The Sweet Gum Tree


Katherine Allred - 2005
    But nothing was ordinary about the day she met ten-year-old Nick Anderson, a boy from the wrong side of town. Armed with only a tin of bee balm and steely determination, Alix treats the raw evidence of a recent beating that mars his back, an act that changes both of their lives forever.Through childhood disasters and teenage woes they cling together as friendship turns to love. The future looks rosy until the fateful night when Frank Anderson, Nick's abusive father, is shot to death in his filthy trailer.Suddenly, Nick is gone—leaving Alix alone, confused and pregnant. For the next fifteen years she wrestles with the pain of Nick's abandonment, a bad marriage, her family and friends. But finally, she's starting to get her life back together. Her divorce is almost final, her business is booming, and she's content if not happy—until the day she looks up and sees Nick standing across the counter. He's back…and he's not alone.Once again Alix is plunged into turmoil and pain as Nick tries to win her love, something she resists with all her strength. Only one thing might break the protective wall she's built around her emotions—the truth about Frank Anderson's death. But when that truth comes out and those walls crumble, neither Alix nor Nick is prepared for the emotional explosion that could destroy as well as heal.

Force of Gravity


Kelly Stevenson - 2014
    I don’t want to be thinking about him and analyzing every detail of first period. It makes me feel like a young, foolish girl, and I’m embarrassed that I can’t control the way my body reacts every time his eyes meet mine." In a quiet town in the East Valley of Phoenix, Arizona, everything in life is seemingly perfect for eighteen-year-old Kaley Kennedy. She has loving parents, loyal friends, and is dating the hottest boy in school. With only a few months left of her senior year, she’s looking forward to an epic summer before heading off to Los Angeles for college. Without warning, a gorgeous new math teacher interrupts Kaley’s predictable little world, challenging who she is. Suddenly, parties, dates, and Friday nights with her friends seem empty and unfulfilling as she finds herself obsessing over his every move. Desperate for something more, but determined to ignore her fierce attraction, every single relationship in her life begins to crumble by forces beyond her control. Struggling to transition from adolescence to adulthood, Kaley must choose between playing it safe or risking more than just her heart. . . .

Price of a Kiss


Linda Kage - 2013
    I mean, just because my last boyfriend tried to kill me and left a bit of a scar on my neck, then forced me to move across the country and legally change my name to Reese Randall to escape him, does not mean— Oh, who am I kidding? For a freshman in college, I have to have the worst dating track record ever. It’s no wonder love is the last thing on my mind when Mason Lowe enters my life. But the chemistry between us is like bam! Our connection defies logic. And he’s just so freaking hot. Being around him makes me feel more alive than I’ve ever felt before. I even like bickering with him. He could be my soul mate...except for one teeny tiny glitch.He's a gigolo.Boy, do I know how to pick them.

Disarm


June Gray - 2012
    Unfortunately, Henry—now an Air Force officer—has only ever treated her like a younger sister, stepping into her brother’s shoes after he was killed in action.That is, until the night when one dance ignites a sensual fire between the two, leaving Elsie aroused and confused. Is she allowed to lust after her surrogate big brother, who also happens to be her roommate? As the passion between them crosses the line into a territory that teases with the forbidden, Elsie decides to give herself to the man she has always desired. But Elsie is not prepared for where the relationship will take her.Henry has been harboring two secrets. One can bring them closer together. The other will tear them apart. Now, with each startling new revelation, Elsie realizes that only she can decide if the past can ever be forgiven—and if a future with Henry is worth fighting for.Includes a never-before-published bonus short story.

