Book picks similar to
Cross the Stars (Crossing Stars Duet, #1) by Venessa Kimball
romance
new-adult
contemporary-romance
fiction
Colombiano
Rusty Young - 2017
Or one will be picked for you . . .All Pedro Gutiérrez cares about is fishing, playing pool and his girlfriend Camila’s promise to sleep with him on his sixteenth birthday. But his life is ripped apart when Guerrilla soldiers callously execute his father in front of him, and he and his mother are banished from their farm.Swearing vengeance against the five men responsible, Pedro, with his best friend Palillo, joins an illegal Paramilitary group, where he is trained to fight, kill and crush any sign of weakness.But as he descends into a world of unspeakable violence, Pedro must decide how far he is willing to go. Can he stop himself before he becomes just as ruthless as those he is hunting? Or will his dark obsession cost him all he loves?Colombiano is an epic tale of rural villages held to ransom, of jungle drug labs, cocaine supermarkets, witch doctors and buried millions, of innocent teenage love, barbaric torture and meticulously planned revenge.Superbly told and by turns gripping, poignant and darkly comic, Colombiano is the remarkable story of a boy whose moral descent becomes a metaphor for the corruption of an entire nation. Both blockbuster thriller and electrifying coming-of-age story, Rusty Young’s powerful novel is also a meditation on the redeeming power of love.
Born Sinner
S.L. Jennings - 2016
Statistically, I wasn’t supposed to survive these streets past the age of eighteen. Fate had a different plan. I was bred for one purpose and one purpose only: to unleash death and destruction on my world. My thoughts are power. My words are weapons. Evil created me then grace tried to save me. But first… they tried to kill me. They call themselves the Se7en. They are sin and salvation, and everything we’ve feared from the beginning of time. And their leader is the deadliest of them all. He doesn’t lose. He doesn’t compromise. And most importantly, he doesn’t distract himself with mortal weakness. Not until me. Kill one to save a million. That’s what he told me when he took me as his prisoner. Kill one to save a million. That’s what he’s been trying to tell himself ever since he took me into his arms.Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ASIN B01K6HQY8S here.
Dirty Boxing
Harper St. George - 2017
A fighter made of chiseled muscle and steel resolve who can bring a man to his knees with his bare hands. In the octagon, he always wins. But when he joins a new fighting organization, he comes face to face with Jules Darcy, the only woman who ever broke his heart. The daughter of the man who could make or break Nick’s career. And Nick knows one thing: Jules is his, and he wants her back. Jules Darcy doesn’t do love. After an unstable childhood and a front row seat to the damage it does, she’d have to be crazy to sign up for inevitable heartbreak. But a year ago, her fling with Nick quickly escalated into something more, scaring her and sending her running. Now, he’s back in her life and sexier than ever. And he wants her. In his bed. In his life. His, fully and completely.She’s as powerless to resist Nick now as she was a year ago, but even if she does give in, no one can ever find out. Revealing their relationship could end Nick’s career. But something this hot, this intense, can’t stay secret for long…
The Rule Book
Jennifer Blackwood - 2016
Don't call your hot boss the antichrist to his face. 2. Don't stare at hot boss's, um, package or his full sleeve of tattoos. (No. Really. Stop!) 3. Don't get on the malicious first assistant's bad side.4. Don't forget to memorize the 300-page employee manual.5. If you value your cashmere, steer clear of boss’s dog.6. Boss’s dimples are lust-inducing. Do. Not. Give. In. 7. “The elevator ate your clothes” is not a valid excuse for showing up to important meetings half dressed. 8. Don't break seven of the rules within the first week of employment if you, ya know, are in dire need of money to support your sick mom.9. Whatever you do, don’t fall for the boss. See rule eight about sick mom.10. Never forget the rules.
