Book picks similar to
12 Hours in Paradise by Kathryn Berla
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Searching for Glory
Hunter J. Keane - 2012
She's on a hit television show and engaged to one of the most desired men in Hollywood. Her life is perfect. But then she gets a letter in the mail that changes everything. The past she has been trying to forget for so long has finally come back to haunt her. Gloria Star hasn't always been an A-list celebrity. She used to be just a regular Midwestern girl named Glory Stark. Now she is forced to reconcile her two lives because Johnny Carter, the only man she ever loved, has asked her to return to her hometown, and she can't say no. Ten years ago, one night changed everything for Gloria and Johnny. Not only did Gloria lose Johnny, but she also lost herself.Now she's headed back to Princeton, Missouri, to reconnect with her sister and make amends with Johnny. She quickly realizes that returning to Glory Stark's life isn't going to be easy. As she faces painful truths about her past and an uncertain future, Gloria learns that forgiveness is essential, family is everything and love is forever.
Before CE"O": Includes the Complete CE"O" Trilogy
M.T. Stone - 2017
The first twenty one years of my existence consisted of one single minded obsession, to be an NFL quarterback. It was about to come true when I was blindsided in the most important game of my life. In an instant, the entire world as I knew it crumbled. When my therapist asked about my other talents or interests, the only thing that popped to mind was... women. I've always been good with women, but it's not like you can make a living with that skill set. Well, as it turns out you can make a damn good living in what they refer to as the world's oldest profession. I've definitely got the equipment for it. Maybe I'll give it a try. At this point, I feel as if I have nothing to lose. After all, what can go wrong when you're trying to keep a bunch of spoiled rich girls happy? * Before CE"O" is a 47,000 word prequel to CE"O" and CE"O" Baby. For a limited time this Trilogy edition includes all three stories. If you enjoy steamy stories with a healthy dose of humor and drama, you will enjoy the journey of Rex Hastings.
Let Me Be the One
Lily Foster - 2014
Her boyfriend? The guy who came off as sweet and devoted, the life of the party? Try obsessed, out of control and hell-bent on ruining her life.One year later, a new and improved Darcy Donovan is back on campus and she’s got a plan. That plan doesn’t include Tom Farrell, or any other guy for that matter. He’s surfer-boy hot and he talks a good game, but don’t they all?Hell to the yes…She’s back.Going after his friend’s girl is wrong, but Tom is too hung up on Darcy to care. Screw principles, screw ethics, screw the bro code. An hour in her presence would lead the best of men to veer off the high road.And he has his work cut out for him. She still thinks he’s a joke, nothing more than a walking, talking one-night stand. What she doesn’t know is that Tom has spent the past year changing his ways. He’s not all talk, and he’ll do whatever it takes to prove it.But when a menace from Darcy’s past resurfaces and Tom’s past comes back to bite him hard, their one shot at happily ever after may be shot to hell.What you don’t know? Turns out that it can hurt you.Let Me Be the One is the first book in Lily Foster's Let Me series. Gripping and emotional, these stand-alone romances are intended for the 18 and older crowd due to mature language and sexual content.
