Book picks similar to
Not This Time by Leah Atwood


christian
romance
contemporary
novella

A Family Affair


Mary Campisi - 2006
    Her father has another family which includes a mistress and a daughter. Determined to uncover the truth behind her father's secret life, Christine heads to Magdalena, prepared to hate the people who have caused her to question everything she thought she knew about her father. But what she finds is a woman who understands her, a half sister who cherishes her, and a man who could love her if she'll let him. The longer she's around them, the more she questions which family is the real one. . . Attention Book Clubs! Included on my website is a Book Club Discussion Guide for A Family Affair. This story is filled with moral ambiguity, difficult choices, and second chances--all great topics for conversation and contemplation. Truth in Lies Series: Book One: A Family Affair Book Two: A Family Affair: Spring Book Three: A Family Affair: Summer Book Four: A Family Affair: Fall Book Five: A Family Affair: Christmas Book Six: A Family Affair: Winter (TBA) Book Seven: A Family Affair: The Promise (TBA)

Once Upon a Laugh


Pepper D. Basham - 2018
    Some of your favorite inspirational authors have come together in this collection of all-new novellas.From light-hearted romance to laugh-out-loud love, this set will put a smile on your face and keep you reading long into the night.Jane by the Book by award-winning author Pepper BashamShe lives by the plans. He talks to imaginary characters. Can they team up to solve a family mystery?Crossed Out by USA Today bestselling author Christina CoryellRuth Erickson always spends her morning break doing the crossword puzzle. Tate Darrow just messed it up. What’s that old saying about love and war?If She Dares by Mikal DawnHe’s a board game champion, but can he win her heart?Definitely by award-winning author Heather GrayDating isn’t on her to-do list. Dating a pastor? Definitely not.Under the Honey Moon by Jessica R. PatchA honeymoon cottage reunites a pair of childhood friends. Can it offer them a future filled with happily-ever-after?A (wildly) Wonderful Wedding by Krista PhillipsThey may be the worst maid of honor and best man in the history of weddings…Save the Last Word by award-winning author Betsy St. AmantWhen conventional meets creative, who will get the last word?The Long Game by award-winning author Laurie TomlinsonWhoever said all is fair in love and war never dealt with small-town football…

Bah, Humbug!


Heather Horrocks - 2011
    He digs into the snowman to discover two things: the weapon fits into the body just under the head, and the snowman was supposed to be the back drop for Lexi's next show.From this improbable beginning comes friendship. Can there be more for a woman who is afraid to get close again and a man who has shadows from his childhood?Families join together and hearts are healed as this couple goes walking in a winter wonderland.

How Sweet It Is


Bonnie Blythe - 2008
    Delphine D'Arleux, traveling in Belgium for a candy-making class, doesn't expect to have the word demonstrated to her, especially by a stranger. Brad Larsen, an avowed chocoholic, knows he behaved badly by kissing the pretty French girl, but he can't quite regret his actions. Can he show Delphine that a longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul? (Christian romance)

Accounting for Love


Erin Wright - 2016
    The next thing he knows, he’s got a stack of unpaid bills, the bank is threatening to foreclose… and the auditor who’s come to examine his accounts is the sexiest thing he’s ever laid eyes on. But she’s a city girl, just like the last one who left him at the altar. He'll guard his heart – but he can't help wanting her.She’s checking him out, in more ways than one…Jennifer Kendall doesn’t mind a tough job, but the handsome Stetson is trouble of a different kind. When he isn’t making her mad, he’s filling her head with all sorts of forbidden fantasies. The sparks between them fly even faster when the road washes out and Jennifer has to spend the night on the farm. But passion alone won’t pay the bills. Can Jennifer find a way for Stetson to save his farm? And if she can’t, will he ever forgive her? Accounting for Love is the first novel in the Long Valley series, although all books in the Long Valley world can be read as standalones. It has some strong language, and oh my, sexy times.~*~*~*~In March of 2018, this book was rewritten, reimagined, redone, and every other re-word you can imagine, all based on the original version that was released in October of 2016. I hope you love this reworked version as much as I do. ~Erin Wright

