Book picks similar to
Live For This by Kathryn R. Biel
romance
disability
rape
contemporary-romance
My Ex's Wedding
Annabelle Costa - 2020
Not just any man--the biggest asshole I ever met. But he can give her the life I can’t. Time to accept it and move on. Except why did I agree to go to the wedding? And worse, why did I tell her I was bringing a date??NellieI am so freaking broke.My gigs as a comedian don't pay the bills. Not yet, anyway. So when I get canned from my waitressing job, I'm in big trouble. But then a stranger in a business suit offers me a wad of cash. The job? Pretend to be his brother's girlfriend for a wedding in Vegas.Except it turns out my fake boyfriend and I have met before.He’s a different man now, but he’s still as drop-dead handsome as I remember. He still makes my knees weak. And there’s one other thing that hasn’t changed:He’s still hung up on his ex.
Vivid
Jessica Wilde - 2015
He fought to protect his country, his family, and the men standing at his side, but it wasn't just being a soldier overseas that changed him. He watched his friends die in front of him, felt indescribable pain, and lost his sight in the very same moment. Badly injured, blind, and angry, he's done with war, but now he’s fighting his own battle. So, he’s waiting for it to end, spending his days and nights in a thick darkness no light can penetrate. Until Grace walks into his life and his broken eyes open to a woman that changes everything for him.A story about two flawed souls finding love amidst the grief. A love that shines vividly, even in the dark, and discovering that sometimes being broken is how the light gets in.For readers 18+ due to language, violence, and sexual situations.
Take My Hand
Nicola Haken - 2013
Determined to put right some of the wrongs he’ll never be able to forgive himself for making and make his Aunt Sarah – the only person left who still believes in him - proud, he lands in London with the intention of working hard, getting his degree and keeping himself to himself. He can’t destroy anybody else that way…His heart and his body have other ideas however when he finds himself sitting next to nineteen year old Emily Barton in his Psychology class. Moving down south to find her own New Life, Emily is shy, smart and beautiful – everything Dexter knows he should stay away from… everything he knows would be too easy for him to break.But she makes him feel things he’d forgotten even existed. She makes him laugh, smile, care… forget. Without her trying, and without him realizing, Emily has wound her way into the one place he swore to keep locked away forever – his heart. But can she stay there when she discovers the dark past he’s so determined to keep hidden from her? Or will he destroy her too, just like he always expected?(Not suitable for under 18's due to language, drug/alcohol abuse and sexual content)
The Coward
Jarred McGinnis - 2021
Confined to a 'giant roller-skate', he finds himself with neither money nor job. Worse still, he's forced to live back home with the father he hasn't spoken to in ten years.Add in a shoplifting habit, an addiction to painkillers and the fact that total strangers now treat him like he's an idiot, and it's a recipe for self-destruction. How can he stop himself careering out of control?As he tries to piece his life together again, he looks back over his past - the tragedy that blasted his family apart, why he ran away, the damage he's caused himself and others - and starts to wonder whether, maybe, things don't always have to stay broken after all.The Coward is about hurt and forgiveness. It's about how the world treats disabled people. And it's about how we write and rewrite the stories we tell ourselves about our lives - and try to find an ending.
The Key
Victoria Darkins - 2014
Jack is an eminent university lecturer in English Literature who suffers from quadriplegia after a spinal cord injury in his late teens. Having convinced himself that he was better off on his own he has closed the door on any romantic entanglements and instead directed all his energy into his work. Carrie is trying to unchain herself from a cruel, neglectful and guilt ridden childhood. She has earned a place on a degree course of her dreams but it comes at a costly price. Both are thrown together by Mary, a mutual friend and past social worker, who has hatched a plan to help Jack and Carrie with their predicaments. Carrie becomes Jack's live-in carer securing her with an income and unexpected benefits. Will it be too late from them to find out that they both hold the key to unleash each other from the chains that hold them to their past? A key that will unlock their hearts.
