Book picks similar to
Written on my Heart by Cole Gibsen
romance
new-adult
abuse
contemporary
Broken
Kelly Elliott - 2013
With no running water or electricity in their home, no parents around to protect them, they quickly learned how to survive and depend only on each other.When a tragic accident takes Mike away from Layton, and the only other person that he ever let into his heart walked away from him, leaving his heart shattered, Layton focuses all of his time and energy into the ranch he and his brother dreamed of. He makes a vow to himself to never let love in again. The last thing Layton needed or wanted was more heartache.Whitley Reynolds grew up in a privileged home in upstate New York. When she landed the star football player in high school no one was surprised, not even Whitley. She dreamed of a life with Roger living in New York City and happily followed him there. The first time Roger hit her for arguing with him about a dinner party, she forgave him. The more it happened, the further Whitley withdrew from her friends and family. One fateful day things go to far. Whitley makes a promise to herself and finds the courage to do the one thing she thought she’d never be able to do.Fleeing with her best friend Courtney, Whitley was determined to put her past behind her and start a new life in the small town of Llano, Texas, where no one would ever find out about her past.Will they both ever learn to trust and love again, or will their pasts come back to haunt them, keeping them both alone and…Broken.
The Mason List
S.D. Hendrickson - 2015
An epic hate. An epic story that would last a lifetime.
Today, 8:15 p.m. I hurt. I hurt so deeply, I felt the pain searing in my bones and jabbing like a hot poker into my heart. I knew nothing would make it better as the memories pulled from the crevices of my mind, detailing the bad and the ugly, filling my thoughts with regret as I slipped into the darkness. . . When I was eight, my mother was dying of cancer, my father lost his job, and the bank kicked us out of our house. I was forced to move to the strange town of Arlis, Texas where my father and I slept in our car in the hospital parking lot. Desperate and hopeless, we lived on fumes of our former life. Then one night, everything changed forever. A knock on the car window brought a family into my life that I only wanted to shut out. I hated charity and I hated the Masons. Well, except one. He made it impossible to hate him. Jess Mason had the biggest blue eyes and ornery smile of any boy I had ever seen. He was a ray of sunshine in my dark world. A boy full of adventure, dragging me across the meadow of Sprayberry Ranch; a beautiful Texas paradise full of horses and tree houses that got us into more trouble than anyone ever imagined. Jess was my everything as a kid until we grew up and the rules changed. Instead of living happily ever after with a boy full of love. . . I destroyed it.- Alex Tanner Author Note: The Mason List is a coming-of-age story that follows the life of Alex Tanner from the age of six to twenty-six. The novel crosses the genres of Young Adult and New Adult. The Mason List is a standalone, 118,940 word, full-length novel.
Royal Savage
Victoria Ashley - 2015
Every time I do, all I see is blood, death, and pain. I can feel it - almost taste it, bringing me back to that night. It doesn't matter that I'm still breathing; I no longer need it, I no longer want it. I despise it along with everything else around me. The only thing I long for is to fucking fade away. I've given up. Until her at least… AVALON. She comes into my world, knocking me on my ass. It turns me on to have her around me. Makes me want to wrap my hand around her tight little throat and fuck her until she feels my pain, feels the monster in me, but also makes me want to protect her from the very thing that she should be afraid of... me. Once she sees the damage that I’m capable of; she’ll look at me like everyone else around me does: with fear. AVALON KNIGHT HIS EYES... THE DARKNESS IN them draws me to him, making me want to taste him, feel him… and save him. I shouldn't have gotten on the back of his motorcycle that day. I know that now. Colton warned me. I was told it was dangerous. I was told that nothing would be the same. He was right. ROYAL is dangerous, dark, and seductive; the very thing that keeps me hanging on, willing to give my last breath just to touch him… breathe him in. He’s savage, inked, and highly captivating. So different from his brother… He's hazardous to my health, mind, and body, yet the only thing that I crave. I want to free him. I want to change his mind, but I'm afraid that he’s already too faded…
I Want It That Way
Ann Aguirre - 2014
But between maintaining her college scholarship and working at the local day care to support herself, she barely has time to think, let alone date. Then she moves into a new apartment and meets the taciturn yet irresistible guy in 1B…. Daniel Tyler has grown up too fast. Becoming a single dad at twenty turned his life upside down—and brought him heartache he can't risk again. Now, as he raises his four-year-old son while balancing a full-time construction management job and night classes, a social life is out of the question. The last thing he wants is for four noisy students to move into the apartment upstairs. But one night, Nadia's and Ty's paths cross, and soon they can't stay away from each other. The timing is all wrong—but love happens when it happens. And you can't know what you truly need until you stand to lose it.
