Book picks similar to
Unsteady by Elizabeth York


second-chance
romance
contemporary
freebie

Lies


C.A. Harms - 2015
    Thrust into a world of drugs and criminal activity, integrating himself into the Russian Mafia turned out to be much more than Josh bargained for. It’s dark and it’s dangerous. The lives they destroy along the way will never be the same. The things he is forced to do will haunt him forever. Even more importantly, he never planned on meeting her… A chance encounter with Real Estate Agent Gabriella Shannon, has Josh questioning his ability to complete his mission. And now the dark world may consume them both. He’s in too deep. Leaving now would only risk the safety of those around him. But when his cover’s blown Josh is forced to make a decision that will reroute his future. One decision. The hardest decision he will ever have to make in his life. And those he meant to protect will be the ones who suffer the most…

Forever Friend Zoned


C. Morgan - 2021
    I took all of that crap from the past and turned it into a goldmine. My body, namely. And there’s one girl I want that rejected me over and over. Lucky for me, the beauty is on the heels of a terrible breakup. Yes. I mean, aww… Her parents are pushing her to go to the gym to lose some weight. Boy, do I know how that feels. And guess who’s waiting for her when she gets there?That’s right. Me. The forever friend-zoned guy. But I have no ill will toward my curvy first love. I only want what’s best for her. Namely, me. *wink*So the game begins, and I’m lucky to be in the coach’s shoes this time. She has no clue who I am, but sparks fly high. No way in hell I’m telling her I’m the guy she remembered rejecting. ‘Cause I’m not out for revenge. I just want what I’ve always wanted… Her.

Take a Chance on Me


Jaqueline Snowe - 2017
    Their relationship had always been easy. Both of them loyal to a fault, they had been there for each other through everything: heartbreaks, hangovers, and tragedy. So when Kate needs a place to stay for three months, Brody doesn’t think twice about agreeing. After all, they had known each other forever. What could go wrong living with his closest and oldest friend? Apparently, everything. Three months in a small apartment becomes more than complicated. Brody shouldn’t be attracted to his dorky best friend…he most definitely shouldn’t. That would be absurd. She’s a relationship girl and he’s more a one-night-sans-clothes kind of guy. One drunken dare of strip poker changes everything. Suddenly, two people with too much to lose play a dangerous game. The unapologetic playboy and the girl-next-door have a choice to make, if only their pasts didn’t keep getting in the way of their future.

Promise Me Nothing


Jillian Liota - 2019
     I didn’t pick up my life and move to this urban beach city to spend my days swooning over a rich bad boy who rides a motorcycle and seems to know every girl in town. I’m here to get to know the brother I’ve never met. To try and create a family when I’ve gone so long without one. Maybe find a place where I belong. So why can’t I seem to get him off my mind? Hannah Morrison isn’t a good idea. I’m back in town just for the summer, and my priorities are to spend time with my little sister, check in with my family, and make sure things aren’t really as bad as they seem. But somehow, the new girl becomes my focus. She’s got a heaping ton of baggage, and she doesn’t understand why she’s really here. But I’ll do anything to make her feel like she belongs. Even give her promises I’m not sure I can keep. Welcome to Hermosa Beach.

Love & Other Chaos


Jackie Walker - 2020
    Brody’s my friend - just a friend. He’s also my autistic son’s favorite teacher.He’s as off limits as they come, no matter how drop dead gorgeous he is. Falling for him would be wrong. Resisting him though, is becoming pure torture. After being burned by men who can’t handle dating a single-mom of a special-needs child, I refuse to date anymore. Not until my son is grown. My plan is working fine until my trouble-making bestie presents me with a dare that I can’t resist. I’m a sucker for a good dare - especially when margaritas have been consumed. And she’s just dared me to plant a surprise kiss on Brody’s sexy lips, while she records it for a trending TikTok challenge video. But if I do this, it could change everything. My life is already pure chaos and maybe now is not the best time to shake things up even more. Is it worth risking our friendship and his important role in my son’s life for one kiss? What if he wants more? What if I do? Love & Other Chaos is a hilarious, steamy, friends-to-lovers romantic comedy featuring a drop dead gorgeous and seriously buff teacher with the hots for a single-mom of an autistic pre-teen son... who happens to be one of his students. This story also includes wise-cracking grandparents with zero respect for personal boundaries, swoon-worthy beach scenes, a jerky boss with no concept of personal space, nosey siblings and a foul-mouthed best friend who loves to instigate trouble. If you don't like sarcasm, steam, sexy-times, heroines who drink copious amounts of margaritas and laugh-a-minute dialogue, then this might not be the book for you. It’s a stand-alone novel with a happy ending, because cliffhangers will kill your margarita buzz.

