Book picks similar to
Love Like Water by D.E. Malone


romance
chick-lit
contemporary
contemporary-romance

Maid for Love


Marie Force - 2011
    Then she’s knocked off her bike on the way to her housekeeping job at McCarthy’s Resort Hotel by Gansett’s “favorite son,” Mac McCarthy. He’s back in town to help his father with preparations to sell the family resort and has no intention of staying long. When Mac accidentally sends Maddie flying over the handlebars, badly injuring her, he moves in to nurse her back to health and help care for her young son. He soon realizes his plans for a hit-and-run visit to the island are in serious jeopardy, and he just may be “maid” for love.Gansett Island Reading OrderMaid for Love (Mac & Maddie)Fool for Love (Joe & Janey)Ready for Love (Luke & Sydney)Falling for Love (Grant & Stephanie)Hoping for Love (Evan & Grace)Season for Love (Owen & Laura)Longing for Love (Blaine & Tiffany)Waiting for Love (Adam & Abby)Time for Love (Daisy & David)Meant for Love (Jenny & Alex)Chance for Love, A Gansett Island Novella (Jared & Lizzie)Gansett After Dark (Owen & Laura)Kisses After Dark (Shane & Katie)Love After Dark (Paul & Hope)Celebration After Dark (Big Mac & Linda)Desire After Dark (Slim & Erin)Light After Dark (Mallory & Quinn)Victoria & Shannon (Episode 1)Kevin & Chelsea (Episode 2)A Gansett Island Christmas NovellaMine After Dark (Riley & Nikki)Yours After Dark (Finn & Chloe)Trouble After Dark (Deacon & Julia)Rescue After Dark (Mason & Jordan)

Choices


Michelle Lynn - 2016
    But nothing was ever that simple. When she envisioned what her life would entail, she freaked and fled to her brother’s apartment in the city. Straight into the arms of his best friend, Jason Marks.  Jason--a hardworking, bar owner--scraped together a life anyone would be proud of. Anyone, but Michaela’s family. Theirs was a match made in desperation. Kindling, just waiting to be set aflame. When the reality of their separate worlds neared, would it be enough to light the blaze? The New Beginnings series: Choices - A Sweet Romance Promises - A Friends to Lovers Romance Dreams - A Sweet Hockey Romance Confessions - A Second Chance Romance

I Pick You


Eryn Scott - 2021
    Magnolia Parker loves botany, but became a professor mostly to make her parents happy. When she’s passed up for tenure, Maggie decides it’s time to make a change. Escaping the city, she finds herself in the idyllic town of Plumb Creek staring at a For Sale sign in a flower shop that shares her name. It must be destiny. Maggie goes all in. Being a florist should be easy for a professor of botany. Right? Boy, is she wrong. Before she even opens shop, she’s angered half the town. After her first customer leaves in a huff, she realizes a botany degree isn’t going to cut it. Enter Grant Sommers, hot local entrepreneur who has the town in his back pocket. He’s willing to help turn the shop around, if Maggie will listen. As much as she wants this to work, she fears she’ll never be able to loosen the town’s tight-knit roots enough to be accepted.It’s time for Maggie to pick her own path, even if it means disappointing everyone else.

Accidentally Married


Victorine E. Lieske - 2014
    Her rent is due and she needs a job. Desperately. After getting a tip about an open position, she rushes to Jameson Technologies and meets CEO Jared Jameson. Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding, she is put in the awkward position of pretending to be his girlfriend. Not the job she was applying for. And when she finds out Jared lied to her to get what he wanted, she decides to get back at him. In front of his family. Jared is stunned when Madison announces they are getting married. She pushed her revenge too far. How can he tell them it’s all a lie? And when his sick aunt asks them to be married before she dies, Madison comes up with a hair-brained plan to hire an actor and stage a fake wedding. What they both don’t know is Jared’s father has found out about the fake wedding. And he’s got his own hair-brained plan. This is a sweet romance, appropriate for any age.

