Book picks similar to
Take a Gamble by Rachael Brownell
new-adult
young-adult
stand-alone
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Forever & Always
Jasinda Wilder - 2013
Even if it’s just random stuff, nothing important, they’re important to me. Gramps is great, and I love working on the ranch.But…I’m lonely.I feel disconnected, like I’m no one, like I don’t belong anywhere. Like I’m just here until something else happens. I don’t even know what I want with my future. But your letters, they make me feel connected to something, to someone. I had a crush on you, when we first met. I thought you were beautiful. So beautiful. It was hard to think of anything else. Then camp ended and we never got together, and now all I have of you is these letters.S**t.I just told you I have a crush on you. HAD. Had a crush. Not sure what is anymore. A letter-crush? A literary love? That’s stupid. Sorry. I just have this rule with myself that I never throw away what I write and I always send it, so hopefully this doesn’t weird you out too much. I had a dream about you too. Same kind of thing. Us, in the darkness, together.Just us.And it was like you said, a memory turned into a dream, but a memory of something that’s never happened, but in the dream it felt so real, and it was more, I don’t even know, more RIGHT than anything I’ve ever felt, in life or in dreams. I wonder what it means that we both had the same dream about each other. Maybe nothing, maybe everything. You tell me.Cade----------------------------------------------------------------Cade,We’re pen pals. Maybe that’s all we’ll ever be. I don’t know. If we met IRL (in real life, in case you’re not familiar with the term) what would happen? And just FYI, the term you used, a literary love? It was beautiful. So beautiful. That term means something, between us now. We are literary loves. Lovers? I do love you, in some strange way. Knowing about you, in these letters, knowing your hurt and your joys, it means something so important to me, that I just can’t describe. I need your art, and your letters, and your literary love.If we never have anything else between us, I need this. I do. Maybe this letter will only complicate things, but like you I have a rule that I never erase or throw away what I’ve written and I always send it, no matter what I write in the letter. Your literary love,Ever
Infinity + One
Amy Harmon - 2014
She’s rich. She’s beautiful. She’s impossibly famous. And Bonnie Rae Shelby wants to die.Finn Clyde is a nobody. He’s broken. He’s brilliant. He’s impossibly cynical. And all he wants is a chance at life.One girl. One boy. An act of compassion. A bizarre set of circumstances. And a choice – turn your head and walk away, or reach out your hand and risk it all?With that choice, the clock starts ticking on a man with a past and a girl who can’t face the future, counting down the seconds in an adventure riddled with heartbreak and humor, misunderstanding and revelation. With the world against them, two very different people take a journey that will not only change their lives, but may cost them their lives as well.Infinity + One is a tale of shooting stars and fame and fortune, of gilded cages and iron bars, of finding a friend behind a stranger’s face, and discovering love in the oddest of places.
Relinquishing Liberty
Maureen Mayer - 2013
Everything was perfect. That is until her brother tragically took his own life, turning her whole world upside down. Left to pick up the pieces of her broken family, Liberty is faced with focusing all of her attention on helping her parents cope with the loss of their son, while putting her own life on the back burner. But what no one seems to realize is that she is just as broken inside.Now, four years later, twenty year old Liberty is taking back the reins of her life. She leaves behind everything she’s ever known, hoping to make a fresh start…one where she isn’t faced with the constant reminder that her brother is nothing more than faded memory. What she didn’t expect to find along the way was Shayne.Tall, dark and tattooed, Shayne Thompson has developed quite a reputation for being a player. Despite everyone’s negative perception, Liberty still finds herself drawn to him. When she learns that Shayne knows all too well what it feels like to lose someone you love, she finds that they have a lot more in common than just a physical attraction.When Liberty discovers a secret from Shayne’s past that threatens to tear them apart, she begins to question everything she’s ever felt for him. Will Liberty choose to follow her heart or will she give up the one person who finally made her feel whole again?**This story contains language and sexual scenes, some of which may be unsuitable for younger readers.**
Roommates
Hazel Kelly - 2016
But when our parents got married, things got confused. As if being a teenager isn't confusing enough. All I knew was that the feelings I had for him weren't okay.I’ll never forget the anxiety I felt the night I ran into him at a party that had gotten out of control. I saw him standing around with the popular kids as soon as I walked in the door. And he saw me, too. He always saw me. It was talking to me that he avoided. I watched his buddy spin an empty wine bottle on the butcher block while my friend Brandi rummaged in her oversized purse for the two bottles of hard lemonade her older sister gave us. When the spinning bottle stopped, I realized everyone was staring at me. “Looks like you’ve gotta kiss Jen,” some jock said to Ethan. I felt the color drain from my face, taking the moisture in my mouth with it as a suffocating panic grew in my chest. I was going to be found out. Ethan laughed it off. “Yeah, that’s not happening. She’s my sister.” “Not really, though,” his buddy insisted. The eruption of laughter and jeering sounds made the dim kitchen feel like a jungle full of predators, and I was sure my cheeks were going to burst into flames. “Don’t be stupid,” Ethan said, tilting a can of beer over his mouth. When his friend spun the bottle again, Ethan glanced back at me one more time and wiped the back of his hand across his lips. I’ve been wondering what it would be like to kiss him ever since. **Author's note: This is a full-length, standalone romance novel with no cliffhanger and no cheating. It is intended for a mature audience and has an ending that will leave you smiling so hard it hurts.
