Book picks similar to
The Next Contestant by Dani Evans
new-adult
dnf
arc
romance
Stay With Me
Elyssa Patrick - 2013
Singing, acting, dancing—I’ve done it all. The tabloids cover my every move, but I don’t want that anymore. I want to be normal, whatever that is.When I leave Hollywood for college in Vermont, I’m on my own for the first time in my life. This is my chance to figure out who I am and what I want in life.But it’s a lot harder than I expected. I can’t escape my image. Classes are difficult, and I’m struggling. And then there’s Caleb Fox.Sexy, intriguing Caleb Fox.Caleb is the one man who doesn’t want to use me. He breaks down my walls. He challenges me. He wants me. And I just don’t know if I can give him the same—or if he’ll stick around when he finds out my shameful secret that the tabloids haven’t managed to uncover.Dating him is risky enough, but loving him could break me.New Adult/Contemporary Romance with a HEA - Recommended for ages 17 and older.
Fever
Melissa Pearl - 2014
Ella Simmons does not want to move across the country. But she is, because her boyfriend has persuaded her to join him at UChicago to finish out her college education. Never able to tell him no, she hops on a plane and makes the trek from LA expecting to adjust to life like she's often forced to, but things are not that simple when she hears a luscious voice singing over her shower wall. His deep, sexy tenor makes her weak in the knees, spreading fire through her limbs and making her question everything about her life and relationship. Can one voice really have that much of an impact? Cole Reynolds is on his way out. In his final year at UChicago, the only thing he wants to do is finish school and get on with his life. But the sweet voice that interrupts his morning shower turns his world upside down. Compelled to find his shower songbird, he begins a search across campus. The only thing to distract him from this goal is his roommate's gorgeous girlfriend who's just arrived from LA - Ella Simmons. Relationships are put to the ultimate test as future dreams are questioned and friendships are thrown on the line for love. ALL THE SONGBIRD NOVELS CAN BE READ AS STAND ALONE BOOKS.
The Bet
J.L. Beck - 2019
“Yeah, so was I but you seem to have forgotten that part of your life.” The bet was simple. You draw a name from the hat. That’s the girl you have to seduce. The girl you have to make fall head over heels in love with you. It wasn’t hard for me to do, in fact, it was something I did all the time. I was known for breaking hearts. Sex was just that, sex. And it didn’t take me very long to get a woman on her back. And then I drew her name: Jules Peterson. My former best friend. My first kiss. My first love. She shattered my heart into a million pieces three years ago. She left me right when I needed her most. And as fate who have it, she had entered my life once again, at almost the perfect time. She was a transfer, fresh meat, and she had just put a target on her back. It was my turn to make her pay. It was my turn to break her heart. Holding onto that hate, that anger, that f*cking heartbreak. It does something to you. It breaks you, and it broke me, it tainted me, just like I would do to Jules. She used to be my everything, but now she was nothing but The Bet. **The Bet is book one in the North Woods University series. It is a full length, standalone, novel. It contains adult themes, and content not suitable for all readers. It is NOT a young adult novel.**Dear Reader, We're so happy that you are thinking about reading our newest book The Bet. We hope you enjoy it to your fullest and we cannot wait to read your reviews on it. However, we wanted to leave a little note to warn readers with sensitivity to dubious content, sexual themes, and verbal abuse. For those readers, this book may not be a good read for them. We also would like to say that while the book is entirely fiction we know that abuse, sexual, physical, and verbal is a very real thing in our world and that we do NOT condone any behavior of that nature nor do we think that it's okay to treat someone that way. Just like the makers of gory horror movies dont actually want people to be brutally murdered, we do not want anyone to be bullied or abused in any way.Again, this is fiction and while we don't always agree with the things our fictional characters do, sometimes it works for a story line. As writers, it is our job to draw out real emotions. Sometimes we will make you fall in love with a character and other times we might have you yelling at the book. With love, J.L. Beck & C. Hallman
Thin Love
Eden Butler - 2014
It isn't supposed to leave you bleeding. Kona pushed, Keira pulled, and in their wake, they left behind destruction. She sacrificed everything for him. It wasn't enough. But the wounds of the past can never be completely forgotten and still the flame remains, slumbers between the pleasure of yesterday and the thought of what might have been. Now, sixteen years later, Keira returns home to bury the mother who betrayed her, just as Kona tries to hold onto what remains of his NFL career with the New Orleans Steamers. Across the crowded bustle of a busy French Market, their paths collide, conjuring forgotten memories of a consuming touch, skin on skin, and the still smoldering fire that begs to be rekindled. When Kona realizes the trifecta of betrayal—his, Keira's and those lies told to keep them apart—his life is irrevocably changed and he once again takes Keira down with him into the fire that threatens to ignite them both.
