Book picks similar to
Recipe for Desire by Cheris Hodges


romance
african-american-romance
black-authors
contemporary

It's Not Me, It's You


Elle Wright - 2021
    Seriously, it’s comical!Want to know how I messed up my life? Getting arrested for stealing a priceless artifact for a tearful client.Want to know what my biggest problem is? Spending my life teaching women how to break relationships when all I want to do is make a relationship—with him.Want to know what that makes me? The Break-Up Expert who is questioning everything I thought I knew.IT'S NOT ME, IT'S YOU is the first book in the Young In Love Series, featuring the very large, very fun Young Family. If you love romance with layered characters and laugh out loud moments, snag your copy. This novel contains sex, profanity, and sensitive subjects that some may find triggering.

Don't Tempt Me


Lori Foster - 2016
    But his nights are another story… And when his lovely new neighbor, Honor Brown, reluctantly accepts his help in remodeling her house, Jason finds himself wishing his handyman skills could knock down the defenses she keeps building around herself. Martial arts teacher Sullivan Dean knows real danger when he sees it—even when it takes the form of the gorgeous blonde helping her friend move in across the street. After putting his wayward past behind him to focus on teaching control to troubled kids, Sullivan has learned to avoid party girls like Lexie Perkins. But Sullivan can't seem to keep his hands off the real woman behind that flirty charm—or keep his heart from landing at her feet…

Nuts


Alice Clayton - 2015
    After a dairy disaster implodes her carefully crafted career in one fell ploop, she finds herself back home in upstate New York, bailing out her hippie mother and running the family diner.When gorgeous local farmer Leo Maxwell delivers her a lovely bunch of organic walnuts, Roxie wonders if a summer back home isn’t such a bad idea after all. Leo is heavily involved in the sustainable slow food movement, and he likes to take his time. In all things. Roxie is determined to head back to the west coast as soon as summer ends, but will the pull of lazy fireflies and her very own Almanzo Wilder be enough to keep her home for good?Salty. Spicy. Sweet. Nuts. Go on, grab a handful.

Smooth Operator


Risque - 2010
    But there’s a catch: His superior is his gorgeous wife Payton, who “discovered” Lyfe when he was a mere delivery man and brought him from the mean streets to the boardroom. Though Lyfe’s more than proven his mettle, Payton never lets him forget who’s in charge.Arri is a secretary by day. But at night, this voluptuous honey secretly earns extra cash to support her junkie sister’s five-year-old son by operating the Web site, ASmoothOperator.pro. With her webcam, she bares all for the men who log on. But besides the guys who pay for their pleasure, Arri has no connection to men in real life. Her past is too painful, and she doubts she’ll ever be able to trust another man again—until she meets Lyfe, her new boss, and soon to be her lover. But will they both be able to break free from old wounds and forge something solid? It will be a challenge to protect their present bliss from Payton’s vindictive nature and from an unexpected menace, who threatens to tear Lyfe down and ruin every good thing—on the job and in the bedroom—he and Arri have tried to build.

Too Hot to Handle


Tessa Bailey - 2016
    . . The road trip was definitely a bad idea. Having already flambéed her culinary career beyond recognition, Rita Clarkson is now stranded in God-Knows-Where, New Mexico, with a busted-ass car and her three temperamental siblings, who she hasn't seen in years. When rescue shows up---six-feet-plus of hot, charming sex on a motorcycle---Rita's pretty certain she's gone from the frying pan right into the fire . . . Jasper Ellis has a bad boy reputation in this town, and he loathes it. The moment he sees Rita, though, Jasper knows he's about to be sorely tempted. There's something real between them. Something raw. And Jasper has only a few days to show Rita that he isn't just for tonight---he's forever.

The Wanderer


Robyn Carr - 2013
    Locals love the land's unspoiled beauty. Developers see it as a potential gold mine. When newcomer Hank Cooper learns he's been left an old friend's entire beachfront property, he finds himself with a community's destiny in his hands. Cooper has never been a man to settle in one place, and Thunder Point was supposed to be just another quick stop. But Cooper finds himself getting involved with the town. And with Sarah Dupre, a woman as complicated as she is beautiful. With the whole town watching for his next move, Cooper has to choose between his old life and a place full of new possibilities. A place that just might be home.

Confessions


Sasha Campbell - 2010
    . .For almost ten years, radio talk show host Nikki Truth has shared life's ups and downs with her husband Donovan while doling out in-your-face relationship advice to her listeners. But lately it seems the good times in her own relationship--including the sex--are few and far between. Then she meets widower Kenyon Monroe, whose sizzling touch is too tempting to resist. But not everyone is under Kenyon's spell. . .Nikki's best friend, Trinette Montgomery, can't deny Kenyon is hot, but she never trusts a man who seems too good to be true. And she should know. Married to a successful CFO who travelsa lot, Trinette likes to indulge in all of life's pleasures--including the fine men of St. Louis. But when her game goes too far, Trinette stands to lose everything. . . "These characters leap off the page and make you want to join in."--Lutishia Lovely, author of Heaven Forbid

Dare to Run


Jen McLaughlin - 2016
    She knows what he’s like on Boston’s mean streets. Now she’s going to find out if he’s got some heart. Lucas Donahue is not ashamed of his criminal past, but after a brief stint in prison, he’s ready to go legit and live a normal life. The problem is, no one leaves the gang without permission—even if he is one of the boss’s top men. Plus someone’s placed a hit on him. And then there’s that feisty little bartender who’s going to cause him even more trouble. Heidi Greene knows to keep her distance from a ladies’ man like Lucas—even if she can’t keep her eyes off him. When he rescues her from an attack in the alley outside her bar, she’s forced to stay by his side for safety. But the longer she spends time with him, the greater her chances are for getting hurt in more ways than one.