Accidentally Yours


Samantha Bayarr - 2017
     Mia Fletcher is a mousy, nerdy, school teacher who is once again dateless for Valentine's Day. At the prompting from her co-worker, she agrees to ditch her cliché life, put on a party dress, and head for the Valentine Blind-Date Ball at the country club. What she didn't agree to when she signed on was meeting the very infuriating Chad Belmont. Willing to do anything to get out of a family obligation, Chad tells his friend he plans to marry the next woman he meets, and his friend takes him up on that dare until a simply party-game glitch gives them both more than they bargained for.

Rescuing Ladybugs


Diane Lil Adams - 2011
    When she inherits her grandparents' cabin in the mountains of North Carolina, she is shocked and curious. She persuades Paige, her mother, that they should go and stay in the cabin for a few days before they list it for sale. Jason is a carpenter by trade, but he's willing to help a friend by exterminating Maura's house. She persuades him to give the ladybugs a reprieve, and by time they part, each is trying to think of a good excuse to contact the other.Paige realizes that Maura and Jason are falling in love and does her best to discourage the relationship. When Maura insists on remaining in North Carolina, Paige flies back to Missouri without her.No one predicted that Maura's father would show up. The story he tells doesn't match facts with the story Paige has told, and Maura is convinced that neither of her parents deserve her forgiveness. According to Jason, that's why it's called grace ...

The Billionaire Broker: A Clean Romance


Deb Goodman - 2019
     When Macey Declan inherits her grandfather’s odd, crumbling Irish castle, she not only has to decide what to do with it, but now she’s fighting against the land-grabbing real estate agent across the street. Billionaire Levi Richardson has one more property to secure to complete a years-long urban expansion project designed to bring this sleepy small town into the modern era: the Declan mansion. He needs a wrecking ball and quick. Levi didn’t plan on Macey’s refusal to sell, but when his client increases the offer and Macey is even more determined to keep it, he finds himself switching tactics and helping her paint instead. Uncovering the castle’s old secrets together, Macey and Levi begin to put aside their differences and learn that maybe her grandfather knew what they needed all along.

Betting on You


Jessie Evans - 2013
    At least that's what she's told her sisters... But when Mason shows up at her best friend's wedding, talking sweet and looking even sweeter, Lark can't deny the man still gets to her in a major way.Mason Stewart was a messed up kid, but he's a man now, a man who knows what he wants and won't stop until he's convinced the only woman he's ever loved that they are meant to be. He persuades Lark to give him seven days to remind her why they belong together. At the week's end, Lark may tell him to get out of her life for good, but Mason's betting on true love for the win.But when old secrets come to light, Lark and Mason will find their rediscovered love tested, and happily ever after harder to hold on to than either of them wagered.Fans of Bella Andre, Kristan Higgins, and Susan Mallery will love the Always a Bridesmaid romance series, stories featuring sassy Southern women and the alpha males who love them.The complete Always A Bridesmaid series is available now!Book 1: Betting on YouBook 2: Keeping YouBook 3: Wild For YouBook 4: Catching You (A Summerville Short Story)Book 5: Taking You (A Summerville Novella)Jessie Evans gave up a career as an international woman of mystery to write the sexy, contemporary Southern romances she always wanted to read.A Southern girl, born and bred, Jessie loves writing Southern romances with just the right amount of sizzle, and hopes you'll enjoy her stories set in the fictional town of Summerville, Georgia. Especially the "Always a Bridesmaid" series!

