Book picks similar to
Distraction by A.E. Murphy


teacher-student
student-teacher
romance
forbidden-love

Torment: Part One


Dylan Page - 2021
    The one I knew I could always rely on.For many years, I accepted everyone and everything around me. But as I grew up, the veil was lifted, and I slowly came to understand how f*cked up it all really is. These men, who I considered uncles and close family friends, are members of the dominant MC, The Celtic Beasts. Shay is not only a proud member. He is the one they send in to do their dirty work. For some reason, this tough, muscled, terrifying guy, needs me to ground and comfort him.But I have always had bigger plans. Bigger dreams. I don’t want to be trapped here, in this life that is dark, bloody and violent. I want to get out, escape… but Shay has other plans for me.What do you do when your protector becomes the very root of your torment?**Warning: This book is meant for mature readers, 18+.Torment Part One is a dark romance and contains scenes and situations that may be upsetting for some readers. Includes several triggers and sensitive material such as: domestic abuse, profanity, gang violence, PTSD, depression, anxiety disorders, and sexual assault.Please do not read if you are uncomfortable with any of the above. Thank you.

Indisputable


A.M. Wilson - 2015
    After the near overdose of her drug abusing mother the previous year, she moved out in the hopes of making something better for herself. However, the week before her final year, she ends up needing the help of a sexy stranger who’s about to flip her world on its axis.Jacoby Ryan only wants one thing: to forget his past. The last two years have been filled with empty feelings and women in an attempt to stem the heartache and guilt. He’s ghosted blindly through the motions until late one night, he finds a car stalled on the side of an empty highway where he meets a beautiful girl with a haunted look in her eyes.She has a secret, but so does he. Despite their magnetic pull, the two come to the shocking revelation their relationship isn’t so black and white. Is it possible to fight a bone-deep attraction when the entire universe is telling you it’s wrong?

If I Dream


K.M. Scott - 2017
    It's all I'd dreamed of from the first time I stood in the ring. Until I entered Robert Erickson's world. Until Serena. Cruelty and ugliness surrounded me, but she was beautiful and good. I wanted to protect her from her father's world, even though I knew being with her could mean the end of me. I wanted for nothing as the daughter of one of the richest men in the world. But all my father's money couldn't buy what I truly craved. Until Ryder. I wanted all he was, all he brought out in me. All he made me desire.Our love was forbidden by the one person who had the power to harm us. We dreamed of more than living in that world, though. We dreamed of having it all, but did we dare?

Plastic Hearts


Lisa De Jong - 2013
    I like it that way. I grew up in a fake society where plastic hearts rule. If our hearts are made of plastic, they can never be broken. My parents have expectations and I do everything I can to meet them, even if it means giving up on my own dreams. Now, all I want is to be free to make my own choices.Dane Wright is everything I have been warned to stay away from. We met one night while I was with my perfect, parent-approved boyfriend and I haven’t stopped thinking about him. I don’t want to like him. I am doing everything I can to ignore his pull, but my heart seems to want what it cannot have, what it has never had.Can he measure up? He may think I am too good for him, but maybe he is too good for me. Life is a series of choices and I have never been able to make my own. Until one day, when my heart decides to make a choice for me.Recommended for mature readers due to sexual content and language

Dare to Kiss


S.B. Alexander - 2014
    She’s on top of the world when Arizona State University approaches her to discuss a scholarship. To be the first girl ever to grace a college boys’ team is beyond what she has ever dreamed.Her fastball is impeccable, her curveball equally as good, and her slider annihilates anyone who dares to step in the batter’s box. But fate has its own way of throwing curveballs. When she loses her mother and sister to a home invasion, baseball and her dreams die with them. Tragedy has a way of seeping deep into her psyche, causing nightmares, panic attacks and blackouts. Diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, her psychiatrist recommends a change of scenery and picking up the things that she loved to do, and for Lacey that is baseball.After a move clear across the country, only two things matter to Lacey—overcome her PTSD and make Kensington High’s baseball team. But trying out for the team comes with obstacles—the captain, Aaron Seever, doesn’t want a girl on the team. Her life is further complicated when she meets Kade Maxwell, a tall, sexy and drool-worthy bad boy who has a magical touch that awakens her feminine side and a kiss that slowly erases her nightmares. But getting involved with him may be dangerous when Kade’s archenemy returns to town to settle a vendetta. To complicate matters, her PTSD has taken a turn for the worse. She has to find a way to heal otherwise she may not have a chance at anything in life, especially love.This is a New Adult Novel and contains strong language and sexual content. Intended for audiences age 17+.

