Book picks similar to
The Permanence of Pain by Desiree Lafawn


romance
contemporary-romance
contemporary
free

Alice And The Hatter


K.B. Winters - 2018
    Just ask anyone. I’m also a world class designer. Until critics start to say I'm washed up. Now the company wants to bring in someone else. But I don’t like to share. Just ask my ex—the woman who’s out to destroy me. Or as I call her, the queen of smashing hearts. My charmed life becomes more like a curse, Taking a turn down a dark rabbit hole. Until Alice walks in. She’s everything that’s good and innocent. And I want her so bad. It’d never work. But I’d give it all up for just one chance. Alice And The Hatter is a full-length dirty modern fairytale! If you love loads of heat, guaranteed HEA and absolutely no cliffhangers, one-click Alice And The Hatter today! xoxoxo

The Sawyer Brothers #1-4


C.A. Harms - 2016
     The second hardest thing would be watching my twelve-year-old daughter fall to her knees as they lowered her mother into the ground to rest. A heart-wrenching vision that will forever be etched in my mind. Claire was my best friend—she had been since we were barely old enough to talk. I always knew, one day, I would marry her. I think I may have even told her that a few times while we were growing up. Never did I think I would lose her so suddenly. I knew at that moment… Our life would never be the same again… JACKSON'S DESTINY - BOOK #2 Shaken to his core, the loss was excruciating… Jackson Sawyer was strong, confident, cocky, and arrogant, but when he loved, he loved hard. The Sawyer family was faced with a tragedy that rocked their foundation. Jackson, however, was hit the hardest. He’s the one who can't seem to rise above the grief. It has overtaken him… Until he finds Bailey Whitmore. She also has a darkness she just can't shake. Yet she hides it well—tucking her sadness away, and shadowing it with a spunky attitude. But those demons have a way of showing up when you least expect it… Love is intense. Loss is inevitable. Pain and anger are unavoidable. Will they find the strength to rebuild their tainted hearts together? Or will it go against…Jackson’s Destiny? NOAH'S JOURNEY - BOOK #3 The years that were taken can never be repaid. The memories stolen can never be returned. But I had to move forward…for him, my son. Noah had spent years wondering what he could have done differently. Wondering what he’d done wrong to make Stacey leave. The heartache from her absence and the what-ifs of their past eventually turned to anger—and then disgust. It took years for him to move on, and once he did, his past came thundering back, revealing a secret. A secret that would forever change his future. Alena had waited for the chance to have more with Noah. He was an enigma, a man of mystery, yet she wasn’t quite ready to give up on him. She knew there was more to him than what he allowed those around him to see. She was drawn to his charm and his calm nature. With an uprooted past of her own, she craved a little stability more than anything. But when things between them finally begin to grow into more, their relationship is tested. Will it all be too much for Alena to handle? Or will she decide to stay and be a part of…Noah’s Journey? OLIVIA'S RIDE - BOOK #4 Keeton Pearce hadn’t lived a life full of supportive, loving family… In fact, it was just the opposite. He had been on his own for so long he had no idea what it felt like to belong. He didn’t want to rehash the life he left behind, or even think about it. But the hate from his father followed him, slowly eating away at the life he had begun to build for himself. Olivia Sawyer had been prepped on how to deal with the advances of those college men she would encounter… After all, she had been surrounded by three alpha men who made sure she knew just how to handle herself. But when she met Keeton Pearce, all those words of warning flew right out the window.

Ashes to Ashes


Tory Palmer - 2020
    In short, everything a young woman could hope for...Oh, who am I kidding? My husband left me, my best friend is an oversexed trust-fund kid, and the silent partner in my business just dropped dead. And, without him, I've got maybe one season before my art gallery goes under.And, as if all that weren't enough, now I have a stalker!When Rachel, my oversexed pixie of a friend, drags me out to the rowdiest biker bar in the county and we find not one but two sexy, capable hunks to keep both my mind and body "busy."But, as my stalker begins to escalate, both of my handsome bikers, Ryder and Tommy, come to my defense.Will the three of us be strong enough to stand against the criminal forces at work, even as they grow in danger and scale? More importantly, will we be strong enough to embrace our hearts' desires?Or will we all end up as nothing but ashes in the end?

Collided


Portia Moore - 2019
    It’s something I never wanted and decided I’d never have. Love nearly killed my mother. It devastated and destroyed her. I promised myself I’d never be captured or ensnared like she was. Love deceives. It isn’t genuine. It doesn’t last. It’s just poison…a silent killer. The one taste I got nearly killed me but I was fortunate enough to escape it. But then I met him, and love didn’t just catch me. I collided with it.