Love, Chocolate, and Beer


Violet Duke - 2014
    After moving his chocolate shop, and newly single life, to the quirky town of Cactus Creek, Luke wants nothing more than to devote all his energy into making his business a success—by taking the romance market by storm. But his grand plans get thrown for a loop when he locks horns with the feisty beer-brewing beauty next door who calls his ‘romantic idealism’ a load of fairytale bull. Soon, driving the woman sparking nuts becomes another wickedly fun priority he simply can’t get enough of.In his defense, she’s addictively easy to incite…and plain impossible to resist.Beloved local brewmaster Dani Dobson is beyond riled up. It’s bad enough the new shop owner in town comes locked and loaded with both a distractingly rugged charm and sexy flashing dimples, but the whole only-in-the-movies variety of romance he’s selling—the kind her world has been crushed by before—is really doing a number on her allergy to unrealistic clichés. What’s worse, he’s created an annoyingly clever ad campaign that dubs ‘beer joints’ like hers as the “cave where romance goes to hibernate.” The nerve of that man.Combustible chemistry or not, damn it, this means war. The stakes…very likely, her heart.

Prelude to a Wedding


Patricia McLinn - 1991
    Paul was a sweetheart--and very sexy. But he lived for the moment. Bette wasn't sure she should get involved; she couldn't expect commitment from this man. And Paul--well, he had issues of his own about a woman who was so organized. Contemporary romance by Patricia McLinn; originally published as a Silhouette Special Edition

Crossing Values


Carrie Daws - 2011
    Job-hopping every few weeks, she refused to let anyone get close to her as she slowly made her way east. As winter plants itself firmly across the Rockies, she decides to take a chance on a job at a logging company with a family different from any she's ever known before. Watching the family interact creates more questions than answers for Amber. Feeling like she's entered the happily-ever-after written at the end of fairytales, she watches for cracks in the facade. Surely as the days pass, the play-acting will cease and the real family will emerge. Or could she be wrong? Could they truly be genuine? Could Faye understand the trauma from her past or Peter think of her as more than just the winter office help? Could this family really hold the key to what she's seeking?

The Opposite of Wild


Kylie Gilmore - 2014
    Not that he’s into her. Because a woman like that comes with way too many expectations. Not to mention, she practically works for him, and he didn’t hire Liz to watch after his beloved Harley-stealing Gran so he could turn Liz loose in his bed. Still, there’s something about her, a hidden wild side, that makes him wonder what it would take. Liz must be crazy to work for the insensitive, arrogant, horribly… hot man she's avoided for years. Unfortunately, she needs the money and Ryan's grandmother needs a keeper. (Midnight tango lessons and ziplines with Gran, anyone?) Ryan's rare smile and swaggering confidence have Liz torn between throwing her favorite pinot grigio at his head or throwing herself at him. Can this control freak find a way to let loose with the tough, no-strings guy who once broke her heart?

Nearly


Deborah Raney - 2016
    In this loving small-town community where her beloved grandmother resides, she attempts to cast aside the memories of her troubled childhood. Michael Meredith finds worth as a nursing care home administrator. Until an unwelcome investigation concerning suspicious deaths among the home’s residents threatens his career and his integrity. In the midst of this crisis, friendship blooms and deepens between Michael and Claire—until an agonizing secret is revealed. One that may tear the delicate fabric of their love. Is their faith strong enough to survive their astonishing discovery? Deborah Raney has woven an intriguing tale… Her characters breathe life as they struggle with deep, heartfelt needs. What I loved most was the message that hidden sins and a painful past cannot be stuffed away and forgotten without the cleansing power of God's forgiveness. —an amazon.com reviewer This novel was originally published as Kindred Bond. It has been expanded and updated from the original edition.

Married for Christmas


Noelle Adams - 2013
    His dream is to become the pastor of the church in their hometown, but the small-town congregation keeps balking over calling an unmarried minister. Since Daniel needs a wife and Jessica wants a husband and family, she proposes an arrangement that benefits both of them.They can get married. They can build a life together. They can celebrate Christmas as a couple. It's fine that he doesn't love her. And it's fine that she's not exactly suited to be a small-town pastor's wife. And it's fine that she's more attracted to her sexy, brooding husband every day.Jessica can be practical about this marriage. She knows what she's getting into, after all...This book includes fully-developed sex scenes between a husband and wife.