Book picks similar to
The Weight of Life by Whitney Barbetti
romance
dnf
contemporary-romance
arc
You Loved Me At My Darkest
Evie Harper - 2014
Kidnapped by a rich madman, Sasha is sold into slavery, while Lily is forced to join The Collection, a unique bevy of exotic beauties enduring frequent horrors at the hands of elite bidders. However, no amount of pain and suffering will break Lily, who will stop at nothing to save her younger sister. Possibly with help from an unlikely ally.Love is stronger than loyalty…Attempting to prove his allegiance to his employer, Jake is tasked with guarding the unruly and uncontrollable Lily. He can’t afford to help her in her quest to free Sasha—not if he hopes to fulfill his own agenda. But in their dark, gritty, tension-filled world, solace is taken wherever it’s found. Bonds are formed and hearts engage despite Jake’s resistance and both their attempts at self-preservation.When certain secrets come to light, the resulting explosion has breathtakingly bittersweet consequences that, by the end, may not leave everyone whole…or alive.
In the Unlikely Event
L.J. Shen - 2019
Shen comes a new, star-crossed lovers romance about loss, love, and meeting The One when you are too young to know how to keep them. Sometimes you meet people who are out of this world, so you make them a part of yours. A one-night stand born from vengeance in a foreign land. An explosive chemistry neither of us could deny. We signed a contract on the back of a Boar’s Head Pub napkin that said if we ever met again, we would drop everything and be together. Eight years and thousands of miles later, he’s here. In New York. And he’s America’s music obsession. The intangible Irish poet who brings record executives to their knees. The blizzard in my perfect, unshaken snow globe. Last time we spoke, he was a beggar with no intention of becoming a king. But a king he became, and now I’m his servant. I’m not the same broken princess Malachy Doherty put back together with his callused hands. I have a career I love. A boyfriend I adore. An apartment, a roommate, a life. I changed. He changed, too. But Mal kept the napkin. Question is, will I keep my word?
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!
Hate to Love You
Isabelle Richards - 2015
Constantly in competition, they fight incessantly, making it nearly impossible for them to be in the same room with each other. Until they slept together. Sex changes everything.In one emotional evening, they go from enemies to lovers. Hate quickly evolves into passionate lust, but old habits die hard. The love growing between them can’t erase a lifetime of animosity. The two quickly fall back into old routines of spite and vengeance, and their relationship crumbles under the weight of their deep-seated distrust.Chase and Arianna spend the next two years on opposite sides of the globe, avoiding each other at all costs. Despite the lies they tell themselves, neither one is ready to let go. Even though they are both engaged to other people, they can’t find it in their hearts to forgive each other or to move forward.A family emergency calls Arianna home, where they have no choice but to face each other again. Will they finally admit the truth, or will they remain forever trapped between love and hate?
Plastic Hearts
Lisa De Jong - 2013
I like it that way. I grew up in a fake society where plastic hearts rule. If our hearts are made of plastic, they can never be broken. My parents have expectations and I do everything I can to meet them, even if it means giving up on my own dreams. Now, all I want is to be free to make my own choices.Dane Wright is everything I have been warned to stay away from. We met one night while I was with my perfect, parent-approved boyfriend and I haven’t stopped thinking about him. I don’t want to like him. I am doing everything I can to ignore his pull, but my heart seems to want what it cannot have, what it has never had.Can he measure up? He may think I am too good for him, but maybe he is too good for me. Life is a series of choices and I have never been able to make my own. Until one day, when my heart decides to make a choice for me.Recommended for mature readers due to sexual content and language
The Baby Maker
Lili Valente - 2018
I’ve got a saying too: no thanks. The last thing I need is baby makes three. My business is expanding and the only thing I’m interested in getting knocked up is my bottom line.But then one night Emma Haverford makes me an offer I can’t refuse—she backs away from the land I have my eye on in exchange for a favor…A big, fat, baby making favor…******When I hear women have gotten pregnant shaking hands with Hunter men, I know I need Dylan Hunter’s…ahem, special skills…way more than I need to expand my vineyard. I’m ready to give my heart to a child and I’m tired of waiting for my late-to-the-party Prince Charming to make my dreams come true. So I promise Dylan—three months of hot, heavy, baby-making s-e-x and then I’m out of his hair forever.But what if when it comes time to say good-bye, all I want to do is keep bottling up more memories with this big-hearted man?