Mr. Principal


Summer Cooper - 2018
    “Is it wrong to be with the person you love?” My heart skipped a beat and I could no longer meet his eyes. I wasn’t ready yet to accept what I saw there. I wasn’t ready to accept his love. Dana Duran has no idea what she’s doing with her life. Divorced, bitter, and trying to raise a precocious little girl on her own, the last thing Dana needs is another complication in her already hectic existence. But then Carter Knight comes back into town and just like that, Dana’s reality is shaken yet again. Torn between protecting her heart and harboring a secret she wishes she could forget, Dana has mixed feelings about Carter’s return. But the heart knows what it wants and for Dana and Carter, their hearts want each other. But will they let their past mistakes dictate their present or will Dana and Carter let go of the past and make room for love?

Make Me Lose


Ember Leigh - 2019
    We’re enemies. Born minutes apart on the same day in the same hospital, our parents thought this meant we were somehow destined to be together. We knew were we just destined to beat each other. Competition boiled over until junior year, when the cold war turned into an unexpected peace offering. Maybe my hormones allowed me to notice his broad shoulders, stormy gray-blue eyes, and soccer star’s chiseled frame. But after I fell for him…he stomped all over my heart. Ten years later, I’m at the top of the realty game in Bayshore and Grayson is just a distant memory. Until he shows up from NYC, his ego bigger than a skyscraper, and asks me to sell the house he recently inherited.It’s easy to say no. Even though I want to climb him like the jungle gyms we used to dangle from in strong arm battles.But I forgot that Gray doesn’t take no for an answer. And that he isn’t content unless he’s defeating me. He butts into my evenings on the boat. Ropes me into water skiing battles. Even shows up at the bar and creates a scene when I’m scouting a date to the upcoming Bicentennial Ball.It’s almost like he’s gunning to win me. But if he wins, that means I lose.And I’m not ready to cede victory just yet.

When Time Stands Still


Sara Furlong Burr - 2018
    When Stars Collide is a full-length romcom with a HEA. It’s been nearly a decade since Elle Sloan last saw Luke Hutchins. Close to ten years since she broke up with him over a single phone call, providing him with little explanation. Since the end of their relationship, Elle has done everything she could do to move on, marrying, proceeding forward with her life, almost allowing herself to completely forget about Luke.Almost.Out of nowhere, Elle receives a phone call from Luke’s mother. Luke has been in a horrific car accident and, a month later, has just awoken from a coma. However, instead of celebrating, his family is stunned to learn that Luke is suffering from amnesia and only remembers his life as it was before his breakup with Elle. Not wanting to tell Luke that he and Elle aren’t together anymore for fear it may compromise his recovery, Elle is asked by Luke’s family to come to the hospital to see him. Their hope is that she will slowly be able to jog his memory and cushion the blow. Guilt-ridden over how their relationship ended, Elle readily agrees, finding herself transported back in time with Luke to the life they once shared and the future they could have had together.

Back to Shore


Taylor Danae Colbert - 2020
    So I turned him away and never looked back. I haven’t forgotten. And I certainly haven’t forgiven.Now, I’m sort of a hot mess. I’m in between jobs, essentially homeless, and newly divorced.But as I try to put the pieces of my life back together, I know that Ryder’s the one that’s missing. I have to find him, and I have to forgive him.And when I do, I learn that he’s not exactly living the easiest life. He needs someone. He needs me.Despite everything, I know I should be there for him. But doing that means I’ll have to put our past behind us.And I’ll have to try my hardest not to fall back in love with the man who broke my heart beyond repair.

