Book picks similar to
Against the Tide by Nikki Groom
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The Thing About Love
Kim Karr - 2018
I prefer a man with an artistic vein in his body. 9 - 5 hours. And I can definitely do without the half-lidded, sleepy bedroom eyes. (Okay, so those are kind of sexy.) Tall, dark, and handsome doesn’t change the fact that he’s arrogant, cocky, and rude. Not that I care, but he’s made it clear he wants nothing to do with a quirky girl like me, which is why he said no. Turns out no isn’t an option. I have a quickie wedding to plan, and Dr. Jake Kissinger doesn’t have a choice. He looks at our situation like he’s stuck with me, but in reality I’m stuck with him. Stuck with his pouty mouth. His long, lean body. And stuck with those loose, low riding scrub pants. (Okay, so the doctor thing is growing on me.) When spending time together turns into more than it should, I know I’m in trouble. He isn’t supposed to make my heart pound. I’m not supposed to make him look twice. And we aren’t supposed to spend the night together. (Okay, so he has more than one artistic vein in his body, and other places.) Falling for him is definitely a mistake. Here’s the thing…Jake is unavailable, and I know it. Just not in the way you might think. I guess you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Chasing Nikki
Lacey Weatherford - 2012
Caught up in a world of drugs and alcohol, he doesn't notice time slipping away until he's arrested for underage drinking one night.Fed up with watching her son destroy his life, Chase's mom relocates him to live in a small ranching community with his ex-military grandfather. Chase is far from happy about the situation until he meets, Nikki, the cute cheerleader who won't give football players like him the time of day.Chase enjoys a good challenge though and sets out to claim Nikki for his own. He soon discovers she's more than a pretty face--she's a balm to his troubled spirit also. But when tragedy strikes Nikki's life too, suddenly Chase finds himself put to the ultimate test. Can he trust Nikki, and all that she's taught him? Will it be enough?
Flip Trick
Amo Jones - 2018
I had a one-night stand. Then in true me fashion, I left my phone at his house during my desperate venture to escape. I tried hard to ignore the texts sent to my best friend’s phone... Amethyst: Sup, these selfies are cute as shit, but your lips looked better wrapped around my… I did NOT text him back. I DID vow to never speak of him, or that night again... I’m Amethyst Lily Tatum, and up until this point, I’d managed to maintain a fairly low-key life. I’m what you would call a socially unacceptable hot mess. Instead of partying, I’m skating, flipping ollie’s over guys who loved to underestimate me. Then I started college, met a wild girl who I would soon call my best-friend, had my first drunk one-night stand, left my phone at his house, and then, when I finally managed to meet my mom’s new boyfriend, I found out that my one-night stand, was now my new stepbrother. *this is a standalone novel*
Falling into You
Jasinda Wilder - 2013
Kyle was my first one true love, my first in every way.Then, one stormy August night, he died, and the person I was died with him. Colton didn't teach me how to live. He didn't heal the pain. He didn't make it okay. He taught me how to hurt, how to not be okay, and, eventually, how to let go.
Forever Innocent
Deanna Roy - 2013
On what should have been one of the happiest nights of her life, she and her boyfriend Gavin watched a nurse disconnect the ventilator from their seven-day-old baby. During the funeral two days later, Gavin walked out and never returned.Since then, her life has been a spiral of disasters. The only thing that has helped is her ability to black out whenever the pain gets too hard to bear, a habit that has become an addiction.When Gavin shows up in her astronomy class four years later, he is hell-bent on getting her back, insisting she forgive him. Corabelle knows she can’t resist the touch that fills the empty ache that has haunted her since he left. But if he learns what she has done, if he follows the trail back through her past, her secrets will destroy their love completely. And once again, she’ll lose the only person who always believed she was innocent.New Adult Contemporary Romance
The Broken One
Ruth Cardello - 2019
Even post an online reward for anyone who found the girl’s lost stuffed animal. Who’d have guessed it’d be returned by a drop-dead-sexy man with such sadness in his eyes that she had to reach out to him? To Ava, he’s a hero. To Heather, he’s a fantasy that puts at risk the happy life she’s made for herself.It’s been five years since billionaire developer Sebastian Romano lost his wife and unborn child in a tragic accident. Now he’s all business. No room for emotion. Until he stumbles across that damn stuffed wolf and the beautiful single mother looking for it. Is he ready to give love a second chance?But there’s more to Sebastian, his family, and his past than Heather knows. More than even Sebastian knows. Will the life they’re building together be challenged when the truth is finally revealed?
