Book picks similar to
False Start by Sasha Marshall


cheating
sports-romance
sports
second-chance

A Love So Tragic


Stevie J. Cole - 2016
    We all make them. Sometimes we break them. But what happens when the promise you break haunts your dreams, when that moment of betrayal echoes within every last beat of your heart? Love. Love is passionate, painful, and all consuming in the most brutal yet beautiful way. How many people have you said 'I love you' to? Five, ten, maybe no one? I've said that word to two men, but only one where I felt it. Tragic. This word sums up my relationship with Nicolas: devastating, painful, depressing. A first love that should have lasted a lifetime, but I ruined with a stupid decision. Nicolas is my star crossed lover, and even though Shakespeare has taught me that stories such as ours always end in tragedy, I can't not love him, even if I'm married to someone else.

Off the Air


L.H. Cosway - 2019
    From enemies to lovers and back to enemies, they’ve been on again/off again for years. Things come to a head when Callum gets into an altercation with a rival for Leanne’s affections. Their management decide enough is enough and give them both an ultimatum: sign the contract or leave the show.Unwilling to give up their livelihoods, Callum and Leanne sign on the dotted line. However, like always, they can’t resist making a bet. Callum thinks it’s only a matter of time before they break the agreement, while Leanne is determined to see it through.Can she resist him for an entire month without losing her sanity? And what if this is the one bet that finally breaks them both?Off the Air is a contemporary romance and Book One in L.H. Cosway’s brand new “Running on Air” Series. Each book focuses on a different couple and can be read as a standalone.

Waiting on the Sidelines


Ginger Scott - 2013
    Named after a baseball legend, she enjoyed being the Tomboy, her closet filled with her brother’s hand-me-downs, cut-off jeans and soccer shorts. But when her first trip to high school results in a broken heart from the first boy to ever make her heart flutter and cruel words from an older girl she once thought a family friend, Nolan starts to question the very person she thought she was and wonders if her humble upbringing can compete with the afforded luxuries of her privileged peers.Throughout the next four years, Nolan struggles to maintain herself throughout her path of discovery, learning just how cruel teenagers can be through the pressures of underage drinking, sexuality and class. And despite how life seems to continue to work against her, she still manages to listen to her heart, falling deeper and deeper for the guy the entire town adores, even if he only sees her as a friend. Can Nolan strike a compromise between her own integrity and the boy she loves? And can she make him notice her before it’s too late?Reed Johnson came to Coolidge High School with a lot of fanfare. The son of a hometown football legend and the brother of a local football hero, Reed wore all the pressures of carrying a town without hope into the spotlight. Thankfully, he had the talent to back it up. But when he meets a girl who makes him think twice about exactly what being a hero means, he starts to wonder if following in his brother’s footsteps might be all wrong. Nolan Lennox was everything that was opposite of expected. She didn’t flirt, she didn’t drink and she didn’t sleep around. Nothing about her was easy, but something about her made Reed want to try harder. Though she didn’t look the part, she seemed to be spending a lot of time in Reed’s thoughts, and he wondered if she could be the one who made it all worthwhile. But could Reed handle letting her down? And would breaking her heart break him beyond repair?Waiting on the Sidelines explores young love to its fullest, exposing how real young heartbreak and passion is and how important it is to discover yourself and hold onto your own identity. The story follows two young characters as they deal with mature situations, including the prevalence of bullying and promiscuity in today’s high school setting. Ultimately, Waiting on the Sidelines is a story of hope, honesty and those powerful, first true loves—the ones worth holding onto at any cost.

Marriage Games


C.D. Reiss - 2016
    After that, he’ll sign her divorce papers and give her complete ownership of their company.THIRTY DAYSThat’s how long he has to rediscover the man he once was. The Dominant Master he hid when he fell in love with her five years ago. THIRTY DAYSShe wants the business they built badly enough to go to the cottage for a month. Cut off ties to the world and do his bidding. She can submit to him with her body, but her heart will never yield.She thinks this is his pathetic attempt to repair their marriage.She’s wrong.

Southern Chance


Natasha Madison - 2020
     Kallie I fell in love with him when I was seven. I scraped my knee, and he helped carry me inside. Our love story was the talk of the town until a woman told everyone she was pregnant with his baby. The only rational solution was to high tail it out of town and never come back. My best friend needed a place to hide, and you can’t get much more covert than my family farm, so I came back. For her. It was supposed to be temporary, and I wasn’t supposed to see him, but that’s what happens when you live in a small town where everyone knows each other. Jacob Being the sheriff in a small town was never my dream. My father died and my older brother took off, so I had to be the one to look after my mother. I stayed. I fulfilled my duties as a son and I protected my hometown. My life wasn’t perfect, but I was content. Until I locked eyes with a ghost from my past, Kallie. I thought it was my imagination, it couldn’t be. I loved her most of my life, but now I hated her. The town gossip mill was going into overdrive. I kept my head down and my mind off of the woman who shattered my heart when she ran away. She didn’t give me a chance to explain, it didn’t matter to her then. I didn’t matter. A second chance is never promised, but now that mine is right under my nose, I’m not sure I can take it.