This sexy Standalone romance will make you laugh, swoon, and blush baby-makin' red. Heat level: A risk of getting knocked up during download. Paperback and audio versions are especially dangerous. Handle with care...
Love Restored
Carrie Ann Ryan - 2016
And when tragedy struck, lost it all. He’s been the backbone of his brothers, the one they all rely on in their lives and business. And when it comes to falling in love and creating a life, he knows what it’s like to have it all and watch it crumble. He’s done with looking for another person to warm his bed, but apparently he didn’t learn his lesson because the new piercer at Montgomery Ink tempts him like no other. Blake Brennen may have been born a trust fund baby, but she’s created a whole new life for herself in the world of ink, piercings, and freedom. Only the ties she’d thought she’d cut long ago aren’t as severed as she’d believed. When she finds Graham constantly in her path, she knows from first glance that he’s the wrong kind of guy for her. Except that Blake excels at making the wrong choice and Graham might be the ultimate temptation for the bad girl she’d thought long buried.
Good Guy
Kate Meader - 2019
She's a dogged sports reporter determined to get a scoop. She's also his best friend's widow...Fans can’t get enough of Levi Hunt, the Special Forces veteran who put his NHL career on hold to serve his country and fight the bad guys. So when his new Chicago Rebels bosses tell him to cooperate with the press on a profile, he’s ready to do his duty. Until he finds out who he has to work with: flame-haired, freckle-splashed, impossibly perky Jordan Cooke.The woman he should not have kissed the night she buried her husband, Levi’s best friend in the service.Hockey-stick-up-his-butt-serious Levi Hunt might despise Jordan for reasons she can’t fathom—okay, it’s to do with kissing—but her future in the cutthroat world of sports reporting hangs on delivering the goods on the league’s hottest, grumpiest rookie. So what if he’s not interested in having his life plated up for public consumption. Too bad. Jordan will have to play dirty to get her scoop and even dirtier to get her man. Only in winning the story, she might just lose her heart...
Cyclone
Janie Crouch - 2018
You don't try to power through anything. We go as slow as you need."Meet Zac Mackay. Military codename: Cyclone.He's a widower, a protector, a hero.And the person who could destroy Anne's life.Doctor Anne Griffin is back in Oak Creek, Wyoming, only because she has no other options. Here, she was always the shy, stuttering girl, invisible to everyone.Except Zac. The very reason she left in the first place.Zac's years in Special Forces taught him survival skills, and he's created a company--Linear Tactical--to teach those skills to others, so they never have to live in fear.Then why is Annie, the last person he'd ever want to hurt, afraid of him?Zac's determined to wipe the fear from the eyes of the woman who has never been far from his mind. And fix the mistakes--his mistakes--that put that look there in the first place.But a predator has set his sights on Annie. And now survival skills will become much more than lessons...From USA Today bestselling author Janie Crouch--a small town love story packed with mystery. A tough former-military alpha hero leaves his pain behind to claim the woman he never knew had gotten away. Full-length romance novel with a guaranteed Happily Ever After.
Beneath Him
Komal Kant - 2014
When Sky Hudson first has a run-in with tall, dark, and handsome Nicholas Ruggarson, she wants nothing more than to throw her coffee at him. He is rude and arrogant, and she is glad she never has to set eyes on him ever again. Or so she thinks. It turns out, not only does she have to see Nick again, she also has to live with him. Hired as the new nanny to work for Nick’s affluent family, she can’t seem to get away from the womanizing jerk. With a hot and cold relationship, and an undeniable attraction between them, Sky might finally be the woman to break through Nick’s arrogance and discover that there is more to him than she ever imagined. If she doesn’t kill him first. *Recommended for readers aged 18+ due to language and sexual content. **This novel is a standalone.
