Book picks similar to
The Forbidden Man by Elle Wright


romance
contemporary
unequal-balance-of-power-btwn-hxh
contemporary-romance

Every One of Me


Jessica Wilde - 2013
    She left behind her friends and family hoping they would be better off without her in the way. Now, after being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (Multiple personality disorder) and determined to set her life straight, she is going back. She doesn't expect her best friend growing up, and the only man she has ever loved, to be waiting for her.Charlie Mackenzie never knew the real reasons why Tessa left, but because of the promises he swore to keep, he feels responsible. He has spent the last 5 years fighting underground MMA, staying distracted, and trying not to chase after her and drag her back to him. Now that she is finally back, he won't allow her to push him away without knowing how he has felt about her all along. The only problem? He's not just dealing with Tessa anymore. Tessa won't let herself be a burden to anyone and being with Charlie will only complicate his life, and hers, but she can't seem to shake him, and Benny, her friend from 'The Facility', isn't helping matters. Learning to live with not only the people around her, but the people in her head, isn't as simple as she thought it would be and Charlie is forcing her to abandon all of the control she thought she had.The two of them must decide if their love is worth fighting for and Tess has to learn to just let go, because Charlie won't let her go. He won't let any one of her go.

Wrecked


Alla Kar - 2014
    But Jordan’s best-friend BEAU RICHARDS doesn’t make Annabelle feel comfortable—he makes her feel like living. One drunken night things get out of hand leaving Annabelle and Beau with a fire in desperate need of extinguishing. But sometimes the direst of problems need more than a fire extinguisher to stop the burn. The class trip to Spain was supposed to be fun. But fun takes the week off when their plane crashes over the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Spain. Only a few of the passengers survive. With loved ones gone, Beau and Annabelle cling tight to one another to survive the hot days and freezing nights. But the guilt of their feelings keep one another from the path they truly want to take.

Falling to Pieces


Amber Garza - 2013
    Asher was close to learning the truth about me, and I couldn’t let that happen.But now everyone hates me. Well, everyone except for Asher. He believes in me even after what I’ve done.And when I’m with him I feel like I’m falling.I just hope if I do, he’s there to catch me.

How We Lived


Erin Butler - 2014
    She just wanted to wear jeans and a T-shirt—the clothes Kyle would’ve wanted her in—not wrap herself up in death. So she watched the funeral from afar, like an outsider. Which is just how she feels.Chase came, though, just like she knew he would. Until a few months ago, the three of them had been best friends, and then Chase made a mistake that shattered both families. But when Kelsey looks at him, she doesn’t see her brother’s killer. She sees the boy next door who’s always taken care of her. She sees home. When Chase tells her his feelings run deeper than friendship, she can’t help but get lost in him. In Chase, she finally has the closure she’s been unable to find anywhere else. But the boy she’s falling in love with is still hiding secrets about the night Kyle died. Secrets that could destroy everything they have…again.standalone

To Trust a Stranger


Karen Robards - 2000
    When his older brother vanished at the same time Sid Carlson's first wife disappeared, young Mac swore that someday he'd discover his brother's fate. After he became a cop, Mac's probe triggered a nasty frame-up that sent his career down in flames. Now a struggling private eye, Mac can't believe his luck when the second Mrs. Carlson, whose rags-to-riches marriage is headed for disaster, seeks his services to get the goods on her cheating husband. Mac's not about to reveal he's anything but a stranger to his quarry and miss this prime chance to pump Sid's neglected trophy wife, Julie, for inside information about her slimy spouse. With no one to trust but each other, and danger closing in on every side, the gorgeous ex-beauty queen and the sexy ex-cop are soon sharing much more than just information. Karen Robards has packed this story with adventure, intrigue, and steamy sensuality.

Me After You


Mindy Hayes - 2013
    Devastated, broke, and alone, I have no choice but to return to my hometown, a town I fled to escape the sorrow and memories it holds.Six years ago, Dean Preston left Willowhaven. He destroyed our future, our budding love, and me as he rode off on his motorcycle never to be heard from again. Until Now.Here we stand. Two people whose lives have changed in ways we never could’ve predicted. Our road to healing is paved with old wounds threatening to tear us down.Carrying our scars close to our hearts, we’ll have to confront what’s gone before or lose our second chance.The measure of who we are is what we survive. Who we become is up to us.

Love and Relativity


Rachael Wade - 2012
    Stranded on Sanibel Island, Florida, she works at a nursing home by day and spends her nights dodging the island's infamous bad boy, Jackson Taylor, at her favorite karaoke bar. Trying to heal from the loss of her sister and a failed relationship she rerouted her life for, she's ready to graduate and finally leave Florida behind.When a run-in with Jackson and his rowdy crew goes sour at the bar one night, sparks fly and irreversible damage is done. It’s no secret that Jackson loves to get underneath her skin, but this time he's gone too far. Now all he wants is to earn her forgiveness before she's gone for good, but their ideas of closure—and the future—are enough to keep them worlds apart.This is a stand-alone title but coordinates with The Preservation Series:Preservation (Book One, Available Now)Reservation (Book Two, Coming March 6, 2013)Declaration (Book Three,TBA)

Absolution (Absolution #1)


Amanda Dick - 2013
    Four years ago, while driving girlfriend Ally and best friend Callum home from a concert, they were involved in a horrific car crash. Ally’s life would never be the same and, consumed by guilt, Jack ran. He’s been running ever since.Moving from town to town, job to job, he found himself doing things he never thought himself capable of. Living in the shadows, he’d rather spend the rest of his life alone than go home and face everyone he left behind. Until the night he receives a phone call that forces his hand. With a recent history he’s anxious to keep hidden and a desperate need to somehow make amends, his homecoming will be anything but easy. Does he even deserve a second chance?Absolution is the first in a series of stand-alone novels in the Absolution series by Amanda Dick. It is contemporary romance at its most confronting - raw, honest and compelling.