Cole, (A Second Chance Romance)


Stella Marie Alden - 2021
    In retrospect, hooking up was a mistake because no woman has measured up, since.When I see her again and she asks me for alone time, I assume we’re of the same mindsetInstead, I learn she’s an amateur sleuth, investigating her friend’s death. A county deputy, I shut that down fast. This is real life, not one of her video games.Join Cole and Danielle as they try to solve a murder and deal with smoldering desire, about to burst into flames.Warning: High heat, thrills, mystery, and romance. Not for the faint of heart.

Forbidden Billionaire


Tessa Layne
    PINK.She was only supposed to be a one-night stand... Let’s face it. I’m a jerk with a big bank account, and that means I call the shots. Until Macey McCaslin. There’s only one word to describe the smart, sexy, take-no-prisoners she-devil. Unforgettable. And while we may have made an agreement, she's bent on breaking the rules as much as I am. This may cost me everything, but I’m not staying away… The only hitch in our little plan? Macey’s off-limits. So far off-limits, my brother Jason might kill me if he found out about us. And when he does, because he will find out… When I put it all on the line for Macey, the secrets that come tumbling out may break us both. **TS Layne is the Alter Ego of USA Today Bestselling Author Tessa Layne. TS Writes Bad Boys & Billionaires. Tessa Writes Alpha Cowboys & Hot Heroes.**

Hot Renovations


Kristen Kelly - 2017
    If someone told me six months ago, I would be visiting a cave one hundred and fifty-six feet underground in the pitch dark and that the journey would change my life forever, I would have bet odds on my having a panic attack and possibly not living through the experience. Add a hot sexy stranger to the mix and the fact I wanted to rip his clothes off the minute I laid eyes on him … and nearly did … in the middle of a public tour, I'd say you were certifiably insane. The hard brush of his lips and the way he's packed into those tight mouth-watering trousers, set my mind racing out of control. It's just sex though. Raw. Carnal. Bone-melting sex. That voice. It drives me crazy. A few choice words spoken in that deep Southern drawl, and currents of electricity sizzle up my spine. In a single kiss, he's brought me to my knees. Literally. As the most sought after house reconstruction designer in all of Albany NY, Sam lives 11,000 miles away and that is the way I like it. I retain complete control in this relationship. No expectations. No ties. A contract with my very own escape clause. Only one problem. My heart never signed on the dotted line however.

Till I Found You


Michelle Fernandez - 2019
    With the overload of work, there’s no time for romance, nor does he want it. His rule—don’t mix business with pleasure. Until one assignment puts that rule to the test. Chloe Channing is not to discover his undercover role as her protective detail from an unknown psychopath. But as their days pass together in tropical paradise, it becomes difficult to keep his desire from compromising everything. Including her safety.All Chloe wants is to remember, but so much of her memory was lost after her assailant left her unconscious. On a summer trip with friends at her family’s estate in the Bahamas, she yearns for the quiet respite from a previous heartbreak and her tortured nightmares. She never expects a man like Julian to help her find emotional peace and physical healing. But as she falls deeper, her flashbacks slowly come together, and they include glimpses of one handsome, mysterious, yet all-too-familiar face: Julian’s.Is Chloe’s mind playing tricks on her again… or has she met this man before?Even if Julian could let go and risk it all, could he ever forgive himself enough to fall in love again?

The Secrets of Life


K.L. Humphreys - 2017
    For Jessica Hughes, this is her reality.At 21, she’s single-handedly supporting her 2 younger brothers and her 4-year-old daughter while paying off her deadbeat mother's gambling debts.Her life may seem like crap to others, but Jess knows it could be worse.Then, Hunter O'Shea walks back into her life and drops a bombshell - a secret that could destroy everything they once had.Once again, Jess finds herself picking up the pieces of her broken heart.Will Hunter find the courage to claim the family he never knew he needed?Or will Jess move on before he gets the chance?

Show


Joy Blood - 2020
    Every part of the club is embedded deep in his roots, but he will go against them and his President for the woman he loves. When Cammy is banished from the club she is forced to go back to where she came from, with Show as her escort. Only when they get there, things aren't as they seem. Even with his orders Show knows he can't leave her there so he comes up with an idea. The only way for Cammy to be accepted back into the club.Marriage.A happily ever after couldn't be too far off, right?If only things worked that way.

