Book picks similar to
Without You by Julie Prestsater


romance
new-adult
contemporary-romance
musicians

Fool Me Once


Nicole Williams - 2019
    Especially not one like Chase and Emma’s. Before he was writing chart-topping hits and smashing record sales, Chase Lawson was Emma’s childhood friend and first love. They promised each other forever, but forever expired at eighteen, when he landed a major record deal and left Emma and their hometown behind.Ten years later, he shows up at their high school reunion with a proposition she can’t refuse. Six months. Seven figures. He gets a chance to clean up his reputation, and she gets the means to restore the old family farmhouse. It’s only for show—hold hands in public, kiss for the cameras—but boundaries blur behind closed doors.It isn't long before Emma feels her resolve slipping, crushed by the shadow of the boy she grew to love in the man selling out stadiums of present. Can Emma resist one of the most irresistible bachelors in the world? Or will she fall for the same man twice?

Fast Lane


Kristen Ashley - 2019
    Forming in a garage in a small town in Indiana. Taking their licks on the road. Going balls to the wall until they made their big break.And then Preacher McCade and the Roadmasters redefined rock and roll.Guided by their tortured lead singer and songwriter, the Roadmasters changed the face of music in the 80s and 90s. And on their journey to becoming one of the most enduring bands in history—dogged by rumors and myth and fueled by drugs and booze—the Roadmasters had one touchstone.Lyla.Preacher’s muse, the love of his life, and the band’s moral compass, from the beginning, Lyla is along for the ride. But with fame and acclaim in their grasp, they’ve entered the fast lane.And they didn’t know it, but they were headed for a crash.

Alluring Turmoil


Skye Turner - 2013
    The past couple of years have been all she’s dreamed of and her business takes all of her focus, all of her heart. Jude Delecroix is the lead singer of one of the most famous rock bands in the country, Bayou Stix, and the man who broke Lexi’s heart. Lexi and Jude have a past. When Jude comes back to town eight years after leaving to fulfill his lifelong dream of being a famous musician and comes face to face with Lexi, forces collide, old hurts are brought to the surface, and life as these two have been living it will never be the same. There are two sides to every story, and what happens when the things you believed to be concrete suddenly crumble like ash and fade away? What happens when two people afraid to face the past, become involved in the present? Can they hope for a future?Welcome to Louisiana where humidity and passion are high and things are not always what they seem. ***Contains graphic sex and language. Not for young readers.***

Three Years Later


Casey McMillin - 2013
    The first thing she did when she got there, however, was run headlong into her happily ever after. Unfortunately for her, the guy was way out of her league.Collin Blake, along with the rest of his college swim team, was just visiting Los Angeles for a few days. It was something the U Cal swimmers did every year. Falling in love definitely wasn't on his list things to do while he was there.Is love at first sight even possible?Collin and Rachel thought so. They had an instant connection... right up to the point when Rachel disappeared.Can they pick up where they left off even though it’s... Three Years Later

I Remember You


Scarlett Metal - 2013
    No one can make her happy though; she compares them all to Lance.Fate brings them together when Lance is in town for some family business. They end up spending a passionate night together but can they be more? Can they finally find their happily ever after?Contains adult situations and language. Appropriate for ages 18+.

Breaker


Harloe Rae - 2019
    Cloaked by the black sky under a blanket of stars, it was easy to get lost. He didn’t have any good memories of his own and needed to borrow mine. I would willingly give him anything. Being infatuated with that boy was a beautiful curse. What could have been special didn’t get the chance to bloom. He’d never see me as more than his best friend’s kid sister. That was a hard lesson to learn, but not the most difficult. Grady had always been struggling against the odds. Eventually he quit fighting and let his family’s reputation own him. Try as I might, those influences were beyond my reach. He didn’t mean to break my heart. Or maybe he did. I shouldn’t have made it so easy for him. Either way, our wrongs against each other carved new lines between us. I went four years without seeing Grady—each one more painful than the last. That distance did nothing to dull my feelings toward him. But things are different now. Most noticeably is Grady. I barely recognize this man he’s become. And that’s the way he intends to keep it. Not that it really matters. Grady Bowen stopped being my happy something long ago.

