Book picks similar to
The Casual Rule by A.C. Netzel


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Under the Cherry Blossoms


Amali Rose - 2017
    She just wants a happy ending. Cue the online dating app… It may have begun as a drunken attempt at a virtual booty call, but when Ben Mackinnon sets his sights on the intentionally lovelorn, Skye Emery, he pulls out all the stops in an attempt to convince her that romantic ideals like soulmates and forevers really do exist. Skye doesn’t want to believe a word. But try as she might, she can’t help but catch feelings for the sexy, reformed ladies-man. It’s his corny sense of humor that does it—along with his self confidence, and of course, his very dirty mouth.Their relationship blossoms, and just as these two lovebirds start to believe they’ve beaten all the odds, Ben’s unresolved past becomes a barrier that sends him reeling and Skye running for the door.The aftermath leaves Skye with two—well, three—choices: fight for her happily ever after, accept that her relationship with Ben was just one booty call too many, or eat her weight in ice cream.While the ice cream option seems enticing, Skye already knows what she needs to do...

Imperfections


Shaniel Watson - 2015
    We’d always had a certain chemistry growing up, especially after we shared one passionate, forbidden, perfect kiss as teenagers. For years, I’d hoped he could look past my overprotective brothers and our age difference so we could be more than friends, I was wrong. Four years ago, I left New York and my heart behind. Now I was back to stake my claim on the only man I'd ever loved. But unbeknownst to me, things were way more complicated than I could’ve imagined when I learn he's engaged—to my sister. Will the love and desire I feel for the one man I've ever truly wanted destroy me? Am I willing to risk it all, for a chance at everlasting love? Catherine Reed was the one woman I couldn't have, but the one I always wanted. She was my best friend’s baby sister, which meant she was definitely off-limits to me and anyone else if I had my way. Not even having a merry-go-round of beautiful girls could stop me from wanting her. Watching her leave was hard, but I knew giving in to what I wanted back then would ruin her... us. All I've ever wanted was for her to be happy and to see her beautiful smile. I haven't gotten to where I am by always doing what's right. She's back. I want her. I have every intention of making her mine. This book is not intended for readers under the age of 18 due to language and sexual content and does end with a cliffhanger.

Edge of Disaster


A.M. Hargrove - 2012
    A life of partying, alcohol, drugs and men has brought her near the edge of disaster. That is until one night while at work as a waitress in an upscale restaurant, she falls under the spell of one of her customers, Pearce Middleton. Once she gazes into his smoky gray eyes, her life takes on new meaning. But can she put her past behind her and allow herself to fall for the exciting and gorgeous Pearce, or will her lewd behavior come back to haunt her and ruin her chances of happiness forever?

Changing Teams


Jennifer Allis Provost - 2015
    She needs some excitement, and when she meets blue-eyed Midwesterner Sam MacKellar at a photo shoot, she realizes he’s perfect for her in every way—well, except for the fact he’s gay.A devastating childhood trauma turned Sam’s whole life into a lie…Sam came to New York City to escape an existence that had become unbearable, and when his job as a photographer’s assistant leads him to Britt, he realizes he’s finally met someone who sees him as he really is. But plagued by nightmares and trapped by his own deception, he doesn’t know how she can truly be part of his life.Friendship leads to a passionate encounter and hidden dangers…Britt comforts Sam though his nightmares, and they begin to explore their mutual attraction, but the tables are turned when Britt faces unwelcome attention from a manipulative art instructor and Sam must come to her defense.Sam is terrified to reveal the source of his nightmares, sure the truth would shatter his complicated relationship with Britt, but when she suffers an unspeakable trauma of her own, only Sam can help her pick up the pieces.When Britt learns the magnitude of Sam’s lies, will his reasons and the depth of their feelings be enough to allow her to forgive him? Does she have a future with Sam, or does his deception also include the reality of changing teams?

Coming Home


Kris Jett - 2017
     The weather may be cold outside, but things are sizzling indoors. Jessie Foster has long been the person everyone could count on, the one who stayed back with her mom to run the family business while her two older sisters, whom hadn’t spoken to her in years, took off to live their lives. When her sisters suddenly drop back into her world wanting a job and a place to live, who could blame her for being angry? Sick of always doing what’s right, Jessie is ready to shake things up. Even if it’s wrong. And wrong has a name. Enter the sexy Cade Stone, new to town and opening a snowmobile repair shop with his two equally hot brothers. Cade has an edge and a temper. He knows he’s a jerk 90% of the time and he’s generally unapologetic. Growing up in Chicago, he’d never dreamed he’d end up in the sleepy town of Snowy Ridge, population 1000. But somehow, he found himself caving to family pressure and doing “the right thing,” no matter how much he hated it. Neither were looking, and they’re completely wrong for each other. But sometimes wrong and right blur and magic happens. *** Look for the entire Love at Starlight series: CHRISTMAS AT STARLIGHT – Amber & Nick (Snowy Ridge: A Love at Starlight Novella, Book 0.5) (available FREE- http://bit.ly/2jcZfla) COMING HOME – Jessie & Cade (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 1) TAKING CHANCES – Wynn & Bryce (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 2) (coming soon) FINDING ME – Luci & Evan (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 3) (coming soon) Fans of Jessie Evans, Bella Andre, and Susan Mallery will love the Love at Starlight series: stories featuring sassy mid-western women and the alpha males who love them.