A Lesson in Blackmail: Black Mountain Academy / A Club Alias Novel


K.D. Robichaux - 2020
    This school is mine—literally, my family built Black Mountain Academy generations ago—and I own everything in it. And I, Nathaniel Black IV, won’t stop until that includes her. She just started this year, my senior year, her first job right out of college. She calls it her dream job, but I’ve had the sick pleasure of making my study period with her every day more a nightmare. I’m fixated on her, obsessed with her, and all I want is to feel the skittish little mouse beneath me.I can’t get her out of my head, not even while partying at my friend’s house, every girl vying for my attention. But they don’t stand a chance, not when my focus is on Ms. Evelyn Richards. She makes me feel… things I don’t understand. Possessive yet… protective. I can f— with her, but no one else can. Compulsion strikes, the other half of my disorder, and that night I set out to find where she lives. And what I discover changes both our lives.The perfect information for blackmail. The perfect secret to hold over her head to get what I want.Her.A Lesson in Blackmail is a full-length novel in the Black Mountain Academy series. It is a crossover standalone with KD Robichaux's Club Alias series.

Choosing You


Allie Everhart - 2013
    She’s determined to succeed and that means keeping her focus on school and not guys. But her plan falls apart her first day on campus when Garret, a rich prep school boy with swimmer abs and a perfect smile, offers to help her move in.Jade tries to push him away, but she can’t deny her attraction to him and Garret won’t let her. Things quickly heat up between them, but then come to a sudden halt when reality hits and Jade realizes that a relationship with Garret may never be possible. He comes from a world of wealth where there are rules, including rules about who he can date. And not following those rules has consequences.As the two of them try to overcome the obstacles working to keep them apart, Jade is confronted with another challenge. On her 19th birthday, she receives a letter that her now deceased mother wrote years ago. In it are revelations that explain her traumatic childhood but also make her question the past she’s been running from.

The Education of Sebastian


Jane Harvey-Berrick - 2012
    When her husband finally wins a long sought-after promotion, Caroline feels she has little choice but to follow him to a new home in San Diego. There she meets Sebastian, a young man of 17. For an all too brief summer, their happiness blooms. But external pressures begin to bear down, not least from the overbearing David, and Sebastian’s parents begin to suspect that their son has a secret. Even Caroline’s new friend, Donna, realises that dark passions exist below the serene surface.

Thoughtless


S.C. Stephens - 2009
    When they head off to a new city to start their lives together, Denny at his dream job and Kiera at a top-notch university, everything seems perfect. Then an unforeseen obligation forces the happy couple apart.Feeling lonely, confused, and in need of comfort, Kiera turns to an unexpected source—a local rock star named Kellan Kyle. At first, he's purely a friend that she can lean on, but as her loneliness grows, so does their relationship. And then one night everything changes... and none of them will ever be the same.

Single Dad Seeks Juliet


Max Monroe - 2020
    Generally, the person in charge of these things shouldn’t fantasize about lighting the whole three-ring dating circus on fire.Anyway, men from all over Southern California, vying for the coveted bachelor role, submitted their personal ads to my paper. The readers voted, and Single Dad Seeks Juliet won by a landslide.Enter Mr. Bachelor Anonymous (40M), the single dad Romeo seeking his Juliet.Blah, blah, blah, right? Wrong.You guys—and I cannot stress this enough—this guy is the ultimate man in a six-foot-three, chiseled-muscle, freaking Adonis package with aquamarine eyes that would haunt the dreams of an insomniac.He’s a former Navy SEAL, successful business owner, motocross-riding, charming, supportive, funny-as-heck single dad, and the more time I spend with him, the more I want to bring this contest thing crumbling to the ground for an entirely different reason.Real talk: I think I’m falling for him.Me, the woman who despises love, might be falling for the completely off-limits Bachelor who I’m ironically assigned to help find love, while five other women think they’re the only contestants competing for his heart.So, Internet. Am I scum? Or is all fair in love and war?

Waking Olivia


Elizabeth O'Roark - 2016
    She's trouble of the devious, manipulative, too-f***ing-hot-for-her-own good variety. She's the kind of girl who causes trouble merely by existing, and then makes sure to cause more. And the last thing I need right now is more trouble."A failing farm.His father’s debt.And a struggling college track team. Will Langstrom has too many responsibilities, and the last thing he needs is Olivia Finnegan, a beautiful but troubled new transfer student.A smart mouth. A strong right hook.And a secret that could destroy her. Olivia is her own worst enemy, with a past she can’t seem to escape, and the last person she wants help from is a cocky track coach she can never seem to please.Refusing to be pushed away, Will is determined to save her. And determined to resist an attraction that could destroy them both.