It All Started with a Lima Bean


Kimi Flores - 2013
    It must be gifted freely.Abby Sullivan cherishes the life she is creating for herself in her hometown of Santa Barbara, California. She adores her best friend and supportive family. Her job as a kindergarten teacher offers her life hope and purpose. She is very talented at many things, especially hiding the pain of her past. That is until her world collides with Caleb Hunter’s, giving them both a lesson in forgiveness and love.A life changing love is cruelly snatched by sickness and death. A person must be willing to give love, the greatest gift of all, to receive love.A successful writer, Caleb is living life day-to-day. Giving refuge to his sad and lonely heart since his wife's sudden death from cervical cancer, his primary focus becomes honoring her memory by rearing their five-year-old daughter, Madison. Yet, when Madison Hunter walks into Miss Abby’s kindergarten class, everything changes for all three of them.With a little nudge from a loving mother-in-law who has everyone’s best interest at heart, anything is possible, especially when forgiveness and love gift even more blessings than ever imaginable.**This is book 1 in the Intertwined Hearts series. Each book in the series follows a different couple and they can each be read as stand alones**

The Perfect Man


Lynn Dare - 2021
    Yes, definitely his jaw.But I, Ellie Amore, have a problem. It’s big, gigantic, and not in the good way.None of these men are real. And that version of me? More fake than an author calling herself classy while drinking boxed wine in her yoga pants.Me, that author is me.I dream of hot men. Perfect men. Fictional men. These men go into my books, and it’s all I need for my messy cat-lady-living-above-a-bookstore life. Really.I don’t need my brother’s best friend checking up on me. The man who brings me tacos. The one who is decidedly not perfect—as his enemy cat would tell you—but somehow might just be perfect for me.I’m not sure how it all started or when he decided I was more than a favor to his friend.All I know is Cruz is not a man from my dreams. This time, it’s different.This time, he’s real.The Perfect Man is book one in the Perfect Man romantic comedy series. Dive in for plenty of swoons, lots of laughs, and a guaranteed HFN ending.

Breaking the Rules


Ember Leigh - 2018
    As the successful owner of Holt Body Fitness, he was sure he would win his upcoming MMA fight… until his best friend’s little sister showed up.For Travis, there's only ever been one rule: stay away from his best friend's sister. But Amara Valenzuela has transformed from meek and sweet to a woman that Travis can’t keep his eyes—or hands—off of.Before long, however, Travis learns that being with Amara isn’t just breaking the rules. She’s a dangerous distraction.In a room full of hot, hard, sweaty bodies, these two have more than fitness on their minds. Will the undefeated MMA fighter be strong enough to resist the charms of his best friend's sexy and sweet little sister…or will trying to win her heart be the showdown of his life?Fans of Kennedy Ryan and Penelope Ward will love this emotional and steamy sports romance series starter.

That's My Sister (That's Our Family Book 1)


Roxanne Rhaman - 2019
    Having one who’s on the cover of magazines and is loved by all? Torture. For single mom Marie Stephens, all she wants is to survive her new business, provide for her children, and ignore the intense feelings she has for her married neighbor. When her famous sister, Sadie, shows up after a five-year absence, Marie’s normal life ceases to exist. Add in their celebrity-obsessed mother, it’s no wonder they can’t get along. The most important thing Sadie and Marie will learn? Accepting your sister can change your life.

Maple Summer Wallace: A Novel


Jessica Calla - 2019
    Her plan takes a wrong turn when she finds Veronica, her twenty-year-old housekeeper and daughter of her beloved nanny, Lola, hovering over the dead body of octogenarian Randolph Brentwood, the fifth richest man in the world. Maple has never been a warm and fuzzy type of family person, and the last thing she wants to do in her final months of life is deal with Veronica’s mess. But long ago Maple made a promise to Lola that she’d always look out for her “little sister” Veronica. Still, the stubborn Maple, hardened from her own personal loss, resists involvement until she learns that Veronica is pregnant with Lola’s grandchild, an heir to the Brentwood estate. To make good on her promise to Lola, Maple vows to help Veronica. With the assistance of Michael, a handsome and savvy PI, they journey up and down the East Coast, dodging the authorities, a shady lawyer, a cold-hearted hit man, and the powerful widow, Mrs. Brentwood. As Maple’s bitterness about spending her last days saving Veronica dissipates and her friendship with Michael develops, she realizes that on the way to death, she’s found something she’s never had—life. (PLEASE NOTE: This is the Author's Women's Fiction Debut. It is NOT a Romance. Further, this book touches on serious subjects that may affect more sensitive readers.)

