Book picks similar to
No Ordinary Love by J.J. Murray


romance
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The Trouble with Dating a Movie Star


Z.N. Willett - 2014
    Moore's provocative romance throws her onto the Best Sellers list, but Alexandria’s life was far from the steamy pages of her romance. Andrew Hughes, the most desired man in Hollywood was at the height of his career. Nothing could be better, until a chance meeting with Alexandria Moore that went horribly wrong. The man who had everything soon realized what Hollywood couldn't give him. Or could it? An invitation that leads to a premier, offers a second chance, and a Hollywood romance straight out of the pages of a magazine. Yet, this story will not be filled with butterfly kisses and midnight strolls, but with tangled webs filled with lust, desire, jealousy and deceit. It is Hollywood after all.

Locked In Silence


Sloane Kennedy - 2017
    It’s easier not to try anymore…Ten years after leaving his small Minnesota hometown in his rearview mirror for what Nolan Grainger was sure would be the last time, life has decided to throw the talented musician a curveball and send him back to the town he lived in but was never really home.At twenty-eight, Nolan has traveled the world as a successful concert violinist with some of the best symphonies in the country. But success breeds envy, and when Nolan’s benefactor and lover decides Nolan has flown high enough, he cruelly clips Nolan’s wings. The betrayal and ensuing scandal leaves the violinist’s career in shambles and with barely enough money to start fresh somewhere beyond his vindictive ex’s powerful reach. But just as he’s ready to get his life back on track, Nolan gets the call he’s been dreading.After a stroke leaves his father a partial invalid, duty-bound Nolan returns to Pelican Bay and a life he’s spent years trying to forget. When he’s forced to use the last of his own money to keep from losing the family home, desperation has him turning to the one man he’d hoped never to see again…Even if I could speak, there wouldn’t be anyone there to listen…Pelican Bay’s golden boy, Dallas Kent, had the quintessential perfect life. Smart, gorgeous, and popular, the baseball phenom was well on his way to a life filled with fame and fortune. But more importantly, he had a one-way ticket out of Pelican Bay and far away from the family who used love as currency and whose high expectations were the law of the land. But a stormy night, sharp highway curve and one bad decision changed everything, leaving Dallas with nothing.Because the accident that took his parents, his future and his crown as the boy who could do no wrong, also stole his voice.Despised for the horrific wreck that ended the lives of two of Pelican Bay’s most respected residents, Dallas has retreated to a secluded stretch of land where he’s found refuge in a menagerie of unwanted animals that don’t care that he once had the world at his feet or that he’ll never speak again.But when the quiet, bookish boy he wasn’t allowed to notice in school suddenly reappears ten years later at Dallas’s wildlife rehab center in desperate need of a job, Dallas is thrust back into a world he’s worked hard to escape.Dallas’s silence was supposed to send Nolan scurrying, but what if Nolan ends up being the one person who finally hears him?Will two men who’ve been fleeing from the past finally come home to Pelican Bay for good or will the silence drive them apart forever?

Beautiful & Dirty


Katrina Jackson - 2020
    Ditch him in Rome. 2. Take the train to Naples for pizza. 3. Let the attractive older man you’ve just met buy you a drink. 4. Flirt a little (or a lot) while ignoring his wedding ring.5. Let him bend you over a table. 6. Break up with your boyfriend. --SalThere are a lot of ways to respond to the news that your wife is trying to kill you. I have sex with the young American who stumbles into my restaurant. And then I get revenge.Content warnings: assassination attempt (gunshot)maimingtorturediscussion of murder

Johnny Be Good


Paige Toon - 2008
    This is my leaving party. And that song we're making a mockery of? That's written by one of the biggest rock stars in the world. And I'm moving in with him tomorrow. Seriously! I am not even joking. Well, maybe I'm misleading you a little bit. You see, I haven't actually met him yet... No, I'm not a stalker. I'm his new PA. His Personal Assistant. And I am off to La-La Land. Los Angeles. The City of Angels—whatever you want to call it—and I can't bloody believe it! Celebrity PA to wild boy of rock Johnny Jefferson, Meg's glam new life in sun-drenched LA is a whirlwind of showbiz parties and backstage passes. Cool, calm Christian, in town to write his famous friend's biography, helps keep Meg's feet firmly on the ground. But with Johnny's piercing green eyes and a body Brad Pitt would kill for, how long will it be before she's swept right off them again?

Speechless


Kim Fielding - 2012
    The one bright spot in his existence is the handsome guitar player he sometimes passes on his way home from work. But when he finally gathers the courage to speak to the man, Travis learns that former novelist Drew Clifton suffers from aphasia: Drew can understand everything Travis says, but he is unable to speak or write.The two lonely men form a friendship that soon blossoms into romance. But communication is only one of their challenges-there's also Travis's inexperience with love and his precarious financial situation. If words are the bridge between two people, what will keep them together?

The Magic of Found Objects


Maddie Dawson - 2021
    All her life she’s been torn between the two. But now that she’s been betrayed by both love and the mother she once idolized, her rational side is winning.So when her best friend from childhood proposes that they give up on romance and marry each other, Phronsie agrees. Who better to spend your life with than your best friend? Maybe the connection they already have is love. Maybe there’s no falling to be done. But immediately after they announce their engagement, she encounters someone who makes a very charming and compelling argument for revisiting romance.While her even-keeled stepmother argues for the safety that comes with her new engagement and her mother relays messages from the universe to hold out for true love, Phronsie must look to her own heart to find the answers that have been there all along.