Lost in Us
Layla Hagen - 2014
But when her boyfriend of six years abruptly leaves her, she’s catapulted back into pain, nursing a broken heart. When indulging in mountains of chocolate doesn’t work, Serena decides the best way to deal with her shattered heart is to indulge in something else. A rebound... The night she swaps her usual Sprite for tequila, she meets James. The encounter is breathtaking.Electrifying.And best not repeated. James is a successful entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. A man who has amassed a fortune by taking risks. A man who has shunned commitment completely, and still does. He’s the exact opposite of Serena. But sometimes opposites attract. Sometimes they give in to burning passion. Sometimes opposites are perfect for each other. James is everything her damaged soul could want. His kisses are intoxicating, his touch out of this world. He makes her forget. He grants her peace from her pain. But as they grow closer, Serena discovers she isn’t the only one with a past. James carries the scars of a past much darker than hers. One that has left him damaged, hurt, and wary of love. A past that gives him the power to shatter her. Now James and Serena must find a way to mend one another. Or risk losing each other forever.
Emerge
S.E. Hall - 2013
And though change is an inevitable, scary part of life, just lying in wait around the corners and milestones you thought you had a lock on, there's no way I could've known just how much change, that would never change back, I was driving right toward. But... by shutting the door to my old life, the door to my new one opened- and in strolled Dane Kendrick, awakening the wildest of dreams, delights, and desires, that I never even knew slept inside me. And now, it's time to let the real Laney Jo Walker emerge.Evolve & Full Circle Series suggested reading order:*Emerge*Embrace*Entangled*Entice*Sawyer Beckett's Baby Mama Drama Guide for Dummies*Endure*Sawyer Beckett's Guide for Tools Looking to Date My Daughter*Entwined*Embody (Full Circle Series/Spinoff from Evolve Series Book One)*A Crew Christmas*Elusive (Full Circle Series/Princess Presley Duet Book One)*Exclusive (Full Circle Series/Princess Presley Duet Book Two)
Fighting Silence
Aly Martinez - 2015
We spend our lives blocking out the static in order to focus on what we believe is important. But what if, when the clarity fades into silence, it's the obscure background noise that you would give anything to hold on to? I've always been a fighter. With parents who barely managed to stay out of jail and two little brothers who narrowly avoided foster care, I became skilled at dodging the punches life threw at me. Growing up, I didn’t have anything I could call my own, but from the moment I met Eliza Reynolds, she was always mine. I became utterly addicted to her and the escape from reality we provided each other. Throughout the years, she had boyfriends and I had girlfriends, but there wasn't a single night that I didn’t hear her voice. You see, meeting the love of my life at age thirteen was never part of my plan. However, neither was gradually going deaf at the age of twenty-one. They both happened anyway. Now, I'm on the ropes during the toughest battles of my life. Fighting for my career. Fighting the impending silence. Fighting for her. Every night, just before falling asleep, she sighs as a final conscious breath leaves her. I think that's the sound I'll miss the most.
Each book in this series can be read as a standalone.
Bad Rep
A. Meredith Walters - 2012
Maysie Ardin is soaking up the summer before her junior year of college, shopping, hanging by the pool and shopping some more. But when her black belt in spending lands her in trouble with her parents, she is forced to take a second job at a local bar to dig herself out of a deep financial pit.She thought she’d be miserable. But then Maysie didn’t count on Jordan Levitt, the hot, pierced and tattooed, drum playing bartender who also happens to be very interested in her. And the feelings are totally mutual.It had the makings of the perfect romantic set up. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Boy has girlfriend? Okay, maybe not.But attraction is a hard thing to ignore and soon Jordan and Maysie find themselves in the middle of a gossip induced firestorm. Maysie has to learn whether she can set aside her fear of public disapproval in order to be with the one she wants. Or will she let the opinions of others dictate her life and her heart?
This is War: Travis & Viola, #1
Kennedy Fox - 2016
His sculpted abs and gorgeous eyes are wasted on such an arrogant man, which makes me hate him even more.Even though I’ve had a crush on him since I was ten, the feelings weren’t mutual and he’s made that very clear. He’s always loved getting under my skin and one night against my better judgment, I let him in my bed. I’ve succumbed to his manw**re ways, but that doesn’t change a thing.Because the King is about to get played at his own game—and lose.Checkmate, King.This is book 1 in the Travis & Viola duet and must be read first. Suggested for mature readers only.