From the Wreckage
Michele G. Miller - 2014
When disaster strikes, their labels become irrelevant.“In a matter of minutes on a Friday night, I lost my school, my identity, the security of my first love, the personality of my sweet fearless brother, my best friend, my town, everything as I knew it. Everything changed.”"Minutes—that’s all it takes to change your entire life. How do you deal with that?”For high school senior Jules Blacklin surviving the storm is only the beginning. Faced with her life's new reality, she must find a way to rise from the wreckage and answer the question—how do you get back to normal when everything normal is gone?The From The Wreckage series is a Young Adult to New Adult series with one trilogy and multiple character spin-offs. Please see the reading order below:Jules and West's trilogy1. From the Wreckage2. Out of Ruins3. All that RemainsSpin-offs best read in order but CAN be read alone4. West: A male POV novel of From The Wreckage5. Into the Fire: Dani's story6. After the Fall: Austin's story7. Until We Crash: Jess and Carter's story
Twinfluence
Grace Costello - 2021
What could go wrong? Twenty-six-year-old Dani’s identical twin sister calls her out of the blue with a colossal problem. Sophie needs to jet off to Mexico to save her friend from a botched tummy tuck but her boss won’t let her take any PTO. Dani, eager to repair their strained relationship, leaves her glamorous LA life behind as a top social media influencer to save the day. Dani’s dang good at pretending to be her sister, but good enough to teach high school kids in rural Oklahoma? When Sophie gets stuck in Mexico for an entire month, Dani not only has to teach Economics and Life Skills, but she has to direct the school musical. And that boss Sophie hates so much? Yeah, it turns out Principal Beck is entirely too good-looking and single for Dani to ignore. Rushed high school musicals, fiery school board politics, and cozying up to Sophie's boss, definitely weren't on her sister's pre-approved syllabus, but Dani never was one for sticking to the plan.From USA Today Bestseller of YA Fantasy Nina Walker and YA Contemporary Romance Bestseller M.F. Lorson, comes a brand new Romantic Comedy pen name––Grace Costello. This dynamic duo combines laugh-out-loud comedy with emotional feel-good romance that will keep you flying through the pages.
Foundation: A Grouchy Geek Romance
Lainey Davis - 2020
They're brilliant, brooding and barreling into relationships whether they like it or not.Zack Brady doesn’t do relationships. He does calculations.When his family engineering firm sends him to investigate a sinkhole at a client’s house, Zack feels a tremor in the foundation of his carefully calculated world.Her name is Nicole Kennedy. She’s loud and crass, and has no time for nonsense. She certainly doesn’t have time for a mysterious trench swallowing her yard. To make matters worse, the grouchy engineer who shows up to fix it is the same jerk she’s forced to run beside during the corporate relay race her boss insisted she run.Somewhere between jogging and poring over geotechnical engineering plans, Nicole and Zack feel the earth move. Can they overcome their past to build something meaningful?Foundation is book one of the Brady Family series. If you love messy family dynamics, unforgettable characters and sizzling chemistry, you’ll devour this new series by Lainey Davis, creator of the Stag Brothers series.
Torrid
Jayne Blue - 2015
The perfect family. The perfect life. In one horrible year, it went away. I can never have it back but I can hurt the man responsible for taking what was left. I know how to steal something even more important from him. He doesn’t see how she looks at me instead of him. I can make her burn for me, make her addicted to me before I send her back.And it will be so easy.Tora - I’ll cross any line to get to the truth, no matter who I have to hurt. I don’t have a choice. I’m not afraid to use sex to get what I want. I know you think that makes me a whore. But until you understand what’s at stake, you can’t know.Don’t judge me until you do.Sometimes, you have to take what you want no matter what it costs.This is part one in a sizzling new erotic romance series by Jayne Blue. It contains strong sexual content and is intended for mature readers.Book Categories
Goodbyes and Second Chances
T.I. Lowe - 2014
Some mistakes create accidental blessings. Jillian (Jewels) Whitman lives with her mistakes and tries to move past the biggest one of her life - Dillon Bleu - Rocker and once best friend. After saying goodbye to the lakeside trailer park of his youth, Dillon sets out to make something of himself only to discover all he needs is his Jewel. After hitting it big in the music industry, Dillon heads back to ask for a second chance. Only... Nothing is ever as easy as it seems... A southern tale of rags to riches where a man's worth is ultimately found in his heart.
Dragonfly
Leigh Talbert Moore - 2013
Pulling Anna into their extravagant lifestyle on the Gulf Coast, Lucy pushed her outside her comfort zone and Jack showed her feelings she's never experienced... Until he mysteriously withdrew.Anna turned to her internship at the city paper and to her old attraction for Julian, a handsome local artist and rising star, for distraction. But both led to her discovery of a decades-old secret closely guarded by the twins' distant, single father.It's a secret that could cost her the boy she loves and permanently change all their lives.