The First Word


Isley Robson - 2017
    Her job as a pediatric occupational therapist is the perfect distraction from the unspeakable tragedy she experienced as a child. But when she meets alternative-energy magnate Rhys Griffiths and his autistic toddler, Will, she quickly realizes her heart will never be the same. Especially when her name becomes Will’s first word.After accepting a position as a live-in therapist for Will, Andie steels herself against the appeal of the disconcertingly attractive—and attracted—Rhys. But their chemistry can no longer be denied, and their heated affair seems destined for happily ever after. A destiny Andie’s terrified to embrace.When Andie’s guilt, Rhys’s awkwardness, and the abrupt appearance of an erratic ex threaten to dismantle their delicately blooming relationship, they must decide if love is worth the challenge. Can Andie and Rhys find their way back to each other? Or will the demons of the past simply prove too strong?

Running from a Rock Star


Jami Albright - 2017
    He’s a bad boy rock god. What could possibly go wrong? Scarlett Kelly is the poster child for responsible living. Growing up as the daughter of the town floozy, she’s made it her mission to be the exact opposite of her mother. So when she wakes up naked and hung over in bed with a bad-boy rock star, she bolts immediately. There’s just one problem: Scarlett’s bedmate is her new husband.Gavin needs to repair his image or his music career will go down the tubes. He’s also just learned he has a son he never knew existed. He needs to settle down, and bribing his new wife to stay married may just fit everything into place.Scarlett agrees to the ruse to help her family’s financial troubles even though she can hardly control herself around the rock star. As they search for Gavin’s son, will their unlikely matrimony give them exactly what they’ve been missing or send them packing?

I Temporarily Do


Ellie Cahill - 2017
    A little white wedding. A pair of roommates in over their heads. Days before she's set to move across the country and start a prestigious graduate program, a con artist leaves Emmy with no where to live and less than zero dollars in her bank account. But her day doesn't seem quite so bad compared to Beckett's--his fiancée called off their wedding just days before they tie the knot. Now he's single and ineligible for his place in married student housing. So what are a girl without a home and a guy without a wife supposed to do? A quickie wedding in Vegas will solve both their problems. It's a business arrangement, and no one even needs to know. They'll just get an annulment in a few months. What could go wrong? Only Beckett forgot to mention his new apartment is a one-bedroom. And neither of them counted on their new friends at Middlesex University thinking they're a great couple. The platonic newlywed game might be harder to play than Emmy thought. Especially when it starts to feel less than platonic. I Temporarily Do is a Stand-Alone Romantic Comedy.

The House on the Beach


Linda Barrett - 2004
    A script that doesn’t play well for a single woman. Happy childhood summers in Pilgrim Cove pull her back to town and a stay in Sea View House. Matthew Parker, his two young sons and his dad have shared a home since both men were widowed several years ago. And now, no women are needed in the Parker domain. But when Matt meets Laura, he discovers that his home might be missing something vital — a woman’s love. Can these two determined people figure out what’s important and take a chance on a new beginning?

Vision in White


Nora Roberts - 2009
    Her father replaced his first family with a second, and now her mother, moving on to yet another man, begs Mac for attention and money. Mac's foundation is jostled again moments before an important wedding planning meeting when she bumps into the bride-to-be's brother...an encounter that has them both seeing stars.Carter Maguire is definitely not her type: he's stable, and he's safe. He's even an English teacher at their high school alma mater. There's something about him that makes Mac think a casual fling is just what she needs to take her mind off dealing with bridezillas and screening her mother's phone calls. But a casual fling can turn into something more when you least expect it. And with the help of her three best friends—and business partners—Mac must learn how to make her own happy memories.

The Prince’s Bride Part 1


J.J. McAvoy - 2020
    He is a spoiled playboy prince whose family is in desperate need of money.She’s an American heiress who can only get her inheritance through marriage.According to their families they are a perfect match.According to each other, arranged marriages have no place in modern times and this could not possibly work.But Prince Galahad “Gale” of Ersovia is bound by duty to obey the crown anyway.Odette Wyntor doesn’t give a damn, she doesn’t want to get married.Can he change her mind?Can she even handle what it means to be royal, if he did?The Prince’s Bride is Part 1 of a 2 part series.Part 2 arrives a month later.

The Kiss Quotient


Helen Hoang - 2018
    She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan—from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he's making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic...

Dirty Like Me


Jaine Diamond - 2016
    An indecent proposal. How can a girl resist?Struggling barista Katie Bloom doesn’t even know who Jesse Mayes is until she inadvertently wins the coveted role of sex kitten in his hot new music video.But by the time she’s in bed with him, she knows his reputation.Love maker. Heartbreaker. Making out with a stranger in front of a camera crew isn’t how Katie imagined herself getting over a broken heart, but when Jesse touches her, sparks fly. The sex is fake but the chemistry is real, and before long, the steamy video is blazing up the charts.Then Jesse makes Katie a tantalizing offer: act as his girlfriend for six weeks while he promotes his new album. The only catch? Their sizzling make-out sessions will be for the cameras only.Which suits Katie just fine, since she’s not about to trust her heart to rock’s most legendary lover. Her body, though? Maybe.As it turns out, pretending to fall in love is incredibly sexy…And falling in love for real, with a man she promised not to fall for?Irresistible.

American Bad Boy


Eddie Cleveland - 2016
    I lost my leg. I lost my career. And all I could think of was Lauren. I left for West Point with two things: a broken heart and a promise to never let it happen again.Now I'm back in Colorado as a war hero. F*ck that, I'm a celebrity.And every woman wants to open her legs for Captain America.So why do I only want her? *** Even with one leg, Mack Forrester hasn't lost his swagger. It's been a decade since he left. But under his tattoos, I still see the guy who broke my heart when he chose his country instead of me. I told myself I was over it. Over him. One glimpse in his crystal blue eyes and I knew it was a lie. Now he wants me back, but ten years is a long time. There's so much he doesn't know. Like, that I had his child.