Pricked
Winter Renshaw - 2019
What I got was a broody, enigmatic demigod with an electrifying touch and a mysterious past. We were night and day in every way possible, not an ounce of anything in common, and yet, I wanted him in the worst way. It didn't matter that he was emotionally unavailable or that he was exactly the kind of man who would give my father a coronary should I dare to bring him home. It didn't matter that his heart was wrapped in barbed wire or that he made me promise never to fall for him. None of it mattered because he was the most perfectly imperfect, beautifully tortured soul I'd ever known, and I was besotted, addicted to all the thrilling and wondrous ways he made me feel when we were together. They say a single moment can change the entire trajectory of your life. But looking back, I never could have imagined all the ways my world would change the moment it collided with his. I learned too late that he kept his past a secret for a reason.
Summer's Temptation
Ashley Lynn Willis - 2014
Women will always try to change a man. Men will always say anything to get a girl in bed. Tyler Mason will always have a long line of girls trying to domesticate him, and none will succeed. If one of these ceases to be true, the world will cease to exist.These are the rules as college student Cassie Faye knows them, so when she gives up on dating in favor of a man who can satisfy her without tempting her heart, her next-door neighbor Tyler tops the list. Tyler isn’t the type of boy Cassie would fall for, but he’s the perfect guy to teach her how to claim her sexual independence without losing her heart in the process. Too late, Cassie finds out that under his womanizing exterior is an attentive, considerate lover who brings out passions in her that she'd barely glimpsed before. What if she’s wrong about the third truth? What if the world as she knows it is about to cease to exist?
Plastic Hearts
Lisa De Jong - 2013
I like it that way. I grew up in a fake society where plastic hearts rule. If our hearts are made of plastic, they can never be broken. My parents have expectations and I do everything I can to meet them, even if it means giving up on my own dreams. Now, all I want is to be free to make my own choices.Dane Wright is everything I have been warned to stay away from. We met one night while I was with my perfect, parent-approved boyfriend and I haven’t stopped thinking about him. I don’t want to like him. I am doing everything I can to ignore his pull, but my heart seems to want what it cannot have, what it has never had.Can he measure up? He may think I am too good for him, but maybe he is too good for me. Life is a series of choices and I have never been able to make my own. Until one day, when my heart decides to make a choice for me.Recommended for mature readers due to sexual content and language
First Comes Love (Love & Marriage, #1)
Emily Goodwin - 2016
Then comes marriage. Then comes a—Hold up. You’re joking right? As if life works off a neat little list like that, moving down, checking things off before jumping to the next task. We’re not married. We’re not lovers. Hell, we’re hardly even friends. Noah Wilson isn’t exactly “life partner” material, and he sure as hell isn’t “father material”. He’s my older brother’s best friend, and has been off limits, sworn off, locked in the highest tower and out of reach since we met over ten years ago. With his devilish good looks, tattoos, motorcycle, and trail of broken hearts and tears, I’ve had good reason to stay away from the bad boy my mother warned me about.Until one night. One stupid, regrettable night that changed both of our lives forever. And now I only have nine months to decide our fate, to see if Noah’s rebel heart is capable of anything more than a one night stand.This isn’t a love story. This is a life story. And life doesn’t go according to plan.
This Regret
Victoria Ashley - 2014
That's how long it's been since my brother's been gone and not a day goes by that it doesn't kill me, knowing that I'll never see Adric again. It's been a rough journey, one I've barely survived, but with the help of my childhood friend Kade Haze, I'm finally learning to piece what remains back together. Or so I thought... Just when life is beginning to make sense again and a feeling of normalcy is on the horizon, my carefully constructed walls come crashing down, making it hard to breathe once again. When walking into the tattoo shop one day, the last thing I'm expecting to see is Kellan Haze, Adric's best friend who no one has seen or heard from since the day they found my brother's body. He's nothing like I remember him as a child, with his wild messy hair, tattoos that cover most of his undeniably sexy body, and eyes so intense they make my legs quiver with one look. The one thing even I can't deny is the instant rush I feel just by being in his presence. But how can I choose between love and lust when one of these holds a dark secret, one that can crush my world to pieces and leave me gasping for air. Who can I trust when my mind is pulling me in two different directions and my heart has to choose for me? The Haze brothers are sexy, daring, and possibly . . . dangerous. This Regret is a story of love, lust, betrayal, and danger with an ending no one will see coming.
Monday
E.L. Todd - 2016
In fate. Or in soul mates. But I believe in Hawke. My life has never been whole since my parents left forever. I have my brother, someone I can barely tolerate most of the time, and I have my best friend, Marie. And I have myself. But when Hawke walks into my life, there’s an immediate connection. Our eyes lock and an unspoken conversation is exchanged. For the first time in my life, I actually feel something. But he doesn’t. He keeps me at arm’s length and pretends there’s nothing between us when there clearly is. I’m not the kind of girl to wait around for any guy, so I don’t. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t in the back of my mind. Our paths cross again in a way neither one of us expect and it changes everything. Was it destiny that made it happen? Was it fate? Or was it something else?