One Day Soon


A. Meredith Walters - 2016
    I stayed with him through darkness and fire. We loved each other in the moment between innocence and bitter truth. We were the kids easily ignored, who grew into adults we hardly knew. We weren’t meant to last forever. And we didn’t. He ran away. I tried to move on. Yet I never stopped thinking about the boy who had fought to keep me alive in a world that would have swallowed me whole. He was the past that I buried, but never forgot. Until the day I found him again, years after believing I had lost him forever. And in cold, resentful eyes, I saw the heart of the man who had been everything when I had nothing at all. So I vowed to hold onto the second chance that was stolen from the children we had been. Sometimes fate is ugly. Life can be twisted. And who we are can be ruined by who we once were. For two people who had survived so much, we would have to learn how to hold on before we were forced to let go.

Dirty Little Lies


Clare James - 2014
    (Yeah, she knows it’s stupid name, so don’t start.) But most importantly, Stevie’s lost herself. As she shuffles through her days in worn-out Hello Kitty PJs—eating ice cream, sipping wine, and contemplating her next move—a magazine article catches her attention. Blaring black letters read: "How to Get Your Sexy Back in Six Easy Steps."Stevie studies the article in the trashy magazine like the good student she is and immediately knows what she has to do. With the magazine article in hand, and a bottle of red in her bag, Stevie embarks on a journey to reclaim her life and win back her ex. Until she meets Gabe Shannon. Gorgeous, single, and on a quest of his own, Gabe introduces Stevie to a lifestyle that is sure to help get her sexy back and then some. If she doesn’t chicken out … (Oh, you know where this is going.)What follows is a story of self-discovery, romantic gestures, erotic encounters, and following one's heart--even if it leads in unexpected directions.Portions originally published online as The Club e-series, Dirty Little Lies now has 70% more content, chapters from Gabe's point of view, and a sizzling conclusion to this steamy tale.

The Words


Ashley Jade - 2022
    Eight weeks. Forty shows.Countless opportunities to make him pay.The world thought he was a God...But I knew the truth.

The Beau & the Belle


R.S. Grey - 2018
    A 24-year-old law student at Tulane, Beau was as mysterious to me as second base (both in baseball and in the bedroom). He was older. Intimidating. Hot. Boys my age had chicken legs and chubby cheeks. Beau had calloused hands and a jaw cut from steel. Our interactions were scarce—mostly involving slight stalking on my end—and yet deep down, I desperately hoped he saw me as more of a potential lover than a lovesick loser.Turns out, I was fooling myself. My fragile ego learned that lesson the hard way.Now, ten years later, we’re both back in New Orleans, and guess who suddenly can’t take his eyes off little ol’ me.My old friend, Mr. Fortier.But things have changed. I’m older now—poised and confident. My ego wears a bulletproof vest. The butterflies that once filled my stomach have all perished.When I was a teenager, Beau warned me to guard my heart.Let’s hope he knows how to guard his.

Rock Me Hard


Olivia Thorne - 2013
    But there’s a catch. She’ll be covering the hottest bad-boy in rock, Derek Kane, whom Kaitlyn met when she was a freshman in college and he was a struggling unknown. It was passionate two-week affair: tumultuous, sensual, exhilarating......and it ended very, very badly.Now Kaitlyn has to decide whether she can face the pain of the past, her fear of the future – and the man who might just have been the One. Rock Me Hard is the first novel in a series of three. It is 57,000 words in length. Due to frank scenes of sensuality and profanity, it is intended for mature audiences only.