Capture


Rachel Van Dyken - 2015
    Losing your ability to speak at the age of seventeen; it’s not normal or fair.But trauma, has a way of throwing normality out the window.Dani lives anything but a normal life.Her sister is married to one of the biggest names in Hollywood.Her best friends are rockstar duo AD2.And she has more love around her than most people experience in a lifetime.But that doesn't change the fact their parents are dead.Or that it's her fault.It seems her new normal is being a mute, living on the inside, unable to actually communicate on the outside.That is until Hollywood’s newest heartthrob Lincoln Greene hires her as his assistant for the summer.He's gorgeous, completely unavailable, and unobtainable.But that doesn't stop her from wondering...if things were different...would he want her?If she was whole, would he be the other half?

His to Keep (Club Wyld Doms, #1)


Violet James - 2021
    The only thing I want after a six month long business trip is to spend about a week in my own bed. But all that changes when I lay eyes on the new girl at Wyld. The curvy redhead is standing on stage, a prize ready to be awarded to one lucky man, and just like that, I know I’d move heaven and earth for a chance to win her.REBECCABecoming a submissive isn’t at all like I thought it would be. The exciting, naughty fun I imagined only seems to exist in romance novels. Instead of a Dom who satisfies my every need, I find myself tied to a man who prefers to dole out a whole lot of pain with little of the pleasure I crave. When he takes things a step too far, entering me in Club Wyld’s infamous submissive lottery without my permission, I can’t help but think this life might not be for me after all.Until I see which man is holding the winning ticket.Step behind the steel door and meet the men of Club Wyld—demanding, dominant, and oh-so-delicious!

Bad Boyfriend


Lexi Hart - 2020
    After five years of wasting my Journalism Degree writing an advice column, my editor offers me my first real assignment.Too bad I'll have to work alongside a Private Investigator from out of town.Enter Grayson Cole.The broody and secretive bad boy who took my V-Card eight summers ago then broke my heart.After years of hating Grayson for leaving without saying goodbye, now I'm the only person who can pose as his girlfriend.Between the long hours working together and the public displays of affection, it's getting harder to tell what's real.I need to walk away before history repeats itself.But when Grayson shows up at my door in the middle of the night and tells me why he really came back...What started out as fake, becomes dangerously real…

Stubborn Love


Wendy Owens - 2013
    She had given him her youth, and all he gave in return was misery and pain. She was ready for a new beginning, but Ashton wasn’t about to let her go so easily, even if it meant destroying both their lives in the process.Three years later Emmie convinces herself she is ready to leave all of that heartbreak in the past and find a little piece of normal for herself. She heads to New York City to pick up where she left off, determined to finish art school. Emmie is determined to focus on school and not let anything distract her, but life has a way of throwing curveballs.Paige, Emmie’s new roommate, brings Colin Bennett into her life. His smoldering eyes and lean muscular body are difficult for any girl to ignore. Only thing is, Emmie isn’t any girl. Her past makes her resistant to his charms. Colin isn’t one to give up easily, and just when he thinks he may have found a way to her stubborn heart, her tragic history may have found a way to tear them apart.

Where I End and You Begin


Andra Brynn - 2013
    It may tangle, it may knot, it may stretch or fray, but it will never break. It is a future as indelible as the past.I hope that isn't true. I pity anyone destined to meet me.----For Bianca Ray, the past is always catching up, one way or another. Now in her third semester at college, it's doing it again. Too much drinking has led to plummeting grades and rising absences, putting her scholarships in peril. When she makes it clear that she needs help—all over the floor of her history class—she’s given one last chance to shape up: seek therapy and bring her grades up by the end of the semester, or she’s out.Enter Catholic seminarian Daniel McGuire. The last thing Bianca wants is an aspiring priest to counsel her on how to live her life, but the handsome graduate student is different from the holy rollers she fled from at home. Gentle and unobtrusive, he helps her pick up the pieces and find a new way to live: not running from the past, but facing it head on. But opening up her heart to release the pain means that something else can come in. As Bianca and Daniel grow closer, their relationship moves onto dangerous ground and the fragile courage Bianca has built up threatens to fail her. Can she exorcise the ghosts of her past, or will they catch hold and drag her down where not even Daniel can reach her?

