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V is for Villainous by Danielle Allen
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Never Trust A Broken Heart
Ivy Symone - 2015
The emptiness that Redd inflicts on her makes her wonder, who else is out there for her. She stumbles upon Blyss Blakemore, otherwise known as Bebe, and immediately they begin a love affair that’s incredibly undeniable. Bebe coming into her life seemed to be what she needed. However, Bebe isn’t sure he has the patience for waiting in the shadows while Miki figures out what she wants to do. Will Miki get the strength to move on once Bebe give her an ultimatum or will she remain in the tumultuous relationship that she has become accustomed to? Never Trust a Broken Heart takes you on Miki’s emotional journey to healing. But will it all end leaving Bebe questioning if the old saying remains true, that you can never trust a broken heart?
Along for the Ride
Mimi Grace - 2019
It’s why she offered to help her sister and brother-in-law move across the country. However, her goodwill is tested when last minute changes—mainly her father ditching her for an all-expenses paid vacation—forces her to make the journey with a man who is the human version of a pebble in her shoe. Jason Akana operates on lists and bitter coffee, but none of those things will help him on a sixteen-hour trip with the most infuriating woman. Maybe they can get along and forget their heated confrontation five years ago at his best friend’s wedding…when pigs fly. But the addition of vehicle problems, an unplanned pit stop in a small town, and chemistry that inconveniently tags along, shifts their perspectives. And once the dust settles after their trip, a tentative friendship emerges. Will these two stubborn people successfully navigate the unexpected feelings that follow close behind? Or will they hit a roadblock before reaching happily ever after?Content Warning:1. Deceased parent (died long before the start of the book)2. Verbally pushy person who's romantically interested in the heroine (NOT the hero)
Sugar
Bernice L. McFadden - 2000
Sugar moves next door to Pearl, who is still grieving for the daughter who was murdered fifteen years before. Over sweet-potato pie, an unlikely friendship begins, transforming both women's lives--and the life of an entire town.Sugar brings a Southern African-American town vividly to life, with its flowering magnolia trees, lingering scents of jasmine and honeysuckle, and white picket fences that keep strangers out--but ignorance and superstition in. To read this novel is to take a journey through loss and suffering to a place of forgiveness, understanding, and grace. McFadden is the author of the novels Gathering of Waters, Glorious, and This Bitter Earth.
Love Me Up
D. Rose - 2019
After months of being buried in her studies, she sought a thrill to brighten up her dull world. A trip with her best friends was the perfect remedy for her boring college girl routine. Amani Browne had become weary while touring with his brother, rapper, Ogun. Between traveling and producing his brother's album, he was on the verge of burnout. The upcoming trip he had would provide him with much-needed rest and recuperation. What started as one fun night of lust and pleasure turned into something unexpected. Kassandra wanted nothing more than the one night they shared. Kassandra infatuated Amani from the moment they met and was willing to do whatever it took to please her. Would his affections be enough to persuade her to give them a chance?