Rock Me


Carly Phillips - 2017
    Ben Hollander has sworn off mixing business with pleasure. But keeping his hands off of the sexy songstress is easier said than done and once the threat is neutralized, will she choose fame over love?

Conflicted


M.M. Koenig - 2013
    Her life was everything she wanted it to be; until one fateful night changed everything – leaving her broken and without direction. Nearly a year later, she still has little faith in anyone or anything. Desperate to reclaim her life’s ambition, she takes an unexpected offer that promises to solve all her problems. But as Mia moves forward, she’s faced with obstacles she couldn’t have foreseen. The biggest of them lies within the mystery of Ethan Fitzgerald; a man who affects her like no other, but who she should avoid pursuing, at all costs. On a mission himself, Ethan Fitzgerald didn’t care who he pissed off on his road to fulfill his mother’s dying wish. He relied on himself, and was closed off to the world around him – until Mia Ryan walked through his door. Normally one to avoid messy emotions, Ethan’s world is turned upside down by Mia, and he can’t seem to get enough of her. There are lines you can cross that will change the course of your life forever …

Remembering Him


Lucia Ashta - 2020
    The kind that hurt me.The kind that left me in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury that erased the last twelve years of my life.Now I’m back in the small town I ran away from.And Jace is here.And he’s sexier than ever.I broke his heart.He’s right in not wanting anything to do with me.I shouldn’t want Jace anymore.I should definitely stay away from him…** Remembering Him is a full-length, small town, second chance romance with a happily ever after.** Please note: Remembering Him was previously published under the title Dream Gone Wild.

Carter


Brie Paisley - 2016
    CarterShe’s always been the one for me.The one that I knew would be mine forever, until I made the biggest mistake of my life. I’ve tried to move on, and I’ve tried to put the memory of her behind me, but she’s always there, consuming my thoughts. Now, she’s back in our hometown, trying to rebuild a new life, but I know deep down, that she’s keeping secrets. She tries to hide them from me, but I will do whatever it takes to prove that I’m the one she needs. Shelby Ross is the other part of me that I can’t live without, and I refuse to let her go again. ShelbyHe broke my heart.I never thought that I would be able to pick up the pieces he left behind, so when he let me go, I ran away from it all, thinking it was the easiest thing to do. However, running always has a price, and I’ve paid it in full for years. Now, I’m back to where it all began, and it should’ve been easy. Carter Harlow is slowly reawakening long buried emotions that I thought were gone. He wants to make me his again, but I can’t let that happen. He ruined me once, and then broke my heart, and now, I’m afraid I’ll never survive it a second time around. This is a standalone series, and it does not have to be read in order.*

Callum


Dani René - 2016
    The overconfident rock star wants her, and he'll stop at nothing to get her. For Callum Hayes, life hasn't been as easy as the press portrays. There is more to the handsome singer than meets the eye, and all he wants is for his new employee to look beneath the sparkling exterior and find the man under the glitz. Can Tayla and Callum make it work? Or will his infamous reputation be the end of their romance?

Recklessly Mine


Emily Bowie - 2017
    It holds far too many painful memories of the life he had. But when Chase has to take an unexpected trip back to the small town, he is forced to deal with parts of his past he thought he had buried forever. Pulled into the buzz around town about the boy who ran away all those years ago, Katheryn’s heart skips a beat when she is literally knocked off her feet by Chase. He’s scruffy, sexy, and covered in tattoos that scream bad boy, with an attitude to match. Although he appeared to have forgotten about their brief encounter, she never could. For when he left all those years ago, he left with a piece of her heart. As they fall in love, Katheryn is slowly sucked into his world of corruption, family secrets, and lies. Forcing Chase to choose between Katheryn and the life he fought so hard to achieve. After all, isn’t everything fair in love and war?