Book picks similar to
Staking a Claim by Ciana Stone


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Heart Raider


Sophia Knightly - 2013
    A scorching summer. Danger lurks... After a raging media storm nearly destroys him, financial whiz Nick Cameron finds himself isolated and laying low on a barrier island off the Florida coast, far away from the reporters and scandals that threaten him. But when little Ronnie Whitcomb shows up on his doorstep, all grown up and breathtakingly beautiful, he tries to deny his feelings for her. Fate intervenes when a hurricane strands them on the island together, and suddenly, keeping Ronnie at arm's length becomes almost impossible. But daredevil TV reporter Veronique Whitcomb has an agenda of her own -- an agenda that could quite possibly get her killed. Recalling the hunky boy who rescued her at summer camp, Ronnie knows there's more to Nick than the hot and juicy scandal he's embroiled in, and she is determined to get the exclusive interview with him that will expose the real criminal. Whether Nick likes it or not, Ronnie refuses to sit by while the world slanders the most honorable and decent man she's ever known...and loved.THE HEARTTHROB SERIES: Book 1: Heart Raider (Nick and Veronique) Book 2: Heart Melter (Ian and Natasha) Book 3: Heart Tamer (Alec and Kate) Book 4: Heart Hunter (Cameron and Evie) Book 5: Heart Tempter (Leo and Teddy)

The Enemy's Son


Kristen James - 2008
    Her father couldn’t have stolen a million dollars, so how is he going to replace it? In one week?Nick claims he wants to help Cora and says he’s deceiving the Hollways to keep her safe…but what if he’s playing both sides? He could be using her attraction to him against her. Nick is ordered to take Cora out into the wilderness to a remote cabin to keep her father in line. Cora can’t allow herself to trust Nick, no matter how sexy he is.Nick isn’t the only one offering to help. Alexander Pierce could scare the devil but he can also track down anyone in a day. He warns Cora that if she wants to find her father alive, he’s the way. Soon she’s running from her feelings for Nick, running from creepy Alexander and the rest of the Holloways, and trying to find her father somewhere in the city of Eugene. To make matters worse, everyone thinks she has access to the missing money.The clock is ticking…

Carry Me Home


Rosalind James - 2015
    After teaching in a small Idaho school, her next stop is the Ivy League, and no one is going to stand in her way. She’ll do what it takes to move up, to protect her students from a creepy campus stalker—and to protect her heart from Cal Jackson, the hot, hunky cowboy who keeps coming to her rescue.After a career-ending injury, Cal has left professional football behind and come home to work the family farm. He’s determined not to get mixed up with any more city girls who don’t want to settle down with a country boy. But after he rescues sassy geologist Zoe from a snowy ditch, he can’t stop thinking about her. Can Cal keep Zoe safe from whoever is targeting her—and can he show her that having ambition doesn’t mean she has to sacrifice love?

When Love Comes


J.H. Croix - 2014
    Once wild and impulsive, she shut her heart off to love and adventure after her parents died. When she meets Luke Winters, their immediate attraction is overwhelming.Burned once before, Luke has committed himself to nothing but casual dalliances with women. Rugged and smoldering, he finds no shortage of women happy to oblige. When Hannah comes along, he questions what he might be missing. Both fight the depth of their feelings—love is not part of the plan.Hannah’s sense of identity is shaken when she unearths a surprising truth about her family. Meanwhile, Luke’s interfering family and complications from his past challenge Hannah and Luke to face their true feelings for each other. Can two people who don’t believe love is worth the risk find the courage to face their fears and open their hearts?

Healing Touch (A Place to Call Home, #1)


Laura Browning - 2017
    Luke knows he needs to be a better daddy for his troubled kids, but his work as a veterinarian made it difficult in the past. He’s vowed to change, but he needs help while he settles into his new position with the local animal hospital.Rachel Hastings is a woman with a healing touch. She takes in injured and orphaned animals, so helping out with two new-to-town children shouldn’t be tough. What she hasn’t counted on is their sexy father, her secret crush from back in their high school days.Their attraction is immediate, but so many obstacles stand in the way. Luke and his family still grapple with the shock of the accident that killed his wife. Rachel carries baggage from her own failed marriage. Worst of all, Luke’s children hide a secret that is tearing them apart and may destroy any chance Luke and Rachel have of building a future together.Don’t miss Healing Touch, book one of a sexy new contemporary series from author Laura Browning.