Fractured Affections
Elizabeth Wills - 2015
I have three handsome sons and a husband that would take on the world for me. All the trials I faced in the past seem like a distant memory. I overcame my depression from growing up in a broken home and moved past a shattered heart from my first love. It took time, but I made it through.Three knocks on my door.One surprise visit.One person, who I thought was gone forever.Nothing will be the same.
Hooked
Christine Manzari - 2015
She might even tell you that she’s hooked on graffiti, 80s movies, and having fun—the riskier the better. Cat will share a good time with you, but she won’t ever trust you enough to share her heart. It’s protected by secrets and she’d like to keep it that way. Cat knows one thing for certain: Love isn’t really her thing.If you ask the confident and rich pretty boy, he might tell you his name is Huck. He might even tell you he loves a challenge and is used to getting his way. He won’t tell you that his life is a mess because he risked his heart by trusting the wrong girl. Huck is ready for a change, he just wasn’t ready to get hooked on someone like Cat.Huck knows one thing for certain: Love hasn’t done him any favors, but Cat just might be worth the risk.Cat and Huck think a one-night stand seems harmless, but when all the little secrets they didn’t share turn out to be toxic truths, they realize how easily a one-night stand (or a few) could ruin everything. The thing is, you can be ruined in more than one way. Once you’re HOOKED, what wouldn’t you risk for the chance at more?
Crossing Paths
Melanie Stinnett - 2013
Although they are complete opposites in every way, they have spent the last four years inseparable.That is, until now.June finds herself falling for a man who seems unattainable. As she works side by side with him on a new media campaign, their feelings for each other come alive. But when his actions start to speak louder than words, she wonders if she’s missing something.Meanwhile, Caroline is fighting against her feelings for a recent acquaintance, and she decides to keep her new love interest a secret from June. Overwhelmed by these new emotions, her moods change swiftly, swinging up and down like a yo-yo.While June and Caroline try to maneuver their way through new relationships, Caroline starts lying to June to protect her from a truth that threatens to break her heart and tear them apart. In the end, Caroline’s deceit will test their friendship, and June will have to decide if her chance at love is worth putting her heart on the line.Amazon purchase link: http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Paths-...
We Were Us
Heather Diemer - 2014
She is perfectly content waiting out the summer alone until she can return to college in the fall. What she doesn’t expect was to rekindle her relationship with Josh.Josh doesn't judge her like everyone else does and never did. He gets her. When he shows up at her door every night just to see her, Jenna opens up to him like she’d never been able to before. And the more time she spends with him, the more she realizes she is falling for him. When someone in town spots the two of them together, rumors fly and her already uncomfortable existence in the town takes a turn for the worse. Jenna realizes she'll never belong here and decides to leave and never look back. Josh convinces her to stay because there is something that she doesn't know--something that could change everything.
Stroke of Fear
Alla Kar - 2013
A novel about letting go of your fears and letting yourself love again.Sometimes the things you love are the things you fear the most …Aubrey Depp has already faced death and escaped it once. Now it's back to get her. Once a swimming champion at her high school, Aubrey’s life was taken away when a former swimmer and boyfriend tosses her over a bridge, leaving her for dead.Now a senior in college, she takes a summer job as a camp counselor with her best friend Cassie and her it’s complicated boyfriend Jake. Then she meets southern heartthrob Tanner Young and her entire summer is flipped upside down. He’s damaged, has a sexy southern drawl and has his eyes set on Aubrey. She doesn’t mind.Tanner is damaged, broken and for the first time in a year, feels like he can love again. Aubrey Depp is the one he wants, and he won’t stop until he gets her.When Aubrey's past comes back to haunt her, Tanner vows to protect Aubrey. Showing her it’s okay to take that Stroke of Fear.Cover By: Lindee Robinson Photographyhttp://lindeerobinson.wix.com/photoil...https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lindee...
