Book picks similar to
Lies by A.L. Woods
second-chance
contemporary
2nd-chance
angst-drama
In This Life
Christine Brae - 2016
While volunteering in a coastal village recently ravaged by a tsunami, Anna meets Jude Grayson. They share an instant attraction that leads to a brief, passionate affair. When she has to rush home for a family emergency, he promises to stay in touch. But Jude never calls, and Anna tries desperately to forget him.Five years pass, and Anna finally moves on with Dante after giving up hope that Jude will ever return—until they come face to face again in a chance encounter. Reeling, Anna discovers the life-altering secret of why Jude never contacted her—and why they can’t be together. But the passion that ignited between them on an exotic beach years ago never died, making it impossible to stay away from each other.And Dante? Anna discovers that the friend she grew to love—and trust—has a secret of his own.
Tap Left
A. Zavarelli - 2017
She’s soft in too many ways. A people pleaser who goes the extra mile. Some might call her an easy target. In short, she has all of the qualities that I despise. But when it comes to me, she doesn’t hesitate to fling her poison arrows my way. She has every right to her feelings. Over the years, I’ve given her plenty of ammo. Yeah, I hate Lola. But it doesn’t stop me from wanting her too. When she makes me a proposition I can’t refuse, there’s just one problem. She tastes so f*cking sweet. So f*cking good. So f*cking mine. This is a full length standalone.
The Thorns Remain
Jennifer Hartmann - 2021
The beast had emerged from its lair with a burning need to destroy the man who tore my marriage apart.And now?Now, it was my lifeline.My dark lover.My. Whole. Purpose.REVENGE.They say it’s sweet in the end, and I believed them. I could almost taste that honey on my tongue, like a balm I needed to quell the bitterness.But it was all a lie.I was blindsided.And not once did I think about who I might hurt along the way. I never considered the casualties that may fall across my path of destruction.No…Revenge is not sweet. Retaliation does not end in reward.Vengeance is not justice.The promises whispered by that beast within?They’re all hollow.All it ever wanted was to be set free.In the end, I never expected things to be worse than when it all began.I never expected the wreckage left in my wake.Ineverexpectedher.*** "The Thorns Remain" is a contemporary romance standalone, previously titled "What We Deserve." ***
Bad Boy Player
Kat T. Masen - 2017
EmersonEveryone thinks they know who I am. I'm the TV star who fell in love with her co-star, Wesley Rich. But it wasn't real. It was a life designed to entertain millions of watchers each Monday night. A life I had no control over. Until my past came to visit... All it took was one night. One night to relive my past. One night to forget my future. With someone who'd been there all along...Logan Soccer is my life--it's in my blood. I train hard, I play hard, and I win. Nothing breaks my focus. Except Emerson. Every Monday night. She's an obsession I can't seem to shake. I don't know what was harder: hiding how I feel about his sister from my best friend, or watching the woman I want live a life with someone else.
Whatever It Takes
L. Maretta - 2013
His wife, Emma, was always able to brag to her friends about how caring, loving, helpful, and successful he was. Having been married five years, they have just put the finishing touches on their dream home and are ready to start a family. Everything seems ideal until one day Gavin confesses to Emma that he was unfaithful, turning their entire relationship from perfect to a total disaster. Suddenly Emma's carefully controlled world is chaotic and her future uncertain as she struggles to determine if she is able to forgive Gavin or have the strength to move on.
Cruel and Beautiful
A.M. Hargrove - 2015
(Rated R)
Cate Forbes
, a dedicated college student with a carefully plotted future, doesn’t know the first thing about love. When she accepts a blind date with a rumored tasty piece of eye candy, she thinks she can get by with a night of fun. Cate’s plans quickly unravel when she gets one look at the sexy…
Drew McKnight.
The relentless hockey-playing medical resident knows what he wants— a career in Oncology and Cate. Although he’s heard the gorgeous brunette is a little relationship skittish, a single night out isn’t what he has in mind. Determined to have her — in every way possible— he shows her just what a future with him would hold. Only life has other plans. The unthinkable happens and everything begins to shatter. Both in too deep, they will have to fight the cruel and hang onto the beautiful.
Come Back for Me
Corinne Michaels - 2020
I left for the military that day, vowing never to return to Pennsylvania.When my father dies, I’m forced to go home to bury him. At least I'll finally be rid of his farm, which is grown over and tangled with memories I've fought to forget.And that’s when I find her. She’s even more beautiful than I remember and has the most adorable kid I’ve ever seen.Years have passed, but my feelings are the same, and this time I refuse to let her go. They say you can't bury the past, and they're right. Because when long-ago secrets are exposed, rocking us both to the core, I have no choice but to watch her walk away again....
Wait for Me
Tia Louise - 2019
Her brother Sawyer would kick my ass if he knew how many times we made out that summer, how close we got.Everything changed when Sawyer and I joined the military.We were honorably discharged, but I didn’t go to her.Instead, I went back to the city… where no amount of money, no amount of pills can heal this wound.Only her whiskey eyes and dark hair, her slim arms and her sweet scent, give me hope. I broke her heart just as surely as I broke mine, but I’m going back to make it right.If she’s still waiting…
(WAIT FOR ME is a STAND-ALONE second-chance, military romance with a guaranteed HEA. No cheating. No cliffhangers.)