Stealing Justice


Misty Evans - 2014
    Now the FBI wants him to use his renegade skills to take down a serial killer who’s above the law. To trap the Lion, Grey will need to send the perfect woman undercover.Sydney Banfield runs a women’s shelter and bends the law daily to help victims of abuse escape their painful lives. Three of the women she’s recruited for government jobs have become victims of the Lion. If Syd has her way, the vicious killer will never touch another woman again.Grey and Sydney set a trap — with Sydney as the sexy bait — but the Lion adds a complex twist to his homicidal agenda. With Sydney’s life on the line, Grey must race against the clock to catch a killer who’s as unstoppable as he is evil.

Wildest Dreams (Hollywood Nights Book 1)


Savannah Kade - 2017
    He's definitely Mr. Right Now. So when Mr. Right comes onto the market, Jenn is ready to jump in. Clark Fuller is perfect-hot, stable, and suddenly he wants Jenn.On the surface, Walker knows he's not what Jenn is looking for. She's worked so hard to shed an unstable past and build her own a safe, steady life. Walker is anything but safe.Choosing Walker could mean having the real love she's found, but it might mean losing everything she's worked so hard for...Wildest Dreams in a steamy, emotional romance. The first in the Love Found Us series, this friends-to-lovers story will sweep you along to a deeply satisfying happily ever after. Grab this swoon-worthy romance now!

Breathless


V.J. Chambers - 2009
    Her biggest issue is trying to figure out why her seemingly normal boyfriend won't sleep with her. Then Jason races into her life. He won't say where he came from or who's chasing him. He's a delicious puzzle, a boy who has no problem using his fists to solve arguments or quoting Plato to justify his actions. Azazel is drawn to him. She's obsessed with finding out his secrets. What she doesn't know is that Jason's secrets are entwined with her own town's secrets. Her friends and family have conspired to use her as a pawn in a violent scheme. Soon, she will have to choose between protecting Jason and staying loyal to everyone she's ever trusted. A story about forbidden love, fate, and free will, Breathless is Rosemary's Baby meets The Da Vinci Code.

Falling Fast


Kaylea Cross - 2017
     Having grown up in a household of elite, overprotective male Marines, Charlie Colebrook is savoring her hard won independence and avoiding a serious relationship that could tie her down. As a computer forensics expert for the DEA she might be a civilian rather than an agent, but she’s far from helpless, and she’s hungry to prove herself. So when her boss asks her to take on a dangerous undercover assignment that could expose the key money launderer for the biggest, and most lethal drug cartel in the Western hemisphere, Charlie seizes her chance. There’s just one catch: the man assigned as her partner is the only man she wants…and he won’t settle for less than everything she has to give. Now he’s the only one who stands between her and a ruthless cartel. DEA Special Agent Jamie Rodriguez has tried like hell to ignore the explosive chemistry he has with Charlie. Not simply because she’s his best friend’s sister—but because with her, he wants all or nothing. As a member of the agency’s elite FAST Bravo unit, he’s got the skill and experience to keep her safe. Now that he’s assigned to protect her on this op, he’ll do it at all costs, even if she tempts him as no other woman ever has. But the final op tests them both to the breaking point, and when things go to hell, it will take everything they’ve got to survive the deadly trap set for them.