Courted
Jennifer Chance - 2015
But now I’ve got no choice.By the end of the week, I must give up my treasured military commission and take the throne. Given what my family’s already endured, I'll do it, too. There's no escape for me.Then, out on the edge of my beloved Aegean Sea, a dreamy-eyed American girl falls into my arms...and life as I know it will never be the same.Looks like we’ve got a brand new kind of fairy tale on our hands.
KISSED
Carla Krae - 2013
Best friends. It was only a crush Beth harbored for Jacob until she was eighteen. Until London. Neighbors. Best friends. That was all Jacob thought of her until London. Until she kissed him and stole his heart. It's funny what Geometry class and a shared backyard wall can bring about. With a two-year age difference, Beth and Jacob were firmly in the Friend Zone during high school, but a pre-college trip to London will change their lives forever. Kissed is the first of five books in the My Once and Future Love Revisited series exploring Beth and Jacob's relationship with all its joys, flaws, and heartache. New Adult Contemporary Romance saga.
The Boys down South
Abbi Glines - 2021
Worn, faded blue jeans, slow southern drawls, and those naughty moments in the back of pickup trucks a girl never forgets. Welcome to the world of the Sutton boys. Five brothers who fight, party, drink a little too much, but more importantly, they love their momma. Nothing can tear them apart… except lies, jealousy, and women.*This is NOT a new book. This was formerly Boys South of the Mason Dixon and Brothers South of the Mason Dixon. Both books have been edited properly and put together in one book.*
The Mistletoe Game
Ellis O. Day - 2020
She looks like her world has ended. He’s just the guy to cheer her up. He’s rich, attractive and charming.Unfortunately, Ellie finds him annoying, arrogant, and too alpha. She’s done with alpha males who can’t keep it in their pants and wouldn’t know the meaning of the word faithful if they were reading it in the dictionary.But when Ellie’s cheating ex calls her cold, the only way to prove him wrong is to play The Mistletoe Game with Adrian.How bad can it be?They’re in public. It’s a game. Probably, a few kisses under the mistletoe, except this is La Petite Mort Club and nothing is as innocent as just a kiss.
Harvest Wishes
Jessica Anne Renwick - 2021
No job. A looming court date to face her abusive ex-husband. Worst of all, she’s had to move back in with her parents. But just when Madison Talbot thinks things can’t get any worse, she bumps into her high school sweetheart—literally. Romance is the last thing Madison needs, especially with the man who once left her high and dry—so she keeps telling herself.Dylan Stewart returned to Cedar Lake to be with his family after an unimaginable tragedy and is set on staying for good. When Madison moves back to town, he’s got one more reason to make his work-from-home arrangement stick. As the guy who broke her heart first, can he help her see him in a new light?After reconnecting over festival planning at the Starlight Inn, old feelings between them spark to a flame. But between family meddling and the wounds from Madison’s traumatic past, the ties between them soon begin to unravel.Can these two learn to face the world together, or are they doomed to repeat their past mistakes?
For the Fight
Leah Ashton - 2018
He’s a SWAT team operator who broke her heart.The gunman holding them hostage? He’s got no idea who he’s dealing with...Luella Brayshaw doesn’t think when she sees Nate Rivers, twelve years since he walked away. She just feels – all the hurt, and all the heat – and she runs. But by the time her brain clicks into gear she’s on a random train, with Nate – and that’s when it all goes very, very wrong.Driven and dedicated, Elite SWAT tactical operator Nate Rivers knows he made the right decision all those years ago. Although it’s hard to remember why with Lou right in front of him, all strong, gorgeous and justifiably furious with him.But then a gunman takes their carriage hostage… and suddenly the past doesn’t matter. Now it’s up to Nate and Lou – unarmed - to save everyone on that train.When their past and present collide, passion ignites – as hot and as powerful as a decade before. But can the mistakes of the past be forgiven? Or will they destroy any chance of a future together?** For the Fight is the first book in the Elite SWAT series. Each book is a stand-alone, with no cliff-hanger endings. For the Fight was previously published as Undaunted (WASP Team #1).