Book picks similar to
Until Joe by C.P. Smith
romance
contemporary-romance
insta-love
dnf
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?
Licked
Brooke Blaine - 2015
Serving up Nibble My Nuts sundaes and Drunken Sailor boozy shakes are as close to an orgasmic affair as she's had in months thanks to her expanding empire—until the night of her ten-year high school reunion. When Ryleigh's crush, gorgeous ex-football god Cameron Mathis, comes streaking into her life (literally—streaking), she begins to wonder if she really can have it all. Wouldn't it just figure that the moment you think life is perfect is when it falls spectacularly apart? Enter Hunter Morgan, the contractor in charge of Licked's renovations. Devastatingly handsome, and a smartass to boot, he's got his eyes on Ryleigh from the moment he finds her passed out on his couch (yeah, that's a long story). There's just one tiny complication—he happens to be Cameron's best friend. When the lines between relationships and friendships blur, and it's impossible to choose between two delicious flavors, what's a girl to do? Taste a sample of each? Or go out and get LICKED?
Show Me the Way
A.L. Jackson - 2017
Jackson . . . Rex Gunner. As bitter as he is beautiful. The owner of the largest construction company in Gingham Lakes has been burned one too many times.His wife leaving him to raise their daughter was the last blow this single dad could take.The only woman he'll let into his heart is his little girl. Rynna Dayne. As vulnerable as she is tempting.She ran from Gingham Lakes when she was seventeen. She swore to herself she would never return.Then her grandmother passed away and left her the deed to the diner that she once loved.When Rex meets his new neighbor, he knows he's in trouble.She's gorgeous and sweet and everything he can't trust.Until she becomes the one thing he can't resist. One kiss sends them tumbling toward ecstasy.But in a town this size, pasts are bound to collide.Caught in a web of lies, betrayal, and disloyalty, Rex must make a choice. Will he hide behind his walls or will he take the chance . . .
Torn
Carian Cole - 2016
When I turned eighteen, I made it clear I still felt the same. The problem? He's fifteen years older than me, and he's my father's best friend.Toren Grace. My pseudo-uncle. He's always been my rock--the one I should never, ever want. But I do want him, and I love him. I always have.Tor's one of the good guys. He's loving and devoted with a strong moral compass. One unexpected kiss between us rocked him clear off his axis. Now, we can't forget how that kiss felt, and what it changed. Nothing will ever be the same between us.But I'm not a little girl anymore, and he's everything I want.I'm everything he wants, too.I know he's struggling, but I'm determined. With a last name of Valentine, I've got cupid in my veins. The heart wants what the heart wants, and it doesn't care about age or how we met. My father cares, though. And he's the one person neither one of us can stand to betray or hurt.We're all being torn apart, and I don't know how to make everyone see that the wrongs are actually right.* Torn can be read as a single book.
Mr. Perfect
J.A. Huss - 2016
I just know what I like.A powerful billionaire in a suit wasn’t even my first choice. McAllister Stonewall was never on my radar, I didn’t even know he existed.But I do now.His hands are all over me at work. The heat of his chest pressing against my bare back as he bends me over the desk is the only thing on my mind.He is my most forbidden desires unleashed. He is my new secret obsession. He is my Mr. Perfect.Until the moment I realize… There’s no such thing as perfect.
Bad Judgment
Meghan March - 2016
I’ve been turning him down for two years straight.Every shut-down makes me work harder.I’m not a one-night stand kind of girl.She doesn’t realize I won’t settle for only one night.He’s a distraction I don’t need. She’ll say yes eventually because I’m not giving up.
The Legacy
Dylan Allen - 2018
I craved every touch, every filthy promise that fell from his beautiful mouth, knowing he could break me. My past had left me battered and bruised, with scars he was determined to heal. Loving him was like drowning—he consumed me, body and soul.But Hayes has secrets of his own. And nothing could prepare me for the shocking pieces of our pasts that threaten to rip us apart. When the truth is revealed will our love be enough to shelter the storm?
Resist
K. Bromberg - 2019
Rich, handsome, and more than intriguing, he thinks blackmail will bend me to his will.But he’s wrong.I may have done a few things that weren’t exactly legal, but I have my own reasons for that. The last thing I’m going to do is let some high-powered divorce attorney come into my life, have my body, and rule my heart. Not to mention ruin everything that I have carefully built in just a short amount of time.But as much as I try to resist him, and against my better judgment, there is something about him that has me agreeing to his proposal.I’m putting everything on the line for him. I just hope I won’t lose everything when this is all over.