No One's Angel
Kelly Walker - 2013
No One's Angel's angel is a New Adult (NA) Contemporary Romance about a girl learning to fight back and a boy learning to let go. Tess used to spend more hours than she'd care to admit playing her favorite computer game, using the nickname Angel. She could pretend her life was different, and she could pretend Arion was just a friend. But a girl needs more to keep her warm at night than pixels, and she traded her virtual heaven for a real-life hell. Now she's on the run from a past she won't talk about, and the only place she has to go is the doorstep of the friend she's never actually met.When Angel disappeared from their nightly games, it nearly destroyed Arion. He threw himself into work and women, but he can't help knowing the one-night stands will never compare to the angel who haunts his dreams. At first, when she shows up soaking wet and scared-shitless on his doorstep, he thinks his prayers have been answered.But the more Arion tries to keep Angel close, the more her fear drives her away. If they are ever going to have a chance for a future, they'll first have to deal with the past that hasn't forgotten her any more than she's forgotten it--and Arion will have to learn how to let her go.
Ten Below Zero
Whitney Barbetti - 2014
And you’re closer to death than I am.”My name is Parker. My body is marked with scars from an attack I don’t remember. I don’t want to remember. I choose to live my life by observation, not through experience. While people are laughing and kissing and connecting, I’m in the corner. Watching them live. I’m indifferent to everything, everyone. The only emotion I feel with any kind of depth is annoyance, and I feel it often.A text message sent to the wrong number proves to be my undoing.His name is Everett, but I call him rude. He’s pushy, he’s arrogant, he crowds my personal space, and worst of all: he makes me feel.He chooses to wear all black, all the time, as if he’s waiting to attend a funeral. Probably because he is.Everett is dying. And he’s spending his final days living, truly living. In doing so, he’s forcing me to feel, to heal. To come face to face with the demons I suppressed in my memory.He hurts me, he fulfills me, he completes me. And still, he's dying.
When We Met
A.L. Jackson - 2014
When four girls decide to live off campus together as juniors at a college in Michigan, they expect it to be their best year yet. Little do they know, it’s a year that will change the rest of their lives.
BEHIND HER EYES by A.L. Jackson
Unable to live down her ex-boyfriend’s deception, Misha is determined to avoid betrayal. When, the new guy next door, Darryn starts to get under her skin, her defenses start to crumble. But trusting Darryn seems impossible, especially if he’s not sure he can trust himself.
SAVING ME by Molly McAdams
On the outside, Indy is always ready for a party—but inside she’s breaking. Kier makes a weekly routine of saving the girl next door from herself on Saturday nights… but when will she be ready to remember him on Sunday morning?
FOULING OUT by Tiffany King
Working at a sports bar, Courtney has become a pro at sidestepping propositions from arrogant jocks—which makes her a more elusive catch for campus basketball star Dalton than he expected. But when he falls for the saucy waitress, Dalton will have to rethink his game plan to prove he’s not the jerk Courtney expects.
BENEATH YOUR LAYERS by Christina Lee
In order to ace her fashion internship, Chloe must team up with local college dropout and set builder, Blake—much to her chagrin. But after some "hands-on" experience, Chloe will have to ask herself if Blake factors into her carefully laid plans…
Falling for a Bentley
Adriana Law - 2013
She plays the good girl well doing whatever it takes to pacify those around her, including her scumbag boyfriend who doesn't necessarily deserve her loyalty. When tragedy strikes bringing her boyfriend's extended family into town Tori is offered a way to escape in a dangerous package. Multiple tattoos and piercings should warn Tori to stay away but something about Sterling Bentley draws her in: into his life, into his bed, into his soul, his heart and his pain. What do you do when you find the love of your life and they are the opposite of what you thought you wanted? Do you run? Or do you stay? Sometimes we don't get to choose. Sometimes life brings us the unexpected, challenges us, and pushes us out of our comfort zone for a reason. Sterling Bentley just might be Tori's reason. FALLING FOR A BENTLEY is a story about addiction, forgiveness, heartbreak and hope. Recommended for ages 18 and up due to sexual situations, drug use and language.
