Book picks similar to
Flawed Beauty by L.R. Potter


new-adult
favorites
contemporary
romance

Tidal


Emily Snow - 2012
    At least, that's what her parents and agent are claiming. She doesn't really give a damn if she never makes another movie or not—she just wants to get on with her life, get back to her friends, and find her next escape. But Willow is broke. And whether she likes it or not, acting is the only job she knows how to do.When she accepts the lead in a beach drama, Willow finds herself in Hawaii. And in Hawaii, she finds Cooper, the gorgeous surfer hired to train her for her new role. With the bluest eyes she’s ever seen and the sexiest Australian accent she’s ever heard, Cooper’s different from the men she’s used to. He doesn’t want to use her. And he refuses to let her fail. But when an old friend re-enters Willow’s life—a friend whose toxicity she’s been drawn to time and time before and whose presence brings about the painful memories she's tried so hard to suppress—Willow will have to choose between the girl she was and the person she’s becoming. The lifestyle that helps her forget the pain and the guy she’s falling hard for.

Charade


Nyrae Dawn - 2012
    Walking in on her boyfriend with another woman her freshman year in college threatens that picture of perfection. Twenty-one-year-old Colt never wanted college and never expected to amount to anything, but when his mom's dying wish is for him to get his degree, he has no choice but to pretend it's what he wants too. Cheyenne needs a fake boyfriend to get back at her ex and Colt needs cash to take care of his mom, so they strike a deal that helps them both. But what if Cheyenne’s past isn’t what she thought? Soon they’re trading one charade for another—losing themselves in each other to forget about their pain. The more they play their game, the more it becomes the only thing they have that feels real.Both Cheyenne and Colt know life is never easy, but neither of them expect the tragedy that threatens to end their charade and rip them apart forever.

But I Love Him


Amanda Grace - 2011
    I think of how I collected each piece from the beach, how I glued it all together into one big sculpture. I wonder if Connor realizes what it means, that he'll always have a piece of me no matter what happens. Each piece of glass is another piece of myself that I gave to him.It's too bad I didn't keep any pieces for myself.At the beginning of senior year, Ann was a smiling, straight-A student and track star with friends and a future. Then she met a haunted young man named Connor. Only she can heal his emotional scars; only he could make her feel so loved - and needed. Ann can't recall the pivotal moment it all changed, when she surrendered everything to be with him, but by graduation, her life has become a dangerous high wire act. Just one mistake could trigger Connor's rage, a senseless storm of cruel words and violence damaging everything - and everyone - in its path.This evocative slideshow of flashbacks reveals a heartbreaking story of love gone terribly wrong.

Darkness Matters


Jay McLean - 2017
    Good versus evil. Heroes versus villains. Light versus dark. For two years, college freshman Noah Morgan lived his life somewhere in the middle, fighting darkness and light, always searching for answers to a single question: Why, Noah, why? The same three words keep him up at night, struggling for air while gripping a plastic cylinder containing white pills to match the white label with his name printed in ink as deep and dark as his memories—memories that turned him into a recluse. A shut-in. An introvert. Luckily for him, that’s not how the girl next door sees him.

Unavoidable


Yara Greathouse - 2014
    After a terrible childhood and adolescence she is able to escape her troubled past and disappear. A few years later she is starting over attending the university of her dreams. Dating is not even a bleep on her radar. After all the terrible experiences she has had with men throughout her life, she is not ready to give her heart away. Unfortunately, she cannot avoid the charms of Colton Hensley. Colton is used to getting everything he wants. He has the looks and the money – until he meets Brianna. Pursuing her is a challenge, and getting to know her is nearly impossible since she is reluctant to give in to him. The mystery of this adventurous, adrenaline seeking, tough talking, most beautiful girl he has ever seen – is driving him insane. She is all that he can think about. And when someone dangerous comes after Brianna, will she be able to avoid telling Colton about her past? Unavoidable – Coming May 2014

If I Never Knew You


Aubrey Bailey - 2013
    However, working double shifts at the Wayside Restaurant can barely pay the bills, and having a manipulative boyfriend, Damian, leaves her little time for her to spend with her family.When she meets Andy’s friend, Orion, at work one day, she can’t help but immediately picture this new friend as her knight in shining armor. She soon falls in love with him behind the back of her controlling and abusive boyfriend. Afraid to leave him for another man, Madison is faced with a very important choice that could change her life forever.Can she turn her secret life with Orion into her new life?Will she be able to meet the consequences of betraying Damian?When Madison’s past collides with her present, everything is doomed to fall to pieces. However, with the help of her brother, can she make it out with everything she’s ever wanted…or will she be left with nothing?

Search Me


Katie Ashley - 2013
    Never would she have imagined after breaking her grandmother’s precious Native American statue, danger, a lost treasure of Cherokee Gold and a hostage situation would arise. Nor could she predict that the one man destined to protect her and her family was her childhood nemesis and former crush, Maddox Diaz.Returning after three years in the Army, twenty-three year old Maddox Diaz is confronted with more than he bargained for when agreeing to help his childhood buddy and deepest regret, Lane. Suddenly he is thrust into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with armed and ruthless treasure seekers that results in car chases and gun battles all in the presence of the one girl who still manages to haunt his dreams and drive him wild with desire.Lane is determined to deny the sizzling chemistry with the man who stole her virginity and broke her heart. She just wants to stay alive with her heart intact. Will she be able to resist the man whose body sets fire to all her senses?Coming summer of 2013. Read an excerpt here: http://literatiliteraturelovers.com/2...

