Book picks similar to
When Stars Burn Out by Carrie Aarons


romance
sports-romance
second-chance
sports

One More Shot


Victoria Denault - 2015
    He was crazy in love with her, and had finally told her so. They shared an amazing night . . . and then everything fell apart. Jessie tries not to think about the night she gave herself to Jordan—or how he broke her heart. She tries not to think about it, but she does. Especially now, when she's staring into his sky-blue eyes for the first time in six years. After so much time and torment, she can't tell if she loves him or hates him. But Jordan has learned enough to know a connection like theirs is rare. He was lucky to find Jessie once. No way will he lose her again.

Long


B.B. Hamel - 2016
     Gibson Evans is the best college football quarterback in the country. He’s tall, broad, tattooed, and so incredibly handsome. And he got me pregnant. It was supposed to be just one night, but a broken condom changed all of our plans forever. People treat him like a hero, but I think he’s a total prick. Gibson gets whatever he wants, and now suddenly he wants me. But I have enough to deal with. I have to stop daydreaming about his hands between my thighs and concentrate on having this baby while still managing to graduate on time. He wants to make a deal. If I promise to spend time with him, he’ll help me with my final biology research. That means an entire semester of studying Gibson’s body. I’m not sure I can do this. One second I can’t stand to be around him, and the next I’m touching his ripped muscles and trying to suppress my excitement. I’m terrified he’ll ruin everything if I let this become more than just work. Long is incredibly steamy and features some very dirty language. It’s only recommended for audiences 18+. Long is a standalone, full-length novel. No cliffhanger. Guaranteed HEA. **For a limited time, Long includes Smash: A Stepbrother MMA Romance**

Twisted Love


Ana Huang - 2021
    Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can’t escape. Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart. But when he’s forced to look after his best friend’s sister, he starts to feel something in his chest:A crack.A melt.A fire that could end his world as he knew it.***Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can’t remember.But despite her broken past, she’s never stopped seeing the beauty in the world…including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn’t want. Her brother’s best friend. Her neighbor.Her savior and her downfall.Theirs is a love that was never supposed to happen—but when it does, it unleashes secrets that could destroy them both…and everything they hold dear. Twisted Love is a brother’s best friend/opposites attract romance with a hint of suspense. It's book one in the Twisted series but can be read as a standalone.WARNING: This book contains a possessive, morally gray alphahole; explicit sexual content, and profanity. No cheating or menage, but if you're looking for a traditionally sweet, loveable hero, this is not the book for you. Recommended for 18+.

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.

The End Game


Kate McCarthy - 2015
    They are heroes in the eyes of boys and girls and are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that positively represents their community.”The public loves a good scandal. Seeing someone fall from the pinnacle of success makes a great headline. No one knows that better than I do. What started out as a promising career in college football, spiraled into scandal and shame. But being a hero is easier said then done. Especially when there are those who expected to see the great Brody Madden fail. I craved nothing except being the best—willing to do anything to prove them wrong. But I went too far, and I tried too hard, and it broke me.“At the time of going to print, Jordan Elliott was unavailable for comment.” I met Brody Madden in my senior year of college. An Australian native on an international scholarship, I was the female soccer sensation with stars in her eyes and no room for a hotshot wide receiver with a chip on his shoulder.But a heart bursting with ambition and a driving fire to succeed isn’t made of stone. I became his strength, his obsession, and the greatest love of his life. Only I wasn’t there when he needed me most.This is a story about love and a game that takes everything. Where the path to glory is paved with sacrifice. Where pressure makes you, or breaks you, and triumph is born in the ashes of failure. Where two people’s end game will change everything.

Kicked


Celia Aaron - 2016
    Perfect-Has-Everyone-Fooled Carrington.He’s the star quarterback, university scholar, and happens to be the sexiest man I’ve ever seen. He shines at any angle, and especially under the Saturday night stadium lights where I watch him from the sidelines. But I know the real him, the one who broke my heart and pretended I didn’t exist for the past two years.I’m the third-string kicker, the only woman on the team and nothing better than a mascot. Until I’m not. Until I get my chance to earn a full scholarship and join the team as first-string. The only way I'll make the cut is to accept help from the one man I swore never to trust again. The problem is, with each stolen glance and lingering touch, I begin to realize that trusting Trent isn’t the problem. It’s that I can’t trust myself when I’m around him. This is a full-length, sweet, hot, safe, standalone American football romance novel.