Knotted
Pam Godwin - 2018
It’s impossible. Growing up together, Conor and I shared all our firsts. First love, first kiss, first… Not all our firsts. We were sixteen the night she was violently assaulted while I helplessly watched. I’ll never forget the sounds of her suffering. Or my inconsolable agony when she left Oklahoma. Years later, she returns to honor our teenage pact. Except the boy she loved is gone, replaced by a ruthless cattle rancher knotted with secrets. She doesn’t know my dark cravings or the trails of sin that lead to her. I don’t deserve her, but one truth remains. She’s mine. TRAILS OF SIN series (HEAs with no cliffhangers - must be read in order): Knotted #1 Buckled #2 Booted #3
Some Boys
Patty Blount - 2014
Some boys will break your heart. But one boy can make you whole.When Grace meets Ian she's afraid. Afraid he'll reject her like the rest of the school, like her own family. After she accuses the town golden boy of rape, everyone turns against Grace. They call her a slut and a liar. But...Ian doesn't. He's funny and kind with secrets of his own.But how do you trust the best friend of the boy who raped you? How do you believe in love?A gut-wrenching, powerful love story told from alternating points of view by the acclaimed author of Send.
The Boots My Mother Gave Me
Brooklyn James - 2010
Made to feel a burden to her father simply by her gender, Harley is determined to prove her worth and independence, leaving the small town she grew up in and the one boy who gave her a soft place to fall, Jeremiah Johnson. Torn between saving herself and abandoning her mother and younger sister, Harley chooses her own life in hopes they will choose theirs, too.A mature, candid read for everyone. A must for women. The Boots My Mother Gave Me explores the dynamics of abuse and dysfunction, the courage to overcome, the strength in sisterhood, and the ongoing conflict and unconditional love between mothers and daughters.Climb into Charlene the Chevelle for a fast-paced story about a girl who is tough enough to survive and tender enough to learn to trust in love.Signed Paperback & Original Music Soundtrack to The Boots My Mother Gave Me can be found at www.brooklyn-james.com
Sicko
Amo Jones - 2020
He swore to protect me.He failed.They all failed.I’m an open box of passé photographs, snapped in chaste daylight, but filtered in sepia. I’m the past that he tried to forget, and he was the future I needed. When he left six years ago, I screamed for him every night. But then it all stopped. My screams were suddenly muffled by cruelty, and further coaxed by pain.But he has come back. He’s not the cute big brother I had a furtive crush on, or the bad boy, rich brat that I hated to love.He’s the ruthless vice president of Wolf Pack MC, and he doesn’t answer to Royce Kane anymore.He answers to Sicko.
Shallow River
H.D. Carlton - 2020
Now she's rebuilding her life with her dream man and life couldn't be better.Ryan Fitzgerald is everything you'd want in a man. Attractive, rich, an aspiring lawyer, and would do anything to keep River. But that's not the only thing that attracts her. It's his attentiveness, his possessiveness... maybe not so much his temper.When her relationship takes a dark turn, Ryan's estranged brother, Mako, is the only one who sees it. He knows exactly what Ryan is capable of, and it's not the first time he had to be a knight in shining armor.River came from Shallow Hill, though. She's never needed saving before. What Mako doesn't see, is that River is perfectly capable of taking care of herself.The only one who should be scared is Ryan.Trigger Warning: Shallow River is a dark romance that contains domestic violence, rape, violence, and sexual situations.
Winter
Nikita Rae - 2013
As Avery Patterson, she is no longer the daughter of a serial killer. No longer the girl who was bullied and abused through high school. A fresh name and a fresh start at Columbia University means Avery can leave all that behind. There’s only one thing marring her dream of a clean slate…. A boy with a past of his own… Luke Reid has a lot going for him: sex appeal, badass tattoos and insane musical talent. Despite his guitar skills, his calling in life has always been to serve and protect. A NYPD cop by day, singer in rock band D.M.F by night, from the outside Luke seems like he’s got it made. But falling for a girl whose father was accused of deeply sinister acts—a man whom Luke shared a devastating history with, himself—only serves to complicated things. Pieces of a puzzle…. Four symbols, four methods of destruction. A trade. Borrowed wings. Dark secrets that threaten to destroy.Author's Note: This book was previously released under the pen name Nikita Rae. There have been significant changes to the storyline and voices of the characters. The book has also been re-edited. Please make sure the original book is not already in your kindle library before purchasing! New Adult Romantic Suspense novel. Suitable for readers 16+.