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.**

He Loves Me...Knot


R.C. Boldt - 2017
    Eight years later, I have the life I’ve always wanted. As an advertising account executive, my world is damn near perfect. Until I come face-to-face with my past. With the man I once loved. The man who holds my future in his hands. The man who’s hell-bent on getting even with me for leaving him at the altar. Even with all the unfinished business between us, I still love Knox Montgomery. The only problem? He loves me…KNOT.

Commitment


T.K. Leigh - 2018
    After all, she's my sister's best friend. Not to mention, she buried any animosity she held toward me and helped raise my two little girls when my ex split without a single glance back.But when I learn the man she's been dating has proposed, I'm faced with a decision.Do I finally tell Brooklyn the reason I betrayed her trust all those years ago?Or do I watch her marry another man to protect her from suffering any more heartache?
Commitment is the first book in the Redemption Duet. Binge-read this angst-filled second chance, best friend's brother romance today!

Break Point


Rachel Blaufeld - 2017
    Traumatized by hazing at her last school, all she wants is to attend classes, win tennis matches, and be left the hell alone.She should have known her coach, Drew King, would be a problem from the moment he flexed his sexy-as-hell forearms.What happens when you mix a pissed-off woman with a bunch of snooty teammates and a hot coach? A heated match, complete with team politics and a forbidden game of singles with the coach.It’s reckless and hot until one of them taps out.Unable to admit she may be better off as a double, Jules is convinced she needs to play the game of life alone. Then life throws her a lob and she runs smack into her past.Coach King is back, and he wants to take control of the game. But she’s not certain she wants his advice when it comes to the life she’s built.The power struggle is on, but this time off the court.

Rounding Third


Michelle Lynn - 2016
    I gave up my scholarship.I fled from Beltline.I left the girl behind.Now, I’m back.

Tycoon


Katy Evans - 2017
    This hot. This difficult.Aaric Christos was a guy who protected me. Wanted me. Maybe even loved me.That man is gone.In his place is the most powerful real estate tycoon in the city.He’s a cold, ruthless, aggressive businessman.The only one who can save me and my startup from ruin.It takes every ounce of courage to put my pride aside and ask for his help.I didn’t expect him to offer it easily.And he doesn’t.Instead, he vets me harder than he’s vetted anyone.Don’t invest in what you don’t know, he says.He's assessing every piece of me, to the point I've never felt so bare.I yearn for the boy I once knew, whose touch once craved me.Putting it all on the line will be worth it, I tell myself.Until I realize—too late—that some risks are not worth taking.

Pieces of Us


G - 2011
    Devastated and trying to put the past behind her, Charlotte sought a new life in a new town. Now, five years later, her fiancé has convinced her it's time to return home and face her past. But will the truth she learns and the people she reconnects with destroy her carefully crafted happiness? Hannah Downing has created an emotional roller coaster about lost love and the way one indiscretion can change the course of your life. Charlotte questions every decision she's ever made, but she may discover that when you lose everything, you can truly find yourself.

Falling


Wendy Smith - 2018
     After a year of being miserable and feeling like a failure, Cole leaves, knowing his wife and child will be looked after by his trust fund, and wanting to make more of his life to make his family proud. Four years later, he tracks them down, and finds that while he’s lived a good life, she’s struggling—balancing two jobs while raising their daughter, Kaia. It doesn’t take long for Cole to realise that he doesn’t just want to fix things. He wants to get to know Kaia. And he wants Brooke back. If only life was that simple. This book does not contain the conclusion of the story. The story ends in Book 2, Rising.

With Every Breath


Niecey Roy - 2015
    She has her dream job, her freedom, and miles separating her from a past she needed to outrun. Only one thing could make her return to River Bend, and that’s her best friend on the verge of a breakdown. From the moment Cole Brooks realized he married the wrong woman, he’d done his best to not let fantasies of the one who got away haunt him. Now that his marriage is over, and Jaden’s back in town, is the universe giving him a second chance?Jaden isn’t about to let her guard down around the man who broke her heart, but Cole won’t give up until she admits how perfect they would be together.

The Woman He Married (A Magic City Duo, # 1)


Julie N. Ford - 2011
     Once an aspiring young attorney, Josie looked forward to taking on the injustices of the world—one case at a time. Eleven years later, she’s a stay-at-home mom and battling demons that don’t require a law degree. Only keeping up pretenses proves more than she can bear when a bracelet that should have been hers shows up on the wrist of another woman. Her marriage slowly begins to unravel as an ex-lover comes back into her life. When he offers her the dreams she thought she’d lost, Josie must chose between the man she married and the one she let get away. John has always known exactly what he wanted. A career as a high-powered attorney, followed by the perfect family of six, and then elected public service. So it was no surprise that the first time he laid his eyes on Josie, he knew she was the one he’d share his dreams with. More than a decade, and one tragic miscalculation later, all he has worked for is slipping through his fingers. Powerless to stem the flow, the one thing he remains certain of: he can’t lose the woman he married.