Choose Me
R.C. Boldt - 2019
Wearing the nicest suit I own, I stand in the very back with a flask full of whiskey in my inner pocket. I put on a brave face as I watch her walk down the aisle.Because it’s too late.I refuse to be the bastard who makes her cry on her wedding day, but I’m dying to tell her what I’ve always known. She’s my best friend, but she doesn’t realize she owns my f*cking heart and soul, too. Each step down that aisle takes her farther away from me and brings her closer to him, forcing me to face the truth: I’ve fallen in love with someone who can’t be mine. If she’d just turn around, maybe she’d realize I love her more than he ever could. I won’t ruin her perfect day, but my broken heart begs me to try and convince her.Choose me.
Shuttergirl
C.D. Reiss - 2015
A girl paparazzi. What could go wrong?I never forgot her. Not for one minute. Not from the last time I saw her, at seventeen, to today. I measured all women against her and all women came up short.But being with her was unfeasible in high school, and it’s taboo now.I see her sometimes, but I’ve never spoken to her. She runs, or I run. We’re in the same town, on the same block, in the same building, and the gulf between us is just too wide to cross.Until tonight.He was my high school crush, back when I lived in a world that didn’t want me. He was the perfect boy, and I was the outcast kid from the other side of town. And when he held my hand I thought I could fit in, just a little. I thought I could be his and he could be mine.Then he left, and my life fell apart.Now we are the king and queen of opposite sides of Hollywood. And we haven’t spoken a word to each other.Until tonight.
Kaleidoscope Hearts
Claire Contreras - 2015
And all those feelings I’d turned into anger are brewing into something else, something that terrifies me. He broke my heart last time. This time he'll obliterate it.This is a standalone.
5 Years Later
Jaxson Kidman - 2017
and there's a knock at the door. He's back, again. And this time he's not alone.
* Full length standalone romance with guaranteed HEA and no cheating *
The Long Way Home
Jasinda Wilder - 2017
For you. For touch. For a kiss. For the scrape of your hand down my stomach. For the slide of your lips across my hipbone. The sweep of your thigh against mine in the dulcet, drowning darkness. For the warm huff of your breath on my skin and the wet suck of your mouth around me and the building pressure of need reaching release...I am mad with need.Wild with it.I cannot have you. I have lost you, as I have lost myself. And so I go in search. Of myself, and thus the man who might return to you, and take you in his arms.I loathe each of the thousands of miles between us, but I cannot wish them away, for I hope at the end of my journey I shall find you. Or rather, find myself, and thus…you. Myself, and thus us. I am taking the long way home, Ava. ***Christian,I’m losing my mind, and I don’t know how to stop it. I shouldn’t be writing to you, but I am. I’m friendless, loveless, and lifeless. You’re out there somewhere, and still you’re all I really have. I hate my reliance and dependence on you, emotionally and otherwise, and that reliance is something I’m coming to recognize. I hate that I can’t hate you as much as I want to. I hate that I still love you so much. I hate that there’s no clear solution to our conundrum. Even if we could forgive each other, what then? I hate you, Christian. I really do.But most of all, I don’t. It’s complicated. Complicatedly (still) yours,AvaTHE LONG WAY HOME is the story of a married couple, Christian and Ava, both writers, as they cope with the loss of their son and the damage that loss causes to their marriage. This moving story, alternately heartbreaking and heartwarming, is the first in a brand-new contemporary romance series by bestselling author Jasinda Wilder.
Black Swan Affair
K.L. Kreig - 2016
He wears scruff like he invented it and ambles with a swagger that makes panties drop. Killian Shepard. Shep. We grew up together. We played Ghost in the Graveyard. Had our own rock band. It didn’t matter that he was five years older than me. It didn’t matter that he looked at me as a kid sister even as I grew into woman. It didn’t even matter when he left me behind to go to college and start his adult life. He’d be back. He was always meant to be mine.He came back, all right. But instead of smelling of promises, he stunk of betrayal. And he destroyed me—us—the day he married my sister instead of me.So I did the only thing a girl like me in my position could do. I got my revenge. I married his brother, Kael. Now we’re one big happy f*cking family.***mature content appropriate for 18+
Where We Belong
K.L. Grayson - 2014
. . she's a snarky little bitch.I’ve tried several times to regret the events that took place on June 5, 2008, but for the life of me, I can’t. I'd never regret the pain, the suffering, or the heartache because it ultimately led me to the place I am now. And I can’t regret the place I am now. What I still can't figure out is this: how is it possible that the single worst day of my life inadvertently became the very best day?Five years ago my life was irrevocably changed.Seventeen minutes was all it took—to lose my best friend…to lose the love of my life…Seventeen minutes was all it took for the seeds of hope—the seeds of my future—to be planted in the worst possible way.My name is Harley Thompson, and this is my story.