Only When It's Us


Chloe Liese - 2020
    Why she hates me, I don't know. What I do know is that Willa is the kind of chaos I don’t need in my tidy life. She’s the next generation of women’s soccer. Wild hair, wilder eyes. Bee-stung lips that should be illegal. And a temper that makes the devil seem friendly. She’s a thorn in my side, a menacing, cantankerous, pain-in-the-ass who’s turned our Business Mathematics course into a goddamn gladiator arena. I'll leave this war zone unscathed, coming out on top…And if I have my way with that crazy-haired, ball-busting hellion, that will be in more than one sense of the word.  Willa Rather than give me the lecture notes I missed like every other instructor I’ve had, my asshole professor tells me to get them from the silent, surly flannel-wearing mountain man sitting next to me in class. Well, I tried. And what did I get from Ryder Bergman? Ignored. What a complete lumbersexual neanderthal. Mangy beard and mangier hair. Frayed ball cap that hides his eyes. And a stubborn refusal to acknowledge my existence. I’ve battled men before, but with Ryder, it's war. I’ll get those notes and crack that Sasquatch nut if it’s the last thing I do, then I’ll have him at my mercy. Victory will have never tasted so sweet. Only When It’s Us is a frenemies-to-lovers, college sports romance about a women’s soccer star and her surly lumberjack lookalike classmate, complete with a matchmaking professor, juvenile pranks, and a smoking slow burn. This standalone is the first in a series of new novels about a Swedish-American family of five brothers, two sisters, and their wild adventures as they each find happily ever after.

Commander


Kristy Marie - 2017
    Aloof, elite, and baseball’s next MVP, his name hangs on every woman’s next breath. Except for mine. All I want to know is if we’re having tacos tonight—it’s his turn to buy.Friendships like ours are forged from drunken sleepovers and Roommates Gone Wild episodes—nothing could ever tear us apart. Except… my v-card. And maybe… my new job with six marines. But we can handle this, right?

The Secret Ex-Boyfriend


Krista Ritchie - 2017
     And then we broke Aerial Ethereal’s biggest rule together. We’ve been paying the price ever since. Corporate won’t let me see her. Or speak to her. And we painfully signed on the dotted line in agreement. Erasing our secret relationship from existence. Now I’m twenty, and I hate Corporate. But I can’t leave. My family makes up one-third of Aerial Ethereal’s cast list. I love them.(And I still love her.) BAYLEE WRIGHT Luka is back. My undeniably hot secret ex-boyfriend was just shifted to the Vegas show Infini. We’re working together again on a show that means too much to me. No distractions. Even if the sexy, rebellious boy with hidden troubles completely stole my teenage heart.Aerial Ethereal demands he remains my tragic secret.This book was previously published with the title Infini.

Living With Regret


Riann C. Miller - 2016
    I allowed others to decide my future . . . then I lost the best thing that ever happened to me. I let go of the girl I loved in exchange for a life I was told I wanted.Then one day I woke up with no recollection of my reality and instead I believed my life had turned out how I had once dared to imagine. Now everyone is waiting for me to remember the day I ruined my future as I struggle to recall a life without the person I so carelessly tossed away. Somehow, I was gifted a second chance with the woman I love, and I’m going to fight like hell to keep her.JordanYour brain has a funny way of convincing you what is real and what is not; even if your heart never lets you forget the truth. After Chase Adams broke my heart, my life moved forward, even though the light I once felt had extinguished. Then I received an unexpected phone call that changed everything.Every day we make choices, but most of the time they don’t affect the rest of our lives. I wanted to love again. I wanted to trust the gift I was given, but every choice has consequences. Now I have to decide to let go of the past for the sake of my future. . . or risk living with regret.Adult Contemporary Romance: Due to language and sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.