Charcoal Tears
Jane Washington - 2015
Only asinine peace, where my paintings don’t seem to paint themselves, leaving me with terrible feelings of premonition and a chill beneath my fingernails.”Seraph Black used to think that she was prepared for anything. She could last days without eating and she always walked away from the violent altercations with her father relatively unharmed. She survived working at the club and the drive to school every day in her mother’s rust-bucket of a car… but it all changed when Noah and Cabe came bulldozing into her life, careless of the precious secrets they picked apart in their quest to take over her world. She was even less prepared for the mysterious Miro and Silas, and nothing could have prepared her for the bond. The connection. The reason for it all. Someone wanted her to stay away from her new friends, but she wasn’t willing to do that.Everyone had secrets.She wanted to know theirs. They wanted to own hers. And the stalker?He seemed to know everything already.
Nil
Lynne Matson - 2014
You have one year. Exactly 365 days--to escape, or you die.Seventeen-year-old Charley doesn’t know the rules. She doesn’t even know where she is. The last thing she remembers is blacking out, and when she wakes up, she’s lying naked in an empty rock field.Lost and alone, Charley finds no sign of other people until she meets Thad, the gorgeous leader of a clan of teenage refugees. Soon Charley learns that leaving the island is harder than she thought . . . and so is falling in love. With Thad’s time running out, Charley realizes that to save their future, Charley must first save him. And on an island rife with dangers, their greatest threat is time.
Under Fire
Scarlett Cole - 2017
He and his Navy “brothers” start a security firm that offers the kind of services only a team of military-trained professionals can provide. But nothing prepared Six for his new client: an innocent woman on a mission to improve thousands of lives. . . unless someone takes hers first.CAN SHE HANDLE THE FLAMES?Dr. Louisa North knows time is against her as she tries to create a “miracle” medical treatment for a disease with no known cure, until she creates a sample so powerful that the wrong people want to use it as a chemical weapon. At first, Six is unwilling to accept Louisa as his client. But soon he realizes that the danger is real and that there’s much more to this plain-Jane scientist…including a burning passion between them that neither of them can resist. And now that an enemy is on Louisa’s trail, Six will do whatever it takes to protect her—or die trying.
How to Love Your Elf
Kerrelyn Sparks - 2020
Now women, they are ready to claim their places in the world—and perhaps change it forever . . .
FLAME AND FORTUNE Sorcha knew the mission was dangerous. Leaving the safe grounds of her brother’s kingdom and parlaying with the elves across their border . . . well, treachery seemed at least as likely as true peace. But to support her sister, Sorcha would brave far more than the underhanded ways of the elves. Or so she thought, before she was taken hostage. Of course, her captors didn’t count on her particular abilities—or on the help of the Woodsman, the mysterious thief who made his home in the forest. He saw the battle from the trees, saw the soldier attacking against incredible odds to save a comrade—and then saw the valiant fighter revealed as Princess Sorcha of Norveshka. He can’t tell if he wants to kidnap her or kiss her. But despite Sorcha’s stubbornness, his inconvenient honor, and a rebellion on the cusp of full war, something burns between them that neither can let go . . .
June
Miranda Beverly-Whittemore - 2016
Jude, Ohio, mourning the loss of the woman who raised her—her grandmother, June. But a knock on the door forces her out of isolation. Cassie has been named the sole heir to legendary matinee idol Jack Montgomery's vast fortune. How did Jack Montgomery know her name? Could he have crossed paths with her grandmother all those years ago? What other shocking secrets could June’s once-stately mansion hold?Soon Jack’s famous daughters come knocking, determined to wrestle Cassie away from the inheritance they feel is their due. Together, they all come to discover the true reasons for June’s silence about that long-ago summer, when Hollywood came to town, and June and Jack’s lives were forever altered by murder, blackmail, and betrayal. As this page-turner shifts deftly between the past and present, Cassie and her guests will be forced to reexamine their legacies, their definition of family, and what it truly means to love someone, steadfastly, across the ages.