Becoming Me


Staci Stallings - 2018
    Just ask her. She’ll tell you. After all, he is her sister’s best friend, “royalty” in her high school, a senior, and so talented he would never notice a nobody like her. So Paige resorts to pouring her non-existent feelings for Nelson into a very special notebook, a notebook of the words that cascade through her without her knowing how or where they come from. She’s always been like that, writing words that are poetic, ephemeral, and too precious to share with anyone else. But what happens when she loses the notebook that contains the words that are such a part of her? Worse, when Nelson starts to want to hang out, can she play it cool or will he learn all the secrets she’s been keeping from everyone, even herself? Nelson Samuels knows he’s always been a little weird. For as long as he can remember, he’s done his best to keep just how weird a secret from those closest to him. Yes, they know he writes music. What they don’t know is that he hears music in haunting melodies all the time. Having learned to capture some of them into notes on a page, he struggles to share just enough of his talent without risking anyone knowing all of it. It’s only when Nelson starts to notice his best friend’s younger sister that life is about to dare him to open the deepest secrets he holds about himself to someone else. Will he be brave enough to share the imagination side of him, or will he forever stay trapped in knowing he has this amazing gift but being too afraid to share it with anyone? “Becoming Me” begins The Imagination Series by USA Today Best-Selling Christian author Staci Stallings. This set of stories begins in the very real world and takes the reader on a journey to learn that we all have gifts and talents, and those were placed inside of us by a God Who loves us and wants us to learn to use them—for ourselves, for our friends and family, for the world, and for His Kingdom. Come along on this journey that dares to ask what would happen if we all stopped judging our differences and started celebrating them instead.

House Rules


Lyssa Cole - 2017
    Follow the House Rules, Emma.Growing up, that's all my mother would say.In order to find love and happiness, follow the rules...I believed those rules. I followed them, lived by them, loved by them.But at the end of the day, I'm still not happy. Alone.Always trying to help everyone else find their happiness as I fall further down into a deep, dark hole.Until, the day Knox broke those rules and set me free.KnoxLove is pure... love is happiness... love is life.That's what I was told.But I've learned the hard way. Love will break your heart.It'll leave you cold and hurt. Scrambling and lost. Shattered.I'll never allow myself to fall again.Until Emma.Emma...in my life without warning.Her entire being calls to me, filling me with hope.I'm lost without her. My mind screams at me to run and never look back.But I can't. A relentless, unyielding force keeps me in place.I spend my life helping others. Isn't it time I help myself?**Steamy, explicit sex. 18+ recommended.Cover Design by Amanda Walker Designs

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.

Whispers of Love


Rose Verde - 2019
    Scarred by the fear of losing her loved ones, Jordyn can't help but draw closer to Ty and his family. Yet, no matter what feelings he stirs in her, she's seen too many losses to open her heart.To ensure his sister's last days are spent well, Ty Warren brings her to his home in Diamond Isle, North Carolina. Having been left at the altar himself and then watching his dying sister's husband walk out on her and their kids, Ty concludes love is an illusion. Until he meets his sister's hospice nurse. As he watches her care for his sister and live out her faith despite her own loses, he wonders if his opinion has been wrong all along. Can Ty get over his past to see that a wonderful future is standing right in front of him as he learns to trust God? Will Jordyn let go of her fear and risk her heart for a chance at true love? Read Standalone books By Rose Verde 1. Christmas Wish2. Spring Beauty Inn3. A Time to Heal4. A Time To Laugh5. His Thanksgiving Surprise6. Lassoed By Love7. Loving Royalty8. Saving Amy Jayden Romantic Suspense 9. Deadly Games

A Lot Like Home


Kat Cantrell - 2018
    Smooth-talking ex-SEALs need not apply... Ex-Navy SEAL Caleb Hardy is desperate to atone for past mistakes by helping the old woman whose letters got him through the war. When he and his band of brothers drop into her sweet, dying Texas town, only one thing stands in the way of his redemption.Superstition Springs native Havana Nixon is convinced letting a big developer into their tiny Texas oasis is the only way to save the town and she’s not about to let a newcomer—no matter how gorgeous—derail her plans. Especially after her aunt tosses out one of her famous “love predictions” matching her with the most infuriating man on the planet.If only these enemies could stop fighting long enough to admit they’re falling for each other… Welcome to Superstition Springs, the place where destiny is the ultimate matchmaker. All you have to do is believe.