Fifty Shames of Earl Grey


Fanny Merkin - 2012
    L. James' bestselling Fifty Shades of Grey series:Young, arrogant, tycoon Earl Grey seduces the naïve coed Anna Steal with his overpowering good looks and staggering amounts of money, but will she be able to get past his fifty shames, including shopping at Walmart on Saturdays, bondage with handcuffs, and his love of BDSM (Bards, Dragons, Sorcery, and Magick)? Or will his dark secrets and constant smirking drive her over the edge?

Tiny Imperfections


Alli Frank - 2020
    Now director of admissions at San Francisco’s most sought after private school, she’s chic, single, and determined to keep her seventeen-year-old daughter, Etta, from making the same mistakes she did.But Etta has plans of her own–and their beloved matriarch, Aunt Viv, has Etta’s back. If only Josie could manage Etta’s future as well as she manages the shenanigans of the over-anxious, over-eager parents at school–or her best friend’s attempts to coax Josie out of her sex sabbatical and back onto the dating scene.As admissions season heats up, Josie discovers that when it comes to matters of the heart–and the office–the biggest surprises lie closest to home.

May the Best Man Win


Mira Lyn Kelly - 2016
    He's been paired with the she-devil herself for his best friend's wedding: Emily Klein of the miles-long legs and killer smile. She may be sin in a bridesmaid dress, but there's no way he's falling for her again.They can barely stand each other, but given how many of their friends are getting married, they'll just have to play nice-at least when they're in company. Once they're alone, more than just gloves come off as Jase and Emily discover their chemistry is combustible, and there may be something to this enemies to lovers thing after all...More praise for Mira Lyn Kelly: "Incredible tension, a great cast of characters...and some really gooey emotional conflict."-Molly O'Keefe, USA Today bestselling author for Truth or Dare"Sexy and with a truly fresh voice."-Tina Leonard, New York Times bestselling author for Touch and Go"Mira Lyn Kelly's writing always sparkles."-Lauren Layne, USA Today bestselling author for Touch and Go

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird


Josie Silver - 2020
    Freddie and Lydia. They'd been together for more than a decade, and Lydia thought their love was indestructible.But she was wrong. On her twenty-eighth birthday, Freddie died in a car accident.So now it's just Lydia, and all she wants to do is hide indoors and sob until her eyes fall out. But Lydia knows that Freddie would want her to try to live fully, happily, even without him. So, enlisting the help of his best friend, Jonah, and her sister, Elle, she takes her first tentative steps into the world, open to life--and perhaps even love--again.But then something inexplicable happens that gives her another chance at her old life with Freddie. A life where none of the tragic events of the past few months have happened.Lydia is pulled again and again across the doorway of her past, living two lives, impossibly, at once. But there's an emotional toll to returning to a world where Freddie, alive, still owns her heart. Because there's someone in her new life, her real life, who wants her to stay.Written with Josie Silver's trademark warmth and wit, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is a powerful and thrilling love story about the what-ifs that arise at life's crossroads, and what happens when one woman is given a miraculous chance to answer them.

The Deep End


Kristen Ashley - 2017
    At the elite Honey club, no boundary will be left untested, and one's darkest desires will become a sensual reality.Olivier isn’t sure what he’s gotten himself into when he joins the Honey Club, only that a dark part of him craves the lifestyle offered by this secret, exclusive club.When Amèlie invites Olivier to surrender, she pushes him to explore his deepest desires as a submissive. As they grow closer and find themselves falling harder than either of them anticipated, the truth about Olivier’s past could threaten the budding relationship they both long for. Gripping and seductive, The Deep End is the first book in a sensational new series from bestselling author Kristen Ashley.

Ties That Tether


Jane Igharo - 2020
    Her mother has been vigilant about helping--forcing--her to stay well within the Nigerian dating pool ever since. But when another match-made-by-mom goes wrong, Azere ends up at a bar, enjoying the company and later sharing the bed of Rafael Castellano, a man who is tall, handsome, and white.When their one-night stand unexpectedly evolves into something serious, Azere is caught between her growing feelings for Rafael and the compulsive need to please her mother who will never accept a relationship that threatens to dilute Azere's Nigerian heritage. Azere can't help wondering if loving Rafael makes her any less of a Nigerian. Can she be with him without compromising her identity? The answer will either cause Azere to be audacious and fight for her happiness or continue as the compliant daughter.

Chances Are


Donna Hill - 1998
    Years later, through hard work and sheer force of will, she had provided a good life for her daughter and started a successful home for teenage mothers and their babies. But from the moment television producer Garrett Lawrence began a story on the teen center, Dione's hard-won confidence was shaken. How could a man she found so attractive and intelligent be so cynical about unwed mothers? Battling her conflicted emotions, Dione would have to defend the work she believed in - even if it cost her a love that promised a lifetime of happiness.Garrett didn't think much of "irresponsible" teen mothers. He knew firsthand the misery of being given away and searching for the acceptance he never could seem to find. Although he found himself drawn closer and closer to Dione because of her independence and passionate determination, his painful past kept getting in the way. Now Garrett and Dione must find their way to each other through a search only the heart can undertake—and only love can bring.