Her Billionaire Inventor


Dobi Daniels - 2018
    She’d been emotionally scarred from her last relationship and has just managed to pay off the mountain of debts she was saddled with.Now all she wants for Christmas is to rediscover Christmas joy—no love in the equation, and what better place than her hometown Dexington where she recalled spending the happiest times of her life. She is determined to stick with her plan and not even a chance encounter with Phillip—billionaire hospital heir and inventor, and the town’s most eligible bachelor—can change her mind.Until she discovers he is the boy she kissed in high school.Phillip Dexington is finally about to launch a new medical device after having his last invention stolen by his former girlfriend and sold to his archenemy. He’s determined that nothing must go wrong this time around—which means avoiding a relationship at all costs—and is content with spending Christmas with the children at the orphanage.But when Phillip runs into Sarah Nash, the girl who stole his heart in high school, his world flips upside down. She’s only in town for Christmas, and the time before the launch party is Phillip’s only chance at determining if she is the one.Will they open their hearts to the fullness of Christmas and give love a second chance, or will their trust issues rob them of a happily ever after?This is a sweet/clean emotional scars Christmas medical billionaire romance with no cliffhangers and a guaranteed HEA.

Indelible Love - Emily's Story


D.W. Cee - 2012
    Her world shattered, she picks up the pieces when she finds love again with Jake.Dr. Jake Reid - Successful doctor, loving boyfriend, the one who wants to fulfill Emily's happily ever after - falls in love with Emily at first sight and pushes their relationship fast and furious.Max Davis - Reserved, indecisive, Emily's first love - believes he let go of his first love for her sake, for all the right reasons. Eighteen months after the break-up, he's ready to win Emily's heart again.Insecure from her broken relationship, Emily can't fully trust Jake's passion and love for her and struggles between Jake, the man who wants to create a future with her, and Max, the man who wants to relive the past. When both men propose, Emily's indecision causes her to lose her true love. Laugh, cry and cheer for Emily as her relationships unfold through culinary delights that begin in Napa Valley and weaves through eateries in San Francisco, Kyoto, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Paris. Who she chooses for her happily ever after may surprise you in the end.

Foundation: A Grouchy Geek Romance


Lainey Davis - 2020
    They're brilliant, brooding and barreling into relationships whether they like it or not.Zack Brady doesn’t do relationships. He does calculations.When his family engineering firm sends him to investigate a sinkhole at a client’s house, Zack feels a tremor in the foundation of his carefully calculated world.Her name is Nicole Kennedy. She’s loud and crass, and has no time for nonsense. She certainly doesn’t have time for a mysterious trench swallowing her yard. To make matters worse, the grouchy engineer who shows up to fix it is the same jerk she’s forced to run beside during the corporate relay race her boss insisted she run.Somewhere between jogging and poring over geotechnical engineering plans, Nicole and Zack feel the earth move. Can they overcome their past to build something meaningful?Foundation is book one of the Brady Family series. If you love messy family dynamics, unforgettable characters and sizzling chemistry, you’ll devour this new series by Lainey Davis, creator of the Stag Brothers series.

Boyfriend for Hire


Kendall Ryan - 2019
    Yeah, I’m a male escort, but not just any escort, I’m the escort. The one with a mile-long waiting list and a pristine reputation that’s very well-deserved. I’m the guy who’ll make you feel beautiful, desired, and worshipped... all for a steep price. I’m hired to make you shine, and I always deliver. I’ll be whatever you want me to be for one night — except my true self. This is just a job, a role I play to earn a paycheck. But I’m not the guy who falls for a client. Not once in six years. And then I meet Elle. Her friend has hired me to escort her to a wedding, but Elle doesn’t know we’re just pretending. There’s a fire between us I never expected. A connection I haven’t felt in so long. One kiss, and I’m losing all control. But what will happen when she finds out who I really am?

The Hostage Bargain


Annika Martin - 2012
    . . and then three hunky bank robbers took me hostage. Sure, I'd always dreamed of escaping my life, but I was thinking Greyhound bus - not getaway vehicle! Then I started asking questions, and I found out about their rules. These guys have more rules than a grammar class. Except their rules are shockingly dirty. And way more fun to memorize. They're letting me stay for now, but I'm never supposed to ask their real names. Or where they're from, or why they lead this life. And we can never, ever think about tomorrow. Here's a secret: I'm starting to suspect my tough-as-nails outlaws might have tender-as-taffy hearts. And every night I go to sleep wishing this didn't have to end.