Rebel Soul


J.C. Hannigan - 2016
    She’s been counting down the months, waiting to be free of her overbearing brothers and overprotective father — not to mention getting out of the small, suffocating town she’s grown up in. The one thing Tessa doesn't count on is falling in love, least of all with Brock Miller. He’s the kind of boy her father has always warned her about. He’s older, mysterious, and a little dangerous. Brock has had a hard past, and the whole town not only knows it, but won’t let him forget. Brock has come back to take care of his ailing mother and struggling younger siblings. He doesn’t have time to fall in love, especially with one of the town’s darlings, but sometimes, love comes fast and fierce. Can Tessa and Brock find a way to each other despite their pasts and the obstacles their families present?

Real


Katy Evans - 2013
    One night was all it took, and I forgot everything and anything except the sexy fighter in the ring who sets my mind ablaze and my body on fire with wanting...Remington Tate is the strongest, most confusing man I've ever met in my life.He’s the star of the dangerous underground fighting circuit, and I’m drawn to him as I've never been drawn to anything in my life. I forget who I am, what I want, with just one look from him. When he’s near, I need to remind myself that I am strong—but he is stronger. And now it’s my job to keep his body working like a perfect machine, his taut muscles primed and ready to break the bones of his next opponents...But the one he’s most threatening to, now, is me.I want him. I want him without fear. Without reservations.If only I knew for sure what it is that he wants from me?

Atheists Who Kneel and Pray


Tarryn Fisher - 2017
    When he first sees her, he knows he's found what he's been looking for.Yara believes she can give David exactly what he needs to reach his full potential:A broken heart.David’s religion is love. Yara’s religion is heartache.Neither is willing to surrender, but religion always requires sacrifice.

Just a Little Crush


Renita Pizzitola - 2014
    . . or, at least, they try to. In Renita Pizzitola’s emotional novel of heartache and seduction, one college freshman just can’t get enough.   Brinley Dawson doesn’t drink, she studies—and despite the accusations of her alcoholic mother, she’s still a virgin. But if Brinley’s life is so put together, why is she freaking out to be going to college with the gorgeous, green-eyed jerk she kissed on a stupid dare in high school? Ryder Briggs can have any girl he wants . . . and the rumors say that he does. So why, after publicly embarrassing Brinley four years ago, is he suddenly acting like he’s interested?   Ryder never forgot Brinley. In fact, those perfect seven minutes permanently raised the bar for what a kiss could be. The truth is, Ryder doesn’t dare get too close to anyone. He knows how that worked out for his parents. But when his roommate takes a shot at Brinley, Ryder can’t contain his jealousy. Now he must do the hardest thing he’s ever done: forget about sex and convince Brinley his feelings are real.   Brinley isn’t sure whether she believes Ryder, but for the first time, her body isn’t playing by the rules. Then she discovers that she’s an unwilling part of a cruel game, humiliating her all over again—and Ryder might be to blame. Has Brinley’s little crush turned into a huge mistake . . . or has she found the one guy worth trusting with her heart?

Up in the Treehouse


K.K. Allen
    Then again, she never imagined she would fall in love with him either. When she finally reveals her feelings, rejection shatters her, rendering her vulnerable and sending her straight into the destructive arms of the wrong guy.The Rhodes twins never saw the betrayal coming. Chloe has always been their forbidden fantasy--sweet, beautiful, and tempting. But soon the lines between family, friendship, and love become as tangled as the roots of the treehouse they once shared.Now it's too late . . .Four years after a devastating tragedy, Chloe and Gavin find themselves crashing back into each other's lives. Haunted by the past, they're forced to come to terms with all that has transpired to find the peace they deserve. Except they can't seem to get near each other without combatting an intense emotional connection that brings them right back to where it all started . . . their childhood treehouse.Chloe still holds her secrets close, but this time she isn't the only one with something to hide. Can their deep-rooted connection survive the destruction of innocence?

Only for You


Beverley Kendall - 2012
    And she can finally put her juvenile crush, Zachary Pearson, where he belongs--in her past. Then her unrequited love strolls into her French class, shattering Olivia's newfound peace, and the feelings she'd thought buried for good come rushing back. Now she can't shake her unwanted attraction to the one guy who can twist her stomach into knots with just a smile...but has never given her the time of day.Zach's good looks may have always gotten him his pick of girls, but it's the star quarterback's skill on the football field that gives him his pick of the Big Ten colleges. To escape the crushing demands of his win-at-all-costs father, Zach opts for a private university in upstate New York where...his present and past collide. And the one girl he's always wanted but can't have--and a class trip to Paris--turn out to be the ultimate game changer that has him breaking every one of his rules.Recommended for readers +17 and upNew Adult - mature content (language & sex)

Lost & Found


Nicole Williams - 2013
    And there’s Rowen Sterling.After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.

Now or Never


A.J. Bennett - 2013
    Her attraction to the sexy man in uniform quickly turns into an unhealthy relationship. They both try to resist the pull, but neither can stay away. When tragedy strikes, Grayson realizes it's now or never—walk away or make it work.