Targeted to Kill


Riley McKissack - 2013
    Sometimes redemption and second chances at love come with the worst circumstances. Guilt and grief were copartners in the death of Mick Hampton and Becca Jefferson's love. But, now, FBI agent Mick Hampton must stop a horrific attack on American soil as well as save the woman he has loved for most of his life. The undercover operation to stop an attack takes a dramatic left turn when Mick’s former fiancé is kidnapped by the terrorists. Is Becca Jefferson’s kidnapping a matter of simple revenge? Or do the terrorists know more than Mick thinks they do? The operation becomes a desperate attempt to survive for Becca and Mick, while still preventing the murder of countless innocent civilians. Love may be the prize, if they survive.

Destiny Divided


Leia Shaw - 2011
    She had just found an emotion stronger than anger and fear combined. Lust. And there was no containing her now."After fleeing her native city — and nightmares of a traumatic childhood — Sage Peterson meets the overbearing, pretentious, yet haunted Professor Elias. He’s the only one who knows about her mysterious powers, which seem to be spiraling out of control. When he convinces her to train with him, she finds herself thrust into a five hundred year war and on the run from vampires, werewolves, and even worse — her budding feelings for James Elias.James had been living a dull and empty existence for the past century and a half. When a fiery half-sorceress, half-witch with a stubborn streak and sharp wit enters his life, he sees her only as a potential weapon to use against his greatest enemy. But when he discovers the vulnerable woman beneath the angry mask, instinct screams to keep her safe. To protect and provide. And to claim her as his.But will it be too late? As passion and lust ignite between them, vengeance is slipping away. And when Sage is confronted with fulfilling an unexpected destiny, will she choose to trust James with her heart?

Riversong


Tess Thompson - 2011
     In the wake of her husband's tragic death, Lee is pregnant and one million dollars in debt to a dangerous loan shark willing to do anything to collect. Out of money and options, Lee seeks refuge in the small Oregon town where her mother's dilapidated home sits vacant, as desperate for a fresh start as Lee herself.With a baby on the way and a living to make, Lee opens a restaurant and begins to rebuild her life. But just as she catches her breath, and the eye of a local musician offering a second chance at love, she finds herself right back in the clutches of the debt collector with more to lose than ever.

Kissed by the Cowbear


Liv Brywood - 2016
    The ruggedly handsome cowboy is everything she ever wanted in a mate. But with a shattered marriage in her past, she’s not sure she’ll ever be ready to commit to someone again.Three years ago, Clint lost his wife to breast cancer. Every time he thinks about moving on, he feels like he’s betraying her memory. But when he meets Jessica, his bear won’t let him ignore her curvy hips and stunning smile. If he can find a way to get past his fear of enduring another devastating loss, he’ll be able to give his daughter Hailey the family she deserves. And maybe he’ll even be able to mend his broken heart. This is the first book in the paranormal bear romance series - Curvy Bear B&B. This is a stand-alone book with NO CLIFFHANGERS. Love scenes are fully realized and at times include explicit language. Intended for readers 18+.

Shadows


Kristen Proby - 2019
    Not even when I am alone. I see the unquiet dead, the souls that wander through the French Quarter. They can’t move on, and I can’t stop seeing them. I wear malachite for protection, and I control what I let in. It’s the only way to stay sane. Everything changes the day Cassian Winslow joins my ghost walking tour and knocks my world off its axis with green eyes the color of the stone around my neck. An unspeakable evil is loose in New Orleans, taking young women and leaving a bloodbath in his wake. More shadows lurking for me. More unhappy dead. There might be a way to stop it. Open myself up to Cassian. If I do, it could spell his death. But if I don’t, it’s mine.

A Marriage of Convenience (Western Lovers: Hitched in Haste, #7)


Doreen Owens Malek - 2012
    His name brought back memories of a man so handsome that a young girl had fallen in love - and made a fool of herself. A man so unique he'd spoiled Sharon Philips for any other love.But now her father's will had joined their lives once again. In a final attempt at matchmaking, Dad left half his California horse ranch to Sharon, the other half to Braddock - provided they were husband and wife.A quick wedding. A quick divorce. A quick sale of the ranch. It seemed simple. But time had only fueled their passion. Could taylor erase ten years of pain and show Sharon that loving him was her destiny?