Book picks similar to
A Thousand Cuts by Melissa Toppen


brothers-best-friend
slow-burn
melissa-toppen
standalone

Without You


Marley Valentine - 2020
    My brother’s best friend, he fit with my family in ways I never could. While he and Rhett went on to play house, I left the only life I knew, desperate for a fresh start.Until everything changed.Heartache came along, and the aftermath of my brother’s death was here to stay. I was now face to face with Julian more than I ever wanted to be.Being around him brought up all my insecurities, forced me to deal with hard truths, and conjured up feelings I had no business entertaining. He wasn’t the man I thought I knew. He was complex and layered, and inherently beautiful in all the ways I’d never noticed.Not on another person.Not on another man.Not until him.

Possessive


Willow Winters - 2018
    It was never love with Daniel and I never thought it would be. It was only lust from a distance. Unrequited love maybe. He’s a man I could never have, for so many reasons. That didn’t stop my heart from beating wildly when his eyes pierced through me. It only slowed back down when he’d look away, making me feel so damn unworthy and reminding me that he would never be mine.Years have passed and one look at him brings it all back. But time changes everything.There’s a heat in his eyes I recognize from so long ago, a tension between us I thought was one-sided. “Tell me you want it.” His rough voice cuts through the night and I can’t resist. That’s where my story really begins.Possessive is an emotional, gripping story. Filled with heartache, guilt and longing! Possessive will take you on a journey of obsession and jealousy...it's emotional, raw and captivating. - Beyond The Covers Blog

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time


Kylie Scott - 2018
    If being sent away at eighteen hadn’t been bad enough, the mess she left behind when she made a pass at her dad’s business partner sure was.Fifteen years older than her, Pete had been her crush for as long as she could remember. But she’d misread the situation—confusing friendliness for undying love. Awkward. Add her father to the misunderstanding, and Pete had been left with a broken nose and a business on the edge of ruin. The man had to be just as glad as everyone else when she left town.Seven years on, things are different. Adele is no longer a kid, but a fully grown adult more than capable of getting through the wedding and being polite. But all it takes is seeing him again to bring back all those old feelings.Sometimes first loves are the truest.

Ache


S.M. Soto - 2019
     What happens when you fall for the boy next door? Bea Norwood had the market on normal. Drama free life? Check. A single-mother who doubled as her confidant and partner in crime? Check. A neighbor and best friend she trusted more than anyone? Check. But that was until the day her mother remarried. The day that changed everything.When her best friend's cousin, Liam Falcon, is sent to live with his aunt and uncle to clean up his act, Bea finds herself falling for the boy next door. With their hearts so infinitely entwined, Bea turns to Liam as her only escape from her new step-brother's daily torment at home. Bea thought their love could conquer anything. But she was wrong. Love was for fools, and she was the biggest fool of them all. When Liam left Lakeport, he took her heart with him, shattering the organ to pieces. Six years later, Liam takes a trip back to Lakeport to visit his family, and to see HER. His first love.The girl who holds his heart.The same girl who shattered it six years ago without looking back. Liam is hell-bent on seeing Bea again after six years, but what he finds tears his heart in half. Bea Norwood is a shell of the girl he fell in love with. Underneath the baggy clothes, and pale skin, he knows she's still in there somewhere, he just needs to find her. Liam will stop at nothing to win his girl back, but sometimes, ignorance is bliss, and Liam isn't prepared for Bea's truth. *Some aspects of this story may be sensitive for readers.*

Gravity


Lauren Runow - 2017
    Spanning over twenty years—it’s raw, it’s real, asking the question if soul mates really exist.LilyAt eight years old, the boy next door changed my life. He was the force pulling me toward him despite our differences. It was like magic.We understood each other, supported each other and in the process became everything to each other.But in chasing Trevin’s dream, I lost myself along the way. TrevinThrough tremendous heartache, she was there. Through fame and fortune, she was there. Loving Lily was the one thing I got right.Eclipsing her in my shadow, I took from her until she was empty. Now I must do anything to prove I can be the man she wants, no, the man she deserves.

Cross Check


Colleen Masters - 2016
     We grew up together, me the bookish nerd, him the rich popular jock. To make matters worse, my parents worked for his, they were the groundskeeper and housekeeper of the King estate my entire life. But now that Jamison’s parents are gone, he needs me to run his father’s company—his father’s dying wish was that we get married to align our interests… I have a feeling we’ll be aligning much more than that if Jamison gets his way. And he always does. Includes BONUS BOOK Stepbrother Billionaire!!!! This novel is a full-length contemporary sports romance novel. Contains harsh language and graphic sexual content. Readers 18++ No Cliff.

Unteachable


Leah Raeder - 2013
    The summer before senior year, she has plans: get into a great film school, convince her mom to go into rehab, and absolutely do not, under any circumstances, screw up her own future.But life has a way of throwing her plans into free-fall.When Maise meets Evan at a carnival one night, their chemistry is immediate, intense, and short-lived. Which is exactly how she likes it: no strings. But afterward, she can’t get Evan out of her head. He’s taught her that a hookup can be something more. It can be an unexpected connection with someone who truly understands her. Someone who sees beyond her bravado to the scared but strong girl inside.That someone turns out to be her new film class teacher, Mr. Evan Wilke.Maise and Evan resolve to keep their hands off each other, but the attraction is too much to bear. Together, they’re real and genuine; apart, they’re just actors playing their parts for everyone else. And their masks are slipping. People start to notice. Rumors fly. When the truth comes to light in a shocking way, they may learn they were just playing parts for each other, too.Smart, sexy, and provocative, Unteachable is about what happens when a love story goes off-script.