In Harmony
Emma Scott - 2018
The happy, driven girl is gone, and she is left wracked by post-traumatic stress her body remembers even if she does not. When her father suddenly uproots the family from their posh penthouse in New York City to the tiny town of Harmony, Indiana, Willow becomes more untethered and lost under the weight of her secret. On a whim, she auditions for a part in the community theater’s production of Hamlet and unexpectedly wins the role of Ophelia—the girl who is undone by madness, and her love of Hamlet… Isaac Pierce is from the ‘wrong side of the tracks.’ The town bad boy. Girls pine for his attention and guys are in awe of him. That he’s an acting prodigy only adds to his charisma. Isaac utterly disappears into his characters; the stage is the only place he feels safe from his own traumatic home life. He wants nothing more than to escape to Broadway or Hollywood, and leave Harmony behind for good. No one can play Hamlet but Isaac, and when the director pairs him with Willow in acting class, they clash again and again—neither willing to open their hearts to anyone. But clashing leads to breaking, breaking leads to the spilling of terrible secrets, and soon Isaac and Willow find Shakespeare’s words mirroring their lives. When they are cruelly torn apart, neither know how this play will end—with madness and heartache? Or healing, love, and the discovery of who they are truly meant to be. In Harmony is a standalone NEW ADULT love story, and is intended for readers 18 and up. PLEASE NOTE, this book contains sensitive material such as physical abuse, and the aftermath of sexual assault (off the page). Reader discretion is advised.
Still Beating
Jennifer Hartmann - 2020
This book contains subject matter that may be sensitive for some readers, including rape, as well as strong language and explicit sex. 18+ only. Please read responsibly. When Cora attends her sister’s birthday party, she expects at most a hangover or a walk of shame. She doesn’t anticipate a stolen wallet, leaving her stranded and dependent on Dean—her arch nemesis and ultimate thorn in her side. And she really doesn’t anticipate waking up in shackles in a madman’s basement.To make matters worse, Dean shares the space in his own set of chains.After fifteen years of teasing, insults, and practical jokes, the ultimate joke seems to be on them. The two people who always thought they’d end up killing each other must now work together if they want to survive.But Cora and Dean have no idea their abductor has a plan for them. A plan that will alter the course of their relationship, blur the line between hate and love, and shackle them together with far more than just chains.
Where the Blame Lies
Mia Sheridan - 2019
Zach was just a rookie on the perimeter of that case, but he’s never forgotten the traumatized woman with the haunted eyes.As more information emerges, the crimes take on an even more sinister similarity. But Josie’s attacker died by suicide. Does the city have a copycat on its hands? A killer who picked up where the original perpetrator left off? Or are they facing something far more insidious?Josie has spent the last eight years attempting to get her life back on track, but now there’s a very real chance she could be the unknown suspect’s next target. As Zach vows to keep her safe, and Josie finds herself responding to him in a way she hasn’t responded to any man in almost a decade, the investigation takes on an even more complex edge of danger.As past and present collide, Josie and Zach are thrust toward a shocking and chilling truth. A revelation that threatens not only Josie’s life, but everything she’s been fighting so desperately to reclaim.
Waking Olivia
Elizabeth O'Roark - 2016
She's trouble of the devious, manipulative, too-f***ing-hot-for-her-own good variety. She's the kind of girl who causes trouble merely by existing, and then makes sure to cause more. And the last thing I need right now is more trouble."A failing farm.His father’s debt.And a struggling college track team. Will Langstrom has too many responsibilities, and the last thing he needs is Olivia Finnegan, a beautiful but troubled new transfer student.A smart mouth. A strong right hook.And a secret that could destroy her. Olivia is her own worst enemy, with a past she can’t seem to escape, and the last person she wants help from is a cocky track coach she can never seem to please.Refusing to be pushed away, Will is determined to save her. And determined to resist an attraction that could destroy them both.