The Lies We Tell


Becca Steele - 2020
    One in particular. Caiden Cavendish.My nightmare. My shadow. My stepbrother.My dad’s death was an accident... Lie.My life isn’t in danger... Lie.The Four won’t bring mayhem to my life... Lie.I don’t want Caiden Cavendish... Lie.Lies.Lies.Lies.Eeny, meeny, miny, mo.The Four are coming for you, Snow.Note: This book is not a standalone, and may contain triggers for some readers.

Under The Peaches


Shana Vanterpool - 2017
    A word eighteen-year-old Kaelyn Jefferies knows better than most. Given up at birth, she knows nothing of love. Now she navigates this world blind, worrying only about her present to survive. And sometimes when you’re the only guide you have, you don’t always do what’s best for yourself.After another confrontation with her bully, Kaelyn flees to her hiding spot to be alone and nurse her wounds. Instead, she finds Julian Ean, the gorgeous twenty-four-year-old calculus teacher the other girls whisper about, nursing a few of his own. Until that moment, Mr. Ean was simply a man she passed in the halls. Afterwards, he is impossible to ignore … to forget. Mr. Ean only wanted to help Kaelyn. Patch her up and show her she was worth so much more than she was giving herself. He didn’t mean to fall in love with a student. It’s wrong, he knows it, but he can’t help himself around her. Not when her pain feels like his.Kaelyn didn’t mean to fall in love with a teacher. It’s wrong, she knows it, but after Mr. Ean shows her what a real smile feels like, there’s no going back after that …Book one in the Teaching Love Series, comes a poignant coming-of-age novel showcasing the beauty of strength and the delicious lure of forbidden love by Shana Vanterpool.

Finding Kyler


Siobhan Davis - 2017
    After her parent’s tragic death, she’s whisked away from her home in Ireland when an unknown uncle surfaces as her new guardian.Dropped smack-dab into the All-American dream, Faye should feel grateful. Except living with her wealthy uncle, his fashion-empire-owning wife, and their seven screwed-up sons is quickly turning into a nightmare—especially when certain inappropriate feelings arise.Kyler Kennedy makes her head hurt and her heart race, but he’s her cousin.He’s off limits.And he’s not exactly welcoming—Kyler is ignorant, moody, and downright cruel at times—but Faye sees behind the mask he wears, recognizing a kindred spirit.Kyler has sworn off girls, yet Faye gets under his skin. The more he pushes her away, the more he’s drawn to her, but acting on those feelings risks a crap-ton of prejudice, and any whiff of scandal could damage the precious Kennedy brand.Concealing their feelings seems like the only choice.But when everyone has something to hide, a secret is a very dangerous thing.Will I enjoy this book?Full of scandal, dysfunctional families, teen soap-opera-style angst and drama, secrets and lies, mean girls and catfights, lust and love, book one in the unputdownable Kennedy Boys series will have you flipping the pages’ way beyond bedtime! Only suitable for readers aged seventeen and older due to mature content and language. Please note this book contains a forbidden love theme featuring first cousins and a cliff hanger. It is not a standalone read.Books in this SeriesFinding KylerLosing KylerKeeping KylerThe Irish Getaway - optional short novelKENNEDY BOYS STANDALONE NOVELSLoving Kalvin- friends-to-lovers second chance romanceSaving Brad - enemies-to-lovers romanceSeducing Kaden - second chance/forbidden romanceForgiving Keven - second chance romanceThe three Kyler books must be read together. Thereafter, every book in the series will focus on a single Kennedy boy and his love interest, and they will be standalone titles with an HEA and no cliff hanger.