Redemption
Garrett Leigh - 2020
When friendship turns to love, it’s up to Paolo to convince him second chances are worth the pain.Luis Pope is back on the street after a six year stretch in prison, but life on the outside seems just out of reach, especially when the whole neighbourhood knows his face for all the wrong reasons.Paolo’s temper makes it hard to keep staff, and he knows Luis’s rep all too well. But his nonno believes in redemption, and Luis isn’t the tough guy Paolo remembers. Prison has left its mark, inside and out, and all the kindness in the world can’t fix the three inch scar on Luis’s skull.And it can’t keep ghosts locked up. Luis’s the best worker Paolo’s ever had, and Luis’s happier than he’s ever been. But his old life doesn’t want to stay in the past. Trouble comes to call, and when it makes him an offer he can’t refuse, keeping Paolo safe hurts the most.Redemption is an angsty, standalone MM romance novel, with second chances, found family, friends-to-lovers, and buckets of hurt/comfort themed loveliness.
Love in Due Time
L.B. Dunbar - 2019
Naomi Winters will be forty—soon-ish—and she's only been with one man. One night. One time. Long ago. She believes everything happens for a reason, and the universe spoke about him. But when her past stands before her looking sexier than ever with silver scruff and a smirky dimple, she's giving her inner goddess a second listen.Nathan Ryder isn't the same man who hightailed his bike out of Green Valley eighteen years ago. Coming home goes against everything he should do. However, he's always been a rule taker, and women are one area he acts a fool. Case in point—the local librarian. When he encounters her between the stacks, it doesn't matter that he can't get a read on her, he just knows he's not willing to risk losing her. Again.Despite little in common, the stars align in mysterious ways and the due date on their love might not be expired after all.+ + +Love in Due Time the first of The Winters Sisters, romantic tales of silver foxes and feisty vixens in the Green Valley Public Library series, an imprint of Penny Reid's Smartypants Romance.
The Weight of Rain
Mariah Dietz - 2015
That's all we had.That's all it took. I woke up the next day with his phone number smeared and illegible. When I couldn’t find him, I tried to forget. But in that one night he’d crawled so far under my skin, I couldn’t erase him.Then, he walks back into my life where I least expect him: my job. He’s just like I remember, except for one detail.He goes by a different name.
Going Down Hard
Jordan Marie - 2017
Gavin O’Leary. He made my high school days a nightmare. Not because he loved me. Not because he hated me. But because he had no idea who I was. He was the popular guy with the chiseled abs, dark tan and perfect hair. You know the type. The type that only dated the perfect-ten, cheerleader. I was the loner. The nerd who hated high school and couldn’t wait to say goodbye. And I did — to Freemont High and to Gavin. The last thing I expected was to see him again twelve years later. Yet here he is. Only this time — he notices me. This time — he kisses me. This time saying goodbye to Gavin O’Leary might destroy me. Novella introducing a brand new series. Instant lust that took twelve years to explore. Safe read with an Alpha who knows what he wants and goes after it — HARD.
Keeper
Harloe Rae - 2020
To me, Decker Fredric is another nameless face in the crowd. To him, I’m a forgotten girl he hasn’t seen in years. But he agrees to be my crutch through the fog as if we were once friends.Everything is a blank canvas spreading far and wide in front of me. Any direction I take, my steps stumble over the unknown. Decker becomes the only reliable constant in my life. I lean on him too hard, but he doesn’t seem to mind. His unwavering patience and guidance restore some semblance of normal I don’t recall having.My attraction to Decker is instant, but he appears indifferent. Until the day his stare holds a bit too much heat. In return, I dare to let my touch linger. Our hugs cling tighter than a simple embrace should. But we have no business defying the distinct line cutting between us.Decker Fredric was never mine to keep. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting him to be.