At His Mercy
Shelly Bell - 2017
. . Devil at her heels One last, no-strings night of indulgence. That's all Tristan wants before he begins a much-needed new chapter in his life. Instead he finds an innocent angel in pink who brings him to his knees.Isabella is done hiding from the world . . . and her haunting memories. Discovering courage in the arms of a perfect stranger, she finally lets go and sheds her inhibitions.To Isabella's shock, she soon learns that Tristan is more than her mystery man-he's her professor. But Tristan isn't the only person who's found Isabella on campus. A dark figure from her past has come back for her. Now Tristan will risk anything to protect Isabella . . . even if it costs him his life.
Blocked
Jennifer Lane - 2014
College freshman Lucia Ramirez has a secret crush on Dane Monroe. He’s a tall drink of water -- blond, brash, and one hell of a volleyball player. ¡Híjole! Lucia hopes her volleyball scholarship to his school will make him notice her. Too bad what’s noticeable is Dane’s obvious hatred for Lucia. Her family’s politics contradict everything he stands for. And politics are front and center in both their families. Dane’s mother is about to face Lucia’s father in the race for US President. When Secret Service throws them together, Dane can’t deny his frustrating attraction to Lucia’s athletic curves and sweet faith in the world. Amid the intense pressure of college athletics and presidential politics, can opposites not just attract, but overcome overwhelming odds to be together? Or do their differences block their match from the start?
How Hard Can It Be?
Robyn Peterman - 2013
I was sure as hell trying, even if my campaign to score a job as the local weather girl had ended in a restraining order. Okay, TV was not my strength. But a lack of talent has never stopped me before. Which is why I’ve embarked on a writing career. I mean, how hard can it be to come up with a sexy romance?Leave it to me to wind up in a group of grandmotherly porno writers who discuss sex toys and apple cobbler in the same breath. Also leave it to me to leak an outlandish plot idea to a bestselling author with the morals of a rabid squirrel. And only I could get arrested for a jewelry heist I didn’t commit—by a hunky cop whose handcuffs just might tempt me to sign up for a life of crime. Maybe I’ve found my calling after all…
One is a Promise
Pam Godwin - 2017
My dark rebel in leather. My powerhouse of passion, devastating smiles, and impulsiveness.When his job sends him overseas, he promises to return to me.A promise that’s destroyed in the most irrevocable way.Two years later, an arrogant suit invades my heartbroken loneliness.Clean-cut and stern, Trace is everything Cole wasn’t.At first, he’s a job that will rescue my dance company. But as he intrudes on my life, our hostile relationship evolves.He knows I’m still in love with Cole, but his dedication is my undoing.Then a catastrophic moment changes everything.Promises resurface.Lies entangle.And an impossible choice shatters my world.I love two men, and I can only have one.The TANGLED LIES series must be read in order.One is a PromiseTwo is a LieThree is a War
The Boy Who Lived in the Ceiling
Cara Thurlbourn - 2019
Every day is a struggle, until he meets Violet Johnson.Violet’s life is going down-hill. Her parents argue, her little brother’s stopped speaking, and she’s about to move schools. She used to be popular, she used to be happy, but now she feels as though that is all slipping away.Having to grow up quickly and find their way in the world, Freddie and Violet grow closer despite their differences.Focusing on everyday issues faced by teens and young adults, The Boy Who Lived in The Ceiling will leave you asking: Are some people invisible to us?
Welcome to the Underworld
Con Template - 2012
This society is so powerful that it can control a nation, strike fear into the bravest of men and bring turmoil onto the most unsuspecting of victims...There is a dangerous society in Seoul that is plaguing Choi Yoori.Her world is turned upside down when she is told that she bears a strong resemblance to the “Queen of the Underworld,” a notorious Underworld crime lord who died 3 years prior—the exact same time Yoori woke up with amnesia. The dangers of this new world is crashing in on her and Yoori's only grip on stability lies with the guidance from her crime lord boss and the secrets the Queen of the Underworld hid from her powerful society.Welcome to a world where “Gods” walk amongst humans. Where the heartless and vengeful are revered like Kings and Queens—and the weak, the distracted are punished without mercy.It is a cruel world and once you’re in, the only exit is death.