Loving the Movie Star (Hawaii Billionaire Romance Book 6)
Jennifer Youngblood - 2017
Too bad Blade’s having stress issues brought on by a longtime stalker who’s getting more aggressive. If Blade can’t find a way to loosen up on set and perform to the best of his ability, he’ll lose everything he’s worked so hard to achieve. Dani Fairchild, Samantha’s little sister (from Love Him or Lose Him) is trying hard to turn over a new leaf and transcend into adulthood. Yes, she may have been irresponsible in the past when she jilted billionaire Liam Barclay (from Love on the Rocks) and ran off with a surfer, but that’s all behind her. Dani has a food blog she wants to take to the next level, and she’s holding down a full-time job. Granted, being a receptionist isn’t her dream job by any means, but hey, it’s a start. Too bad she can’t keep her big mouth shut and gets fired when the boss acts like a jerk. An unlikely encounter on the public bus brings Blade and Dani together where sparks fly and attraction sizzles. But Dani isn’t having it. No matter how charismatic Blade is or how good he looks with his chiseled abs and piercing blue eyes she’s vowed to never again get involved with someone who doesn’t live on the island permanently. Long distance relationships are a kick in the pants, and she’s tired of being hurt. Home alone for Christmas while Samantha and her family go to the mainland, Dani settles in for a quiet, predictable holiday. But fate has other plans when Dani and Blade are unwittingly thrown into a cycle of events that lead to a heart-pounding climax. Can Dani and Blade find a strong enough love to sustain them in the face of danger? Or will the stalker win in the end? Like all the books in the Hawaii Billionaire Romance series, Loving the Movie Star is a standalone novel, but you’ll enjoy surprise appearances from many of your favorite characters from previous stories. Here are the other titles in the Hawaii Romance Series: Love Him or Lose Him Love on the Rocks Love on the Rebound Love at the Ocean Breeze Love Changes Everything Loving the Movie Star
Madame X
Jasinda Wilder - 2015
With a single glance she can cut you down to nothing, or make you feel like a king.But there is only one man who can claim her body—and her soul.Undone time and again by his exquisite dominance, X craves and fears his desire in equal measure. And while she longs for a different path, X has never known anything or anyone else—until now...
Wanted
Amanda Lance - 2013
Desperate to rid the crime of its only witness, one of the thieves kidnaps Addie. Yet surprisingly, when a renegade thief attempts to silence her for good, Addie is saved by the very man who abducted her. Now, forced on board a cargo ship in the middle of the ocean, Addie finds herself surrounded by international smugglers who want nothing more than to throw her overboard. All except the artistic and intriguing Charlie Hays, whose strange protectiveness convinces Addie to trust him, even when common sense tells her otherwise. Yet, despite her doubt, and his unrelenting temper, their relationship develops into something much more. But, Charlie’s scorned colleague has stowed away, and as he seeks revenge against his coworker, Addie and Charlie are forced to put their new love—and lives—at risk.
Playing With Fire
Taylor Lee - 2012
OVERVIEW• A rookie firefighter accused of setting the fire that kills her husband and his mistress.• “A bad-assed cop falls for the beautiful firefighter only to discover she is his #1 suspect in a double murder.• Can Nate find the real murderer before the murderer finds her?
Darkhouse
Karina Halle - 2011
Though she’s been dealing with a quarter-life crisis and post-college syndrome like any other twenty-something, she’s still not what you would call “ordinary.” For one thing, there’s her past which she likes to pretend never happened, and then there’s the fact that she sees ghosts. Luckily for her, that all comes in handy when she stumbles across Dex Foray, an eccentric producer for an upcoming webcast on ghost hunters. Even though the show’s budget is non-existent and Dex himself is a maddening enigma, Perry is instantly drawn into a world that both threatens her life and seduces her with a sense of importance. Her uncle’s haunted lighthouse provides the perfect catalyst and backdrop for a horrific mystery that unravels the threads of Perry’s fragile sanity and causes her to fall for a man, who, like the most dangerous of ghosts, may not be all that he seems.
Made of Steel
Ivy Smoak - 2020
The only thing she knew for sure was that she was going to marry him. Just as soon as she could convince him that she didn't have cooties. But tragedy tore her away from him before they ever got a chance at their happily ever after. And the worst part? He forgot all about her.Ten years after Summer lost everything, she's given a fresh start in the witness protection program. The only rule: don't speak to anyone from her past. A rule that's hard to follow when she finds out that the boy next door is living right down the hall. Unlike him, she never forgot. But she knows that the future she once dreamed of is no longer an option. And if she reveals her identity, she could get them both killed.Miles fell in love with the girl next door when he was eight-years-old. When she disappeared in the foster care system, it felt like a piece of him was missing. So when she shows up in his life again with a different color hair and a new name? It doesn’t fool him. And this time he'll do whatever it takes to keep her.