Blindness


Ginger Scott - 2014
    Never fully recovered from the unexpected death of her father when she was barely 18, she dove head first into a life of pretend and good enough, running away from a home that harbored nothing but bad memories and challenges and into the arms of Trevor Appleton, a man who could take her away from it all forever. Everything was...easy. But it's funny how fate takes over when your heart needs it most. And when a chance encounter brings Cody Carmichael into Charlie's life, her heart begins to beat for the first time since the day her dad left her completely alone. There was nothing easy about Cody. A former motocross super star, he was now happy to be living the blue collar life, spending his days finishing up school and his nights under the hood of some classic car, just trying to keep everything his father taught him alive. He didn't have time for things like trust and love—they'd only burned him in the past. Cody was everything Charlie had been running away from, but no matter how hard she fought it, there was an undeniable pull that always led straight to him. And the closer Cody and Charlie got, the more secrets they uncovered—secrets that threatened to unravel everything they'd both worked so hard to protect. But fate...it can't be ignored. And feeling alive might just be worth the risk.

The Low Notes


Kate Roth - 2012
    Kevin meets young singer, Nina Jordan, who takes his breath away with the sound of her voice. The connection is instantaneous and mutual on their first date, but both are crestfallen when they discover days later, to their horror, Nina is Kevin's student at the local high school.Deciphering between notions of love and lust, fate and coincidence, Kevin and Nina find themselves unable to turn their backs on what they can't deny is a once in a lifetime feeling.

Before You


Amber Hart - 2014
    Some say love is beautiful. I say it is both.Faith Watters spent her junior year traveling the world, studying in exquisite places, before returning to Oviedo High School. From the outside her life is picture-perfect. Captain of the dance team. Popular. Happy. Too bad it’s all a lie.It will haunt me. It will claim me. It will shatter me. And I don't care.Eighteen-year-old Diego Alvarez hates his new life in the States, but staying in Cuba is not an option. Covered in tattoos and scars, Diego doesn't stand a chance of fitting in. Nor does he want to. His only concern is staying hidden from his past—a past, which if it were to surface, would cost him everything. Including his life.At Oviedo High School, it seems that Faith Watters and Diego Alvarez do not belong together. But fate is as tricky as it is lovely. Freedom with no restraint is what they long for. What they get is something different entirely.Love—it will ruin you and save you, both.

Unspoken


Brenda Rothert - 2014
    The end of their relationship marked the beginning of a painful solitary journey for her. Though she makes places beautiful with her work as an interior designer, the rest of her life is anything but beautiful – it’s slowly pulling her under.Brady, a contractor, is swiftly building his business into an empire. Work is a faithful companion that never lets him down like Palmer did. When he sees women now, it’s on his terms. And his terms are simple: just sex. He won’t let a woman break him again.Palmer is barely holding it together when she and Brady are unexpectedly paired on a project after a year apart. The pull between them is stronger than ever, but the fallout from their reconnection leaves them both wondering if maybe some things are better left unsaid.

Confetti, Cake & Confessions


K.C. Wells - 2014
    When Tony’s mother Marie and Marc’s father Dennis decide to tie the knot at last, it should be an occasion of great joy for everyone. Except all Marc can think about is having to spend the next two weeks with the young man he’s been in love with since he was sixteen. Tony feels so torn about Marc coming home from college. He keeps telling himself that it’s wrong to feel this way about him. After all, in two weeks’ time they’ll be related. So when the two young men are thrown together to prepare for the wedding, tensions rise and discoveries are made.It’s going to be a very long two weeks, and a wedding that no one will ever forget.

Summer's Desire


Olivia Lynde - 2013
    In each other, they find a safe haven... and respite from the darkness haunting them both. Until they are betrayed.Can they ever regain their friendship? And if they do, can they trust each other enough to take the biggest risk of all: falling in love?Genre: Mature YA/New Adult, Romance

Calling California


J.P. Grider - 2014
    She has a lot on her plate - her father is dying, she's working to help pay the rent, and she's two-years behind in college.Griffin Brooks is rich. He has not a care in the world - he's acing his engineering courses, his hobby is restoring his fifty-thousand dollar classic car, and he has a different girl on his arm every week.When Cali sees Griffin on her first day of class, she's immediately smitten and thinks she's found the perfect guy. When Griffin sees Cali at the bank, he immediately forgets the blonde he was with that morning. Then they meet, and their worlds collide.Cali doesn't belong in Griffin’s world, and he doesn't understand hers. But just when Griffin convinces Cali that their two different worlds can blend, a secret is revealed that tears them apart.Is their love strong enough to bring them back together, or will their worlds drift further apart?