The Debt
Tyler King - 2016
. . and I ruined hersHadley's my best friend. We share a house, our friends, a life. She knows all my secrets . . . except one. My desperate need for her is inked on my body, it's the best I can do. But Hadley needs to hear the words . . . Growing up as foster kids, Hadley made me feel whole-sane. And what did I do? I destroyed our chance to be together. I ran out on Hadley when I should have stayed, and something broke between us. Now I'll do anything to fix it. I'll never leave her again. I won't ever let her feel afraid again. But the more I try to protect her from my pain, the more I just make things worse. I'm terrified that if I tell her everything, she'll never forgive me. I'm even more terrified that it may be too late to make her mine. I have to try to give her what she needs . . . it's a debt I'm determined to repay.
Darker Water
Lauren Stewart - 2014
Her lips? Hell yeah. A few other parts of her body? You better f*cking believe it. But her heart? Nope. Not even a little. Until it does…a lot.Forget I said that. I don’t have feelings for anyone. They were all ripped out of me when I was a kid.This thing between Laney and me could be great. But we have to follow certain rules. We have a good time—no dates, no sleepovers, no expectations. When one of us is ready for something new or if she starts getting too attached, we move on with no hard feelings. Win-win, and everybody’s happy.I came into this thinking it would be the same thing as it had always been and that she was like any other woman. It isn’t. She isn’t. But how do I tell her she deserves someone better - someone who can love her, someone who’s not broken - if I can’t seem to let her go?
Laney
I finally get it. And to think, it only took my heart being pried out of my chest and stomped on five separate times by men who claimed they loved me. That’s got to be a record, right?Let me put it as simply as I can.Fairy tales aren’t real. Love is a lie. And, at least in my experience, sex never comes with a happy ending. Fortunately, I still have a battery-operated boyfriend who’ll never fall out of love with me. I won’t walk in on him in bed with another woman either. Nope. As long as I keep supplying him with fresh batteries, BOB’s only purpose in life is to make me happy. And, damn it, I deserve to be happy. I’m a nice person. I work hard. And, most importantly, I've learned an important lesson: To never, ever let a man near my heart again. Unfortunately, some people never learn.***Be ready for a lot of laughs, a bunch of swoons, and a few tears from this standalone romantic comedy.******DARKER WATER is a standalone contemporary fairytale retelling inspired by The Frog Prince***
Hate to Love You
Elise Alden - 2014
But it turns out all those sex-ed teachers aren’t just trying to scare you. The faint positive on a budget pregnancy test sent me spinning, moments before meeting my sister’s snooty new fiancé.Shaking hands with upper-crusty James was like downing a triple shot of vodka. Dizzy with desire, confused by my body’s reaction, and shocked by the possessiveness flashing in his eyes, I deceived him that night and told the world at their wedding reception.The truth?I slept with my sister’s fiancé. Hot and sweaty, all night long in a room so dark he couldn’t tell I wasn’t her.The lie? Said fiancé is the father of my child. The one I signed over my rights to just before he was born.That was seven years ago. It’s time to come clean.95,000 words
Real
Katy Evans - 2013
One night was all it took, and I forgot everything and anything except the sexy fighter in the ring who sets my mind ablaze and my body on fire with wanting...Remington Tate is the strongest, most confusing man I've ever met in my life.He’s the star of the dangerous underground fighting circuit, and I’m drawn to him as I've never been drawn to anything in my life. I forget who I am, what I want, with just one look from him. When he’s near, I need to remind myself that I am strong—but he is stronger. And now it’s my job to keep his body working like a perfect machine, his taut muscles primed and ready to break the bones of his next opponents...But the one he’s most threatening to, now, is me.I want him. I want him without fear. Without reservations.If only I knew for sure what it is that he wants from me?
Fighting to Breathe
Aurora Rose Reynolds - 2015
They never imagined the future could hold anything other than together-forever. When Lea's father dies in a tragic fishing accident, she's crushed under the weight of her grief and catches a glimpse of another type of future, one she knows she's not strong enough to face. Austin is angry. For the past fifteen years, he's believed the woman he loved with every ounce of his soul left him without so much as a backwards glance. When Lea unexpectedly returns to their hometown, all the years of heartache inside Austin bubbles to the surface and presents itself as blinding rage. Faced with the truth about the past, a newly discovered secret, these former lovers will learn that if they want to have any chance at the future they'd given up on all those years ago, they will have to rescue one another from drowning in pain so debilitating it will leave them both fighting to breathe. Contains mature themes.
White Trash Beautiful
Teresa Mummert - 2012
. . Cass Daniels isn’t waiting for her knight in shining armor. She knows that girls like her don’t get a happily ever after. Not if you live in a trailer with your mom, work at a greasy spoon diner, and get leered at by old men. Maybe that’s why she puts up with Jackson—her poor excuse for a boyfriend, who treats her like dirt. Cass has learned to accept her lot in life. That is, until he walks into her diner. . . . His name is Tucker White, and he’s different from any man Cass has ever known. Tall, tattooed, and bad-ass gorgeous, he’s the lead singer of the rock band Damaged. From the moment they meet, Tucker sees something in Cass he just can’t shake. Something beautiful. Something haunted. Something special. And he’s determined to find out what it is—if only he can get her to open up and let him in. . . .