Luster
Raven Leilani - 2020
She is also haltingly, fitfully giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage — with rules.As if navigating the constantly shifting landscapes of contemporary sexual manners and racial politics weren’t hard enough, Edie finds herself unemployed and invited into Eric’s home — though not by Eric. She becomes a hesitant ally to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. Edie may be the only Black woman young Akila knows.Irresistibly unruly and strikingly beautiful, razor-sharp and slyly comic, sexually charged and utterly absorbing, Raven Leilani’s Luster is a portrait of a young woman trying to make sense of her life — her hunger, her anger — in a tumultuous era. It is also a haunting, aching description of how hard it is to believe in your own talent, and the unexpected influences that bring us into ourselves along the way.
Midnight Lily
Mia Sheridan - 2016
At least he was before he lost it all... or more to the point, before he threw it all away. Now he's out of a job, out of the public's good graces, and perhaps just a little out of his mind. So when a friend offers up his remote lodge in the wilds of Colorado, giving Holden some time away to get his life back on track, he can hardly say no. The last thing he expects is to see a beautiful girl in the woods—one wearing a white, lace dress who appears in the moonlight, and leaves no footprints behind. Is she a dream? A ghost? A product of his muddled imagination? Or something entirely different? Midnight Lily is the haunting love story of two lost souls reaching for each other in the dark. A tale of healing, acceptance, and the worlds we create to protect our own hearts. It is a story of being lost, of being found, and of being in the place between. This is a stand-alone Sign of Love novel, inspired by Virgo Due to strong language and sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.
The Pact
Jodi Picoult - 1998
Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born.So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet—a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.
Ignition
Skye Callahan - 2015
Fast cars, pain, alcohol, women... his vices come in many flavors, but one woman tempts him closer to the line he can never come back from. She'll be his hardest theft yet--an action that will set the looming conflict with his brother on a new and violent path.Aubrey has two choices. The first she knows too well: the alluring businessman who entwined her in his deceptive plots. The second is a stranger. He makes his promises not with a silver tongue but with harsh, blunt observations that Aubrey can't ignore. Either way, she's caught between two brothers each seeking the other's downfall--and neither has a problem taking her down in the process. IGNITION is the first book in the dark romantic serial, The Redline Series.1. IGNITION2. TORQUE (May 2015)3. BRAKE (July 2015)4. EXHAUST (September 2015)5. CLUTCH (November 2015)
A Perfect Mess
Zoe Dawson - 2012
He was always the unpredictable one, the one who would be brash enough to make it big self-publishing horror novels on the internet. He promised never to tell, but everyone knows you can never trust an Outlaw.Then a year later, in the middle of the night, she receives a phone call at Tulane. Her aunt, who took her in after her mother’s death, is in a coma under suspicious circumstances. Now she has to face that one person who knows all about what she did that summer—sexy Booker. Returning to Hope Parish to be with her aunt, stirs up all those ugly memories. When Aubree starts getting threats, she can’t help but wonder if what she did last summer was tied to her aunt’s “accident.” Afraid, she turns to the only person who knows the truth and Booker doesn’t hesitate to offer his broad shoulder for her to lean on. But Booker has a secret of his own that could crush their fledgling relationship.As the hot, sultry summer days move on, she finds that even a perfectly smart girl can lose her heart to a perfectly bad boy. What is she going to do when someone starts asking questions Aubree doesn’t want to answer? She’s knee deep into a terribly dangerous, wholly life changing, who-can-she-really-depend-on perfect mess.A Perfect Series: Three perfect girls, three perfect secrets, one unholy trinityA Perfect Mess, Book #1 – the girl most likely to succeed, an unpredictable Outlaw, and a dangerous secret that could be the death of her.A Perfect Mistake, Book #2 – A preacher’s daughter, a reckless Outlaw, and a secret that will change her life forever.A Perfect Dilemma, Book #3 – The town’s poor little rich girl, a sweet-talking Outlaw, and a secret that will ruin all that she holds dear