Loving the Ladies' Man


Kristin Canary - 2021
    I'm the quirky Pride & Prejudice-loving editor who uses big words and dresses like the world's non-sexiest librarian.We have nothing in common.And we're competitors for the same job.Game on, right? May the best person win and all that? Fine by me. I'm happy to hold him at arms' length forever.And considering I'm practically the only woman in the office he's never flirted with, he's obviously happy to do the same.But when we're stuck overnight in our office building thanks to an earthquake-induced landslide (don't worry, we're totally fine), things between us start to change.I begin to realize that Connor isn't actually the jerk I thought he was--the kind who leads women on, just like my ex.And when he offers to attend my ex's wedding as my fake boyfriend, things get even more interesting. Especially when he gives me that much-too-chaste kiss...But I can't fall for him. That would be repeating the same mistake, just with a different guy.Tell that to my dumb heart, though--the one that seems to think Connor Bryant is my Mr. Darcy.Fans of Sarah Adams will love this closed-door romantic comedy with lots of sizzle and spice, but no on-page explicit content.

Someone Else's Fairytale


E.M. Tippetts - 2011
    It's the ideal fairytale... for most people. The last thing Chloe needs is public attention. It brings back dangers from the past that she's worked her whole life to escape.

Mr. January


Jasmine Garner - 2020
    It’s why he’s a great firefighter. It’s also why he can’t get over the morbid scene he just witnessed during his last shift. And then he meets Tisha, who understands the emotional turmoil he’s going through. She ends up saving his life in the most embarrassing way possible, and he can’t get her out of his head.Tisha can’t think of the last time she’s laughed, yet she’s content with her life. When you’ve experienced indescribable trauma, sometimes good enough is, well, good enough.She meets Seth and suddenly wants more. But with both of them healing from the darkness in their pasts, a healthy relationship may not be possible. And she’s perfectly fine with rejecting his advances, until she learns that he is Mr. January in a smoking hot firefighter calendar. Suddenly, saying no isn’t as clear-cut as she thought it would be. Seth’s personal commitments and darkness prove to be too overwhelming to fully give himself to Tisha, although he’s trying his best. But his best may not be good enough. The logical part of her mind and the broken part of her heart say no, but they’re no match for the fire he kindles within her body.This BWWM romance is book one in the Hot Boys firefighter series. Each book can be read as a standalone and in any order. No cheating and a guaranteed happily ever after.Are you ready to step into the fire?

The Match


Sarah Adams - 2020
    I am dead wrong.The day I meet with single dad, Jacob Broaden, about potentially matching his daughter with one of our service dogs, I learn a few valuable lessons.1) Always set my alarm clock.2) Single dads are way hotter than I previously thought.3) It is possible to go from fantasizing about kissing someone to wishing they would be run over by a truck in a matter of two minutes.Unfortunately, I don’t hold that opinion of him for very long. Not when he shows me a different side of himself—one that’s sweet as maple syrup and hot as apple pie fresh out of the oven.Too bad this guy is so far out of my league that I shouldn’t even be allowed to enter the game. Jake doesn’t seem to get that memo though. And after a few days of working closely with him and his daughter, he starts looking at me with fire in his eyes, making me dream of something I probably shouldn’t…A family."The Match is a feel-good romantic comedy! Perfect for readers who enjoy a sizzling romance without explicit content."

We Were Here


Daisy Prescott - 2016
    
This is the story of seven friends. We met in college, completely free for the first time in our lives and determined to enjoy every minute of it. For four years, we gossiped and flirted, partied and road-tripped. We were inseparable. Each of us has our own story of falling in or out of love. Of finding out who we are. Of growing up. We thought we knew everything. We knew nothing. We Were Here is where the Modern Love Stories begins, in a standalone that perfectly captures the humor, angst, and sheer chaos of college.

On the Edge


Dani Collins - 2018
    Viking-like Rolf Johansson exudes the same alpha-intimidation that jocks used to torment her through high school. After nursing her mother the last several years, she’s trying to break out of her shell and secretly pursue a writing career, but Rolf insists she go through with the rotten deal her father struck with his brother to renovate an old chalet. Rolf envisions this mountain as a world-class resort for elite athletes and other jet setters. As a downhill champion and owner of a world-renowned sports equipment empire, he knows what it takes to get what he wants. Nothing will stop him, especially not a hotheaded wallflower who turns the ice in his veins to lava. Bonus Story! This book contains Glory’s novella Blessed Winter, a no-room-at-the-inn Christmas romance.