The Devil's Eyes


Jennifer Loren - 2011
    Her only saving grace was her sister, Braylin. When Braylin dies, Kayla goes on a mission to avenge her death. Nick is the mysterious stranger with the alluring devil’s eyes. He is attractive, powerful, and dangerous. If not for her obsession for revenge, Kayla would never dare go near him. To lure Nick into her trap, she has to become what he needs while trying to fight against her growing desires. On a destructive path, Kayla enters a secret world of underground crime.

On the Island


Tracey Garvis Graves - 2011
    Callahan at his family's summer rental in the Maldives, she accepts without hesitation; a working vacation on a tropical island trumps the library any day.T.J. Callahan has no desire to leave town, not that anyone asked him. He's almost seventeen and if having cancer wasn't bad enough, now he has to spend his first summer in remission with his family—and a stack of overdue assignments—instead of his friends.Anna and T.J. are en route to join T.J.'s family in the Maldives when the pilot of their seaplane suffers a fatal heart attack and crash-lands in the Indian Ocean. Adrift in shark-infested waters, their life jackets keep them afloat until they make it to the shore of an uninhabited island. Now Anna and T.J. just want to survive and they must work together to obtain water, food, fire, and shelter.Their basic needs might be met but as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.'s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.

Balance


Lucia Franco - 2016
    Years of pain and determination make her one of the best. Olympic glory is the ultimate goal, and she'll do anything to achieve it. Even if that means leaving home to attend World Cup Academy of Gymnastics, a training center that serves one purpose—producing champions. Perfection, precision, and dedication are required of his athletes. When two time Olympian Konstantin Kournakova is persuaded into training the young hopeful, he immediately regrets it. She doesn't come close to his high standards. As the relentless pursuit of her dream keeps her striving, a passion is ignited within him.Kova's power and domination, coupled with Adrianna's fierce tenacity, reveal there is more for her body to learn. Every interaction can be misconstrued, but there’s no mistaking the darkening of his gaze, the lingering of his touch, or the illicit image of his bare skin pressed against hers. Integrity is on the line. One toe off the beam and their forbidden desires could ruin everything they’ve worked for, throwing it all off balance. WARNING: This novel contains explicit content.

Hate Crush


A. Zavarelli - 2019
     When I crash-landed into him on my first day at Loyola Academy, I was sure that couldn’t be true. He was the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen in real life. Little did I know he was also the cruelest. I went from starstruck to stunned the moment his cynical eyes cut through me. I can’t tell you what it was that made him want to punish me. But from that day forward the brooding recluse of a man made it his goal to torment me. I want to loathe him, and some days, I do. But good or bad, nobody’s attention has ever tasted so sweet. What do you do when you have a hate crush on your bully? Worse yet, what do you do when he’s also your teacher? Hate Crush is a full length standalone age gap bully romance with a complete ending.

Aideen


L.A. Casey - 2015
    She is at her wits’ end with her eon long pregnancy, her new-found paranoia, but mostly she is fed up with her boyfriend’s constant hovering and nit-picking.Kane Slater is happier than ever. He is about to become a father for the first time with the woman he loves. Little does he know that Aideen is both literally and figuratively a ticking time bomb. He just has to survive a few more weeks of murderous hormonal outbursts, and all will be well… or so he hopes.They’re both caught up with the expected arrival of their little one, but in the back of their minds is a shadow that won’t fade away. Neither of them talk about it, but the shadow’s lingering presence casts doubt over their relationship.Big Phil worked his way into their minds many weeks ago and rooted himself as the haunting figure. Without even trying, he ruins things and causes problems. He watches them from afar, hoping he can break their family.Aideen’s instincts to protect her own are stronger than ever. If Big Phil wants to hurt those dearest to her, he is going to have one hell of a fight on his hands.Aideen worships Kane, and what Aideen worships, Aideen shelters.