Drive Me Wild
Melanie Harlow - 2020
I’m a mechanic, not a hotel manager. I've got enough on my plate trying to keep my shop from going under, my overbearing mother off my back, and my baseball team in contention for the league championship. I don’t have time for a former debutante with zero street smarts and a cash flow problem, even if she is crazy beautiful. Problem is, she’s stranded in my small town, and I’m hiding a protective streak underneath my grumpy exterior that runs deep. So I offer her a place to stay and keep my hands to myself. For exactly one night. If only she weren't so gorgeous. So funny. So eager to please. She’s a disaster behind the wheel, but she drives me wild without even trying--at work, at home, in the back of my truck . . . I can’t get enough of the way she makes me feel. But I know better than to think it can last. She wants a fairy tale, and I’m no prince. So when it comes time for her to leave, there’s nothing I can do but let her go. No matter how much it hurts to say goodbye.
Elias
Sabrina Paige - 2014
I’m a rags to riches story - girl from trailer park becomes Hollywood starlet. And I’m about to get my happy ever after. That is, until I walk in to my house, three hours before my wedding, to find my rock star fiance sticking his c**k down my sister's throat. With cameras behind me, filming. I’m running from the whole humiliating thing. I’m not prepared to run straight into him- Elias Saint. He’s completely wrong for me- damaged, dirty, and demanding. But once he touches me, I can’t walk away. Elias Some people carry their wounds on the inside. Every f**cking step I take, I’m reminded of mine. I lost my leg in Afghanistan. Since then, I’ve just been lost. Now I’m going back to West Bend, Colorado, the place my brothers and I ran like hell to get away from. And she’s hitched a ride- River Andrews. A f**cking movie star. This isn’t a fairytale. Happy endings don’t exist. And I’m no f**ing Prince Charming. But, for her, there’s a chance I might be. **This is a full length novel - 330 paperback pages.**
Cheater
Rachel Van Dyken - 2017
All it took was a single moment—say, a certain disastrous incident on the night before his wedding—and boom. Reputation destroyed forever and always. So now he owns it. He has a lady friend for every night of the week (except Sundays—God’s day and all), and his rules are simple: No commitments. No exceptions.But a certain smart-mouthed, strawberry blonde vixen is about to blow that all to hell.Avery Black has never forgiven Lucas for cheating on her sister. And suddenly being forced to work with him is pretty much a nightmare on steroids. Of course, it does afford her the opportunity to make his life as difficult as possible. But no good revenge scheme comes without payback. Because he didn’t become the Lucas Thorn without learning a few things about women.Now Avery’s lust for vengeance has turned into, well, lust. And if Lucas stops cheating, it’s definitely not because he’s falling in love…
Have My Baby
Taryn Quinn - 2017
But Seth is a workaholic millionaire and doesn't have time to meet someone. Someone who won't screw him over, like his kid's mother. Only problem is this someone has secretly been in love with him since high school. I've been hiding it forever, not wanting to risk our friendship. Sleeping with him is my biggest fantasy. And I've fantasized plenty, being a virgin. Another thing he doesn't know.Now I have to make the biggest decision of my life.Is having a no strings attached affair just to make a baby better than never having him at all?Author’s note: this case of insta-love and insta-naked-time has been brewing for over a decade. Babymaking has never been so hot…or so funny…or so complicated.Author’s Note part deux: Have My Baby is a standalone rom com with a romantic HEA ending and no cliffhanger.
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.
Make Me Yours
Tia Louise - 2019
I did everything by the book. Happily ever after, right?Fast-forward four years, and I’m alone, raising my daughter, caring for my mother-in-law, and trying to keep my stuff together. How did this happen? I was clearly drunk the night I offered a gorgeous girl in a bar $500 a day to be my live-in nanny. Or maybe it was my dick talking. So what if I’ve been alone since forever? I’m focused on launching my new business, not bedding the sexy siren who sleeps down the hall.At least that’s what I keep reminding myself…Ruby Banks: Remington Key is distant, brooding, and incredibly sexy. And when he scoops up his adorable four-year-old daughter Lillie and blows raspberries on her tummy while she squeals with delight, I totally swoon.Bumping into him at our local pub that night slightly drunk and overly frustrated was a total accident. He needed help, and he offered me a ridiculous salary. I couldn't say no. Right?Now he’s given me the chance to pay off my debts and take control of my life. I can't screw up this job. But as bad as I want to be good, I’m not sure I can fake it…The way he watches me sends heat sizzling through my insides.Our hands touch, our eyes meet, and I want to do
very naughty things
with my new boss. (A STAND-ALONE CONTEMPORARY Romantic Comedy. No cheating; No cliffhangers.)
Black
Aria Cole - 2016
But he's unable to resist the allure of this desperate stranger.Soon the magnetism between them is undeniable, the temptation unbearable. Elle, reluctant to risk losing her heart to this dark and broken man, struggles against the sexual tension, only to surrender to the combustable heat between them.When Elle's life catches up to her and threatens to tear them apart, Maxwell will protect the precious love he's found by any brutal means necessary.✭ Black is a SAFE, sexy,
insta-love
spin on the Beauty and the Beast fairytale and is intended for mature audiences.