolated cottage isn’t empty. Her refuge is home to a troubled stranger, Tom, there for reasons of his own.In the intimacy of the abandoned cottage, and the remote wilderness of the island, the electrifying connection between them is impossible to ignore. Both running from their histories and shielding dark secrets, their pasts catch up with them and collide in an unimaginable way.Deep emotions and powerful chemistry face a painful battle with the tangle of lies, and scars of the past. When the truth emerges, hearts will be shattered.