Credence


Penelope DouglasPenelope Douglas - 2020
    The only child of a film producer and his starlet wife, she’s grown up with wealth and privilege but not love or guidance. Shipped off to boarding schools from an early age, it was still impossible to escape the loneliness and carve out a life of her own. The shadow of her parents’ fame followed her everywhere.And when they suddenly pass away, she knows she should be devastated. But has anything really changed? She’s always been alone, hasn’t she?Jake Van der Berg, her father’s stepbrother and her only living relative, assumes guardianship of Tiernan who is still two months shy of eighteen. Sent to live with him and his two sons, Noah and Kaleb, in the mountains of Colorado, Tiernan soon learns that these men now have a say in what she chooses to care and not care about anymore. As the three of them take her under their wing, teach her to work and survive in the remote woods far away from the rest of the world, she slowly finds her place among them.And as a part of them.She also realizes that lines blur and rules become easy to break when no one else is watching.One of them has her.The other one wants her.But he…He’s going to keep her.*Credence is a new adult standalone novel suitable for readers 18+.

Everest


S.L. Scott - 2017
    Dynamic green eyes. Utterly irresistible. Ethan Everest stole my breath the first time I saw him. He romanced me with skill, dazzled me with his charisma, and proceeded to steal my heart right after. I might have fallen for his easy-going smile the first time we met, but I fell for him the second time.Honey-colored hair. Cherry-kissed lips. Captivatingly gorgeous. Singer Davis was the first, and only, woman to ever intimidate me. She spoke to my heart with her wit, seduced me with her eyes, and became the only thing that made sense in a world that made none. I let her slip through my fingers once. I won’t make that mistake twice.Secrets broke us apart. Can a second chance bring us back together? From New York Times Bestselling Author, S.L. Scott, comes a ROMANTIC SUSPENSE STANDALONE that will have you on the edge of your seat and swooning over this new ALPHA BILLIONAIRE.

Bad Apple


Selena . - 2021
    If getting out of this hellhole town means spending my last two years of high school at an elite academy full of rich, entitled pricks, then bring it on.“Girls like you don’t belong.”The arrogant and infuriatingly gorgeous Dolce brothers reign supreme in the hallowed halls of Willow Heights, and they don’t welcome my kind. Especially when I get in their way, don’t play by the rules in their twisted games, and refuse to bow to the cruel tyrants who run the place.“Girls like you are bad news.”Royal, Baron, and Duke Dolce set their sights on me. They think a poor girl will be an easy target, that they can break me and bring me to my knees like the girls who came before me. But the Dolce boys underestimate me. In this town, even girls from the trailer park hide deadly secrets. Secrets that could destroy them.After all, it’s those from the wicked world of wealth and privilege with the most to lose.This book is not RH--the main character ends up with ONE love interest.This is the start of a brand new, dark high school bully romance/enemies to lovers story featuring a damaged anti-hero and a heroine who fights her own battles. It is not for the faint of heart. It is in *no way* safe. I don't want to list specifics bc they are spoilers IMO, so I'll just say this. If you have triggers or hard lines, avoid this book. 18+ readers only.

Long Shot


Kennedy Ryan - 2018
    One of the NBA's brightest stars.Fine. Forbidden. He wants me. I want him.But my past, my fraudulent prince, just won't let me go.*Some aspects of this story may be sensitive for some readers.

Lachlan's Protégé


V.F. Mason - 2018
    Until she became mine. She was a ballerina. He was a serial killer. She ran away from him. He caught her. She begged for mercy. He gave her none. She was an angel. He was a monster. She wanted to escape. He wanted to destroy her. They were at war. And only one of them would win. Warning: Dark Romance. 18+ due to sexual content, profanity, abuse, graphic violence, and adult subject matter.

Enemies


Tijan - 2019
    while I made the worst decision of my life.Now I'm in Texas trying to pick up the pieces of my life.But, Stone is here.Stone is everywhere.It doesn't matter that disaster has struck my life again.It doesn't matter that he's the one trying to console me.It doesn't matter that he's the nation's newest football obsession.Because for me, he always has been and always will be my enemy.** Enemies is a 100k enemies-to-lovers football romance standalone!

Elastic Heart


Mary Catherine Gebhard - 2016
    I was volunteering on the campaign of a man I believed in, a man I thought to be good and noble. Then one night that man forced himself on me and everything changed.The police didn’t believe me. The media reviled me. My friends abandoned me. I dropped out of college and only have one mission in life: make him pay. That is, until Nick Law came in to my life.Indomitable, infuriating, and irresistible, Law is complicating things.

Blind Kiss


Renee Carlino - 2018
    Fourteen years ago, this shop was her childhood dance studio... Now she’s a suburban housewife, dreading the moment her son departs for MIT, leaving her with an impeccably decorated McMansion and a failing marriage. She had her chance at wild, stars-in-her-eyes happiness, but that was a lifetime ago. After The Kiss. Before The Decision.The Kiss was soulful. Magical. Earth-shattering, And it was all for a free gift card. Asked to participate in a psych study that posed the question, “Can you have sexual chemistry without knowing what the other person looks like?” Penny agreed to be blindfolded, make polite conversation with a total stranger, and kiss him. She never expected The Kiss to change her life forever and introduce her to Gavin: tattooed, gorgeous, and spontaneous enough to ask her out seconds after the blindfolds came off.For a year, they danced between friendship and romance—until Penny made The Decision that forced them to settle for friendship. Now, fourteen years later, both of their lives are about to radically change—and it’s his turn to decide what will become of their once-in-a-lifetime connection."