Filthy Little Pretties


Trilina Pucci - 2020
    Liam Brooks is a charmer with puppy dog eyes you can’t say “no” to.They’re the kind of guys that make time stand still when they walk by. And when their childhood best friend, Donovan Kennedy, comes back to New York, friendships get tested. Choices are made they can’t take back. And one boy gets a taste of what it’s like to want someone so bad that you’d burn down the city to have her. “Trilina delivers an addictive high school romance high on angst and drama and a book that is total sexy perfection. Prepare to be twisted into delicious knots! I loved it!”--Siobhan Davis, USA Today bestselling authorDonovan Kennedy is the girl dreams are made of. Five years ago, she was our best friend. Our moral compass. The girl that held our hands everywhere we went. We were young. Innocent. Nothing could touch us — not even heartache. That was then. Now she’s back. All grown up. With red lips and long legs — a challenge waiting to be accepted. A prize that’ll turn our world upside down. Brothers turned to enemies. Friendships decimated. Lies told.Hearts torn apart. Prep school’s never been so scandalous.USA Today Bestselling author, Trilina Pucci, brings you an addictive, sexy friends-to-lovers high school romance packed with off-the-chart chemistry, competition, and raw emotional angst.

The Fall


Kate Stewart - 2015
    . . and the end of it.I was only fifteen years old when he claimed it and twenty when he took it with him.They say what is meant to be will find a way. But when you have changed to the point of no return, how can anything ever be the same?Seven years later, Dean Martin waltzed back into my life in hopes of resuming what I had fought so hard to forget, but he was in for a wake-up call.I was no longer the naïve woman he had left . . . and I was no longer his.I met the love of my life and my soul mate when I was fifteen. I knew that; he knew that. He wanted that girl back. I wanted to forget she ever existed.DeanWhat I thought was my pre-destined path was very much an illusion. Living seven years with regret, I realized too late that I was broken, and that I only had myself to blame.I thought love could wait . . . but it didn’t. We’d had it all those years ago, and then I foolishly left it behind.She was all that mattered. She was all there ever was.There was no life without Dallas, no reason . . . except her.No matter how hard she tried to convince me, I knew I had to once again make her mine, to make her remember . . . the fall.Explicit sex, strong language.

Fool Me Once


Nikki Ash - 2020
    I wasn’t looking for romance, but his two-dimpled charm made my heart go haywire.We both had one thing in common: we were here to escape our realities. One week. Just the two of us. Not a care in the world. I didn’t know it at the time, but that week would forever change my life.Four years later, and as fate would have it, Keegan and I are brought together again. It’s as if the universe is telling us this is our second chance. The more I get to know him, the harder I fall.Falling hopelessly in love is inevitable with a man like him. Only the joke’s on me, because the guy I’m falling for isn’t the man I thought he was. You know how the saying goes: Fool me once...I’ll be damned if I’m fooled again.

When We Collide


A.L. Jackson - 2012
    Trapped in a world of false ambitions and feigned affections, William knows he’s reached a breaking point and something’s going to give.Maggie had lived her entire life without hope until one man showed her what it meant to be loved. He’d been her light in a lifetime of darkness. Six years ago, that darkness stole him away. Without him, she’s surrendered herself to an existence she doesn’t know how to escape.When the family William left behind is struck by tragedy, he is called back to the one place he’s sworn to never return to again.In a moment that will change his life forever, William comes face to face with the girl who, with one look, captured his heart. He is unable to ignore the buried desires and the hope for the future they’d once believed they’d have.Now William is ready to fight to take back what had been stolen from him six years before.But he never imagined what that fight might cost him.A.L. Jackson gives you an intimate look into the lives of a family bound by an unseen connection in this romantic thriller with a supernatural twist.

When the Stars Fall


Emery Rose - 2020
    My best friend. Fiercest ally. The most annoying boy in the world.At eighteen, the boy I loved to hate became the man I couldn’t live without.We were young. Madly in love. Invincible. Strong enough to weather any storm.Cocky enough to believe that no amount of time or distance could destroy us.When Jude finally returned home from overseas, it should have been cause for celebration. But the man I’d fallen in love with was gone, and in his place was someone I no longer recognized.𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛’𝑡 𝑑𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑. 𝐼’𝑚 𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑦.Now, after six long years he’s back. Only my heart ... it doesn’t beat just for him anymore.