Ditched: A Left at the Altar Romance
Holly Hart - 2018
But will he give me a second chance? 2018 Kate We were just kids. It was just a prank, but it ended in disaster. I lost everything, even the man I was meant to marry. It was the only way to protect my soulmate. Even if it left him hating me... Now someone knows what we did. I should run away and hide. But I've been running too long. I can't deny myself any longer. I need Max back in my life. Holly Hart hates cheating, and always gives you a happy ending!
Love Reflection
Maria Macdonald - 2015
She has secrets she’s kept close for many years. Descending into a downward spiral that she couldn’t pull herself out of her life was becoming just an existence. That was until a new man entered her life. A man with secrets of his own, and when the love of her life comes back unexpectedly, she knows it’s time to come clean. Conner McKenna took a step back when he hurt Pearson, he left for another country when his work took him there, even though he didn’t want to. After years of trying to be her friend and wanting to be back in her bed, he decided enough was enough. When one of their friends is attacked, he realises that life is to short and he needs to move heaven and earth to try to win her back one more time. However, when he realises the truth will he be able to deal with it, and will he still look at Pearson the same way. What will happen when secrets are revealed, and emotions are running high? Can they move on from their past and can they recognise the love reflected in each other?
Inky
J.B. Hartnett - 2013
While working as a bartender to pay her bills, she meets Cole, a sexy divorcee. She denies their mutual attraction and tries to put him out of her mind.When an abusive person from her childhood makes an unexpected visit, Inky’s world is turned upside down. Secrets are revealed and truths are exposed leaving Inky devastated and questioning what she thought was love. As she picks up the pieces and tries to move on, she finds her path crosses with Cole once again and this time, she cannot deny the passion between them.Once she opens her heart again, will she be able to move forward or will her past find a way to stop her?
My Only
N.K. Smith - 2014
A talented drummer from a small suburb of Chicago, he keeps to himself and downplays his abilities. Thinking that he is less than all those around him, Adam lives his life in the shadow of his popular twin brother, Aaron. When a free-spirited new girl with a troubled past moves in across the street, Adam's eyes are opened to a new world of possibilities. Olivia Cartwright’s philosophies on life give her a deeper understanding of the world. An instant connection between Adam and Olivia draws them closer, but he wonders why anyone would choose him when a better version exists. His worry grows stronger, especially when Aaron takes an interest in Olivia. Will the friendship with Olivia change Adam, or will he continue to close himself off in his own world? Adam has a choice to make: risk his friendship with Olivia or fight for something more. Adam has a lot to learn about love...and life.
Something in the Way
Jessica Hawkins - 2017
Under the sweat and dirt, Manning Sutter was as handsome as the sun was bright. He was older, darker, experienced. I wore a smiley-face t-shirt and had never even been kissed. Yet we saw something in each other that would link us in ways that couldn’t be broken...no matter how hard we tried.I loved Manning before I knew the meaning of the word. I was too young, he said. I would wait. Through all the carefully-chosen words hiding what we knew to be true, through his struggle to keep me innocent, and through infinitely-starry nights—I would wait. But I’d learn that life isn’t always fair. That no matter how much you achieve, none of it matters if you suffer the heartbreak that comes with falling for someone you can never have. Because even though I saw Manning first, that didn’t matter. My older sister saw him next.