Becoming His


Mariah Dietz - 2014
    Ace Bosse has always found solace at home, but when she returns for the summer from college she builds an unexpected relationship with the reckless Max Miller. Three years ago, Max left for Alaska to find what he thought he’d lost, but now he realizes just how much he left behind. Max teaches Ace that sometimes a little crazy is exactly what life needs while learning that some chances are worth taking, regardless of the risks. But how do you know when you’ve met the right person? And will they be prepared to experience one of life’s biggest obstacles? Falling in love isn’t easy, but holding on to it is where the real challenge lies.

First and Goal


Kata Čuić - 2016
    But when her strategy to stay out of the limelight is derailed by rampant rumors, she’s forced to change tactics. Her new game plan is to keep everyone at arm’s length. Especially boys. So when she’s partnered up in class with the hot as hell varsity quarterback, she pushes and pushes. Until he pushes back. Rob Falls just wants to fit in. With his teammates, with his friends, with everyone. His image as the quintessential jock makes him feel like a fraud. Especially since it’s the only reason all the girls at school want him, except the one girl he dreams about. She wants nothing to do with him. When he’s forced to tutor the class pariah, he realizes it’s time to get in the game instead of standing on the sidelines. She’s going to help him get exactly what he wants, whether she knows it or not.

A Five-Minute Life


Emma Scott - 2019
    She now has only minutes of experiences, of consciousness, of life…before her memory is wiped clean. The once effervescent artist with a promising future is reduced to scribbling with pens and paper, living an empty, quiet life, three hundred seconds at a time.Jim Whelan is on autopilot.A foster kid shuffled around the system since birth, he’s lived his entire life without knowing love…and it’s taken its toll—until he learned to fight back, carry his armor, and keep his head down.Working as an orderly in the Blue Ridge Sanitarium, deep in Virginia countryside, Jim looked up…and found Thea.When Thea has the chance to break free of her five-minute prison with a risky, experimental surgery, it could lead them both to an epic love they never thought possible… or one that could require the ultimate sacrifice.***50 First Dates meets Awakenings in this emotional love story by international and best selling author, Emma Scott. "It's one of the best books I've ever read."--T.M. Frazier, USA Today Bestselling author of King#standalone #newadultromance #notparanormalContent warnining for sexual assault.

Professor Cline: Revealed


J.M. LaRocca - 2014
    A promising career as a law professor, family money, and my good looks, but my life was full of secrets. I knew how to put up a good front; it was a mask I’d worn for a long time. I kept a rotating door of women to help me forget, but my efforts were futile. I was haunted by guilt, my always lurking, underlying darkness. I thought I had control, but there were things I had no control over.Then I saw her.Emma was the light to my dark, a beacon that called to me when I knew I should stay away. I avoided this kind of connection for a reason. The sins of my past left me with scars and not all of them were skin deep.People thought they knew me, but in reality, they knew nothing.

Donati Bloodlines: Part One


Bethany-Kris - 2016
    Not by choice, but as a mafia princess—was there ever one?But the soul-black eyes of the man tasked with ensuring her safe arrival to the wedding of her nightmares tempts her like no other. In the worst possible way.Calisto Donati. He’s entirely forbidden. The nephew of the man she’s supposed to marry. And just a touch from him could get her killed.Is it worth it?Now Emma has two problems. Saving herself from a marriage to a man she doesn’t want, and not falling in love with the one she does.NOTE: The Donati Bloodlines trilogy includes THREE parts that should be read in order—part one and two end on a cliffhanger, and part three is a HEA.

Loyalty and Lies


L.A. Cotton - 2015
    Especially when she catches the eye of the captain of The Fallen football team for all the wrong reasons.Determined to keep her head down and survive, Ana swears off guys. Until she meets the gorgeous, yet mysterious, Jackson. He sees past her walls, her pain and secrets, and slowly, Ana finds herself unable to fight their undeniable connection.But Jackson harbors a dark secret too...One that might destroy her.*Loyalty and Lies is the first book in Ana and Jackson’s trilogy. Due to mature content this book is recommended for readers aged 17+

King of Nothing


Jacie Lennon - 2020
    It contains themes that may be uncomfortable for some readers.