The Unlucky Ones


Stacey Marie Brown - 2019
    Bad luck. Heartache.Devon Thorpe is no stranger to any of them.After devastating news, Devon’s life becomes a prison of responsibility, heartbreak, and hardship. All her dreams to leave her small town vanish. A prisoner of circumstance.At her breaking point, Devon has a reckless moment in a diner bathroom with a blue-eyed sexy stranger. A single encounter with him leaves a deep mark on Devon, giving her only a memory of his touch when nights are lonely, and her life becomes too much to take.Years later, a terrifying incident takes her and her family to Albuquerque NM, where she finds work as a server at a bar to support her mother.Tattooed, moody, rough, brown-eyed, sexy as hell, Lincoln Kessler, the mysterious owner of the saloon, instantly draws Devon in. She can’t let go of the feeling there is some strange connection between them.But the more Lincoln tries to push her away, the more determined she is to figure out the enigmatic man. One fiery kiss and Devon realizes she should have stayed away because when their worlds collide and tragedy strikes, she recognizes they are not each other’s savior, but each other’s misfortune.A tear-jerking novel about ill-fated love, heartache, loss, and finding your way through the pain.And a lot of bad luck.*A NA/Adult Sexy and heartbreaking Contemporary Romance. Deeply emotional with a sensitive subject matter of dealing with a crippling mind disease.

Before He Was Famous


Becky Wicks - 2014
    One in the spotlight. One in the shadows. Falling in love with your best friend isn’t always a great idea, especially when he’s Noah Lockton - the sexiest, most famous new talent on the planet. When 21-year-old small-town photographer Chloe Campbell is offered the chance of a lifetime – to join her celebrity childhood friend Noah on tour as an exclusive blogger for a New York magazine – she’s certain both have put what happened four years ago behind them. But his eyes still burn; his voice is still a jackhammer to her heartstrings; all his songs are about her. Is it possible that that night still haunts them both?The music industry is a machine, spinning hype and rumors as much as his records. It’s not just Noah’s girlfriends who’ve got it in for Chloe (there’s no stopping the Twitter-obsessed, cat-loving pop-star Courtney Lentini for starters). Pretty soon, the jealousy and media frenzy surrounding these so-called-friends takes a life-changing turn and it seems making love means making enemies at every turn. When tragedy threatens to pull the final curtain on their relationship, both Chloe and Noah must make a choice. As much as this world leaves them starstruck, is living their dream really worth living without each other?A story of lifelong friendships, love and hope, set in a world of celebrity, fame and social media gone very, very wrong.

Love Surfaced


Michelle Lynn - 2015
    We stayed on our designated sides of the relationship circle. Ignoring swarming butterflies.Brushing off skipped heartbeats.Settling on lingering stares.Here’s the secret … a hand extended over that invisible line once, exponentially changing the equation. I was convinced we could make our relationship work until Tanner broke the trust he embedded in me from the age of seven. One deceit of mega proportions and the relationship we built for that short month vanished. I swore never to speak to him again and it’s worked. Until now—two years later, when my brother’s wedding places me face-to-face with the best man—Tanner McCain. Leaving one equation to be solved. Can love surface twice?

No Tomorrow


Carian Cole - 2018
    They steal our breath.They steal our sanity.And we let them.Over and over and over again.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *They say you never forget your first love.Mine was a homeless musician who wandered straight into my soul.He was my first everything. And fourteen years later, I still can't get him out of my head.He broke all my rules.He also broke my heart.I watched him climb to stardom, cheering him on from afar.But I was never a fan; just a girl in love.Like a tornado, he spiraled, leaving a path of destruction in his wake.But love conquers all, right? It has to. Because here I stand, ravaged and ruined, needing it to be true.You can't go back, but I want to. Back to the park. Back to when he sang only for me. Before he was famous. Before he shattered my heart.I thought I knew everything about him.But I could not have been more wrong.He promised me every tomorrow. And here I am, waiting.And hoping.Again. _______________________ Note: This is not a fluffy, light read or a swoony romance. It's a journey of love between two people who can't let each other go, even though they are far from perfect. It's about loving someone who is struggling with mental illness and addiction and all the ups and downs that come with it. It's about finding a happily ever after that works between two people loving each other the best they can with patience, understanding, and unconditional love. Not everyone will agree with this kind of love and acceptance - but it exists, and it's real, and it happens every day.