Southern Chance
Natasha Madison - 2020
Kallie I fell in love with him when I was seven. I scraped my knee, and he helped carry me inside. Our love story was the talk of the town until a woman told everyone she was pregnant with his baby. The only rational solution was to high tail it out of town and never come back. My best friend needed a place to hide, and you can’t get much more covert than my family farm, so I came back. For her. It was supposed to be temporary, and I wasn’t supposed to see him, but that’s what happens when you live in a small town where everyone knows each other. Jacob Being the sheriff in a small town was never my dream. My father died and my older brother took off, so I had to be the one to look after my mother. I stayed. I fulfilled my duties as a son and I protected my hometown. My life wasn’t perfect, but I was content. Until I locked eyes with a ghost from my past, Kallie. I thought it was my imagination, it couldn’t be. I loved her most of my life, but now I hated her. The town gossip mill was going into overdrive. I kept my head down and my mind off of the woman who shattered my heart when she ran away. She didn’t give me a chance to explain, it didn’t matter to her then. I didn’t matter. A second chance is never promised, but now that mine is right under my nose, I’m not sure I can take it.
Unbreak My Heart
Lauren Blakely - 2018
I never stopped loving her, but time and distance played its cruel role in ripping us apart three years ago when she moved halfway around the world. Now after all those endless miles away, she's returned . . . but I'm not the guy I was before. Beautiful, kind, and loving, she's the same -- my hope. The only one who can make a day better, who can make me feel again with one kiss, one touch, one night. There's so much I have to put back in place now that I'm alone and on my own. Things I never wanted at the age of twenty-five. When I receive an unexpected letter that might hold the clues to everything I desperately need to understand about my family, I'm sure I have to follow it. But that means leaving her once more. She says she'll come with me, and having her by my side will unbreak my heart . . . or destroy it. That's the chance I have to take.
Dirt
Cassia Leo - 2017
Then, in one brutal instant, the universe tilted on its side, discarding us into black nothingness.Now, I have a cocky a**hole for a husband. The only way we communicate anymore is when we’re fighting or f**king.With nothing left to lose, I write Jack a goodbye letter and head for Portland, where I quickly meet a neighbor who helps me find a job. My new neighbor—hot, tattooed ex-soldier Isaac Evans—is complicated. Nevertheless, we form a fast friendship, bonding over our mutual desire to create something beautiful from the wreckage of our lives. But despite the distance between us, Jack and I are still trying to make things work—fighting and f**king dirtier than ever. And he doesn’t appreciate my new friendship with Isaac. Not one f**king bit.
Brother's Keeper
Elizabeth Finn - 2012
Will time run out, or will he find a way to protect her before her abusive father kills her?When Rowan is awarded a ballet scholarship to Michigan State University during her senior year of high school, her life’s dream is finally realized. Having lost her mother at an early age and being subjected to the abuse of a destitute drunken father, she has known unimaginable loss and heartache and been left wanting for a better life—a life now within her grasp. But with one ill-fated phone call, her life is turned upside down.Logan is Rowan's best friend’s older brother whose career is taking off as he prepares to graduate law school and move cross-country to the prestigious law firm that has offered him a very lucrative contract. When Rowan finds herself at Logan’s mercy after he inadvertently learns of the abuse she has suffered at the hands of her father, their lives become intertwined in a way neither ever imagined nor wanted.In an effort to protect her, but with his own hands tied by her unwillingness to report the abuse, Logan strikes a deal requiring Rowan to stay with him whenever there is a chance her father might be on a drunken binge—which is often. For her agreement and cooperation, he will keep her secret. Soon, their time together weighs on them both, and they find themselves constantly tempted to step outside the bounds of their supposed platonic relationship. But there is no point. The devastating fact of the matter is their lives are moving in opposite directions—a relationship destined to die before it even has a chance to live.The ever present clock plagues them both as it ticks off the days until they are parted. But one all important question remains—after he leaves, how will he protect her from a father intent on hating her until the day he dies … or the day he kills her?Genre: Erotic Romance Fiction