This Much is True
Katherine Owen - 2013
A ballerina who lies. A baseball player who believes her. Well, the truth changes everything. Tally Landon just wants to escape her tragic story if just for one night. She doesn't count on meeting Lincoln Presley, Stanford's baseball wonder, but plans to add him to her long list of one-night stands. That's the plan. Lying to him about her age and her name is just a part of her don't-get-emotionally-attached style. She doesn't count on being found out, nor on ever seeing Linc again or falling in love. Lincoln Presley's life is all mapped out. There is only baseball. With the major leagues circling their favorite prospect with a lucrative offer, he cannot afford to mess up. And, he doesn't; until he meets up with the girl he saved from the burning wreckage on the 101 on Valentine's Day months before. By the time he learns her real name and of all the lies she's told, he's in far too deep to ever really let her go. When fame and lies tear them apart, one truth remains; and fate, most definitely, has a different set of plans. This much is true.Author's Note: A coming of age story? Could be. A powerful love story? Most definitely. An unforgettable read? Most likely. Intended for mature audiences, ages 17+? Absolutely. This best selling new adult contemporary romance novel will take you on an emotional roller coaster ride and is the first book (which should really be two books) in the Truth In Lies series, but it can be read as a standalone. It is 432 pages long in 12-point type so carve out some time.
Love Me Never
Sara Wolf - 2015
Declare war on him.Seventeen-year-old Isis Blake hasn’t fallen in love in three years, nine weeks, and five days, and after what happened last time, she intends to keep it that way. Since then she’s lost eighty-five pounds, gotten four streaks of purple in her hair, and moved to Buttcrack-of-Nowhere, Ohio, to help her mom escape a bad relationship.All the girls in her new school want one thing—Jack Hunter, the Ice Prince of East Summit High. Hot as an Armani ad, smart enough to get into Yale, and colder than the Arctic, Jack Hunter's never gone out with anyone. Sure, people have seen him downtown with beautiful women, but he's never given high school girls the time of day. Until Isis punches him in the face.Jack’s met his match. Suddenly everything is a game.The goal: Make the other beg for mercy.The game board: East Summit High.The reward: Something neither of them expected.
Cruel Prince
Ashley Jade - 2019
But four years later, here I am...back to finish my senior year at Royal Hearts Academy.And forced to face Jace Covington. My first friend. First crush. First kiss. The one I left behind.Only—he isn't the same boy I gave my heart to.This new Jace is as cruel as he is gorgeous.And he's determined to make my life a living hell. Along with the rest of his glorified family and crew of tyrants.They expect me to worship the ground they walk on like everyone else, but I'd rather eat dirt.If Jace Covington wants me gone...he'll have to try harder. Because I've never been the kind of girl to play by the rules.WARNING: Royal Hearts Academy is a New Adult/High School series of standalones filled with drama, a touch of angst, and boys who are bad to the bone. And when I say bad, I mean they are assholes with a capital A. If you're looking for a safe, sweet romance, this series is NOT for you. At all! Please don't say you weren't warned.WARNING: Royal Hearts Academy is a New Adult/High School series of standalones filled with drama, a touch of angst, and boys who are bad to the bone.This series is recommended for mature readers due to graphic language and sexual content.
Collide
Gail McHugh - 2013
While harboring secrets of his own, Dillon Parker takes care of Emily through her grief. Knowing he can’t live without her by his side, he’s sweet, thoughtful, and everything Emily has ever wanted in a man. Until she meets Gavin Blake—a rich and notorious playboy who is dangerously sexy and charming as hell. Emily tries to deny the instant connection she feels, but Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome is not inclined to let go so easily. Recovering from his own painful past, Gavin will stop at nothing to win Emily over. This unexpected encounter compels Emily to question her decisions, forcing her to make a choice that will destroy friendships, shatter hearts, and forever change her life.
Sacked
Jen Frederick - 2015
Warrior. Champion. And...virgin. Knox knows what he wants--and he gets it. All American Football player? Check. NFL pros scouting him? Check. Now, he's set his sight on two things. The national title. And Ellie Campbell. Sure, she's the sister of his fellow teammate, but that's not going to stop him. Especially not when he’s convinced Ellie is the one.
...but he's never met her before.
But Ellie isn't as sure. She's trying to start a new life and she's not interested in a relationship...with anyone. Beside it's not just her cardinal rule of never dating her brother's teammates that keeps her away, but Ellie has a dark secret that would jeopardize everything Knox is pursuing. Knox has no intention of losing. Ellie has no intention of giving in.