Book picks similar to
A Summer Sentence by Carolynn Carey


romance
contemporary-romance
chick-lit
contemporary

Just Enough Luck


Aspen Hadley - 2021
    That dream job, however, comes with a twist that has her heading to northern Montana for the monthlong annual family retreat at The Lucky Wolf ranch. She packs a suitcase of warm clothes and a fake it 'til you make it attitude, prepared to do all she can to win the family over. Once there she comes face to face with the Drake brothers.Alexander, Lucy's new boss, is literally a magazine cover model. He's also a numbers geek like her, which makes him dreamy beyond belief, and Lucy can't stop staring. He's too perfect to be real. Daniel is the first person Lucy meets when she arrives at the ranch in the most humiliating way possible. His warmth and humor quickly put her at ease, and she's grateful to have a friend in this unknown, way off the beaten path, frozen part of the country.In one short month Lucy contends with animal attacks, a temporary roommate who's more robot than human, some ranch-hand flirting sessions, and a little eavesdropping, all while attempting to show her new boss that she can do the job.When the month ends, and it's time to return home, her story is far from over. Now her heart belongs to the one man who seems perfect for her. Can they overcome all the obstacles in their way?

Bouquet Toss


Melissa Brown - 2012
    Be it a blessing or a curse, Daphne (a hopeless romantic and perpetual single girl) catches the bouquet at every single wedding she attends. Daphne’s love life is a mess. Her first love, Mayson, haunts her heart and keeps her from pursuing happiness with any man who comes along. As she struggles to move on from the one who got away, Daphne wonders if she will ever break her curse and find her happily ever after.

Love Before Midnight: A Sweet Contemporary Western Romance


Kathleen Ball - 2019
    Having nowhere to go she walks to the small-town diner to get warm. The owner calls cowboy, Maverick Cole for help. Maverick takes one look at Anora and grows angry. He knows she and her husband are part of a horse stealing operation. But when she runs out of the door into the storm, he takes pity on her and gives her a ride to his place. Never in a million years would he have suspected her secret. She’s listed as a missing person. Once reunited with her family, she leaves town. She also leaves a hole in Maverick’s heart. A year later, she returns to start a new life, but trust doesn’t come easy for Anora. Can Maverick help to heal her soul? New Years is approaching and he’s anxiously waiting to find out if she’ll accept his kiss at midnight. Will Anora accept Maverick’s Heart? Only a long-awaited New Year’s kiss at midnight will tell. ** This book was once offered for free with newsletter sign up. A different book is now offered.

Christmas at the Little Cornish Gift Shop


Rachel Griffiths - 2018
    Her dreams of making it as a screenwriter failed and she has no idea what to do next. 
Reality TV star Jake Woodhouse was delighted to find a small, isolated Cornish cottage to rent for the holidays. He aims to spend his days there in peace and quiet, licking his wounds – his only company his faithful, but stubborn, British bulldog, Sherlock Bones. 
But as Ruby and Jake are drawn together by the magic of the festive season and the Little Cornish Gift Shop, they both begin to realise that sometimes it is possible to learn to trust again, and that friendship can be the most valuable Christmas gift of all. 
 This is the first of three short stories in The Little Cornish Gift Shop series. 
Look out for Spring at The Little Cornish Gift Shop coming in 2019.

Jo & Laurie


Margaret Stohl - 2020
    While pressured into coming up with a story, she goes to New York with her dear friend Laurie for a week of inspiration—museums, operas, and even a once-in-a-lifetime reading by Charles Dickens himself!But Laurie has romance on his mind, and despite her growing feelings, Jo's desire to remain independent leads her to turn down his heartfelt marriage proposal and sends the poor boy off to college heartbroken. When Laurie returns to Concord with a sophisticated new girlfriend, will Jo finally communicate her true heart's desire or lose the love of her life forever?

Millie's Fling


Jill Mansell - 2001
    Actually, Millie's relieved. She's happy to enjoy a man-free summer in Cornwall. But Orla has other ideas. She's determined that Millie should meet the man of her dreams. Trouble is, Millie's taste in men doesn't tally with Orla's. The one who really interests her is Hugh Emerson, and he's the man with whom Orla's adamant she mustn't get involved...

Love, or Nearest Offer


Adèle Geras - 2016
    your perfect new life?On paper, Iris Atkins is an estate agent, but she's not just good at finding suitable houses for her clients. In fact, she has a gift: Iris is able to see into their lives and understand exactly what is missing and what they need - and not just in bricks-and-mortar terms either.Of course, concentrating so much on fixing other people's problems doesn't leave much time for examining your own. Over the course of one whirlwind year Iris discovers that while she may know what's best for everyone else, she doesn't necessarily know what's best for herself - and what she finds out could make her happier than she'd ever dreamed of.

The Bridge


Karen Kingsbury - 2012
    Molly Allen lives alone in Portland, but she left her heart back in Tennessee with a man she walked away from five years ago. They had a rare sort of love she hasn’t found since.Ryan Kelly lives in Nashville after a broken engagement and several years on the road touring with a country music duo. He can still hear Molly’s voice encouraging him to follow his dreams; Molly, whose memory stays with him. At least he can visit The Bridge—the oldest bookstore in historic downtown Franklin—and remember the hours he and Molly once spent there.For thirty years, Charlie and Donna Barton have run The Bridge, providing the people of middle Tennessee with coffee, conversation, and shelves of good books—even through dismal book sales and the rise of digital books. Then in May, the hundred-year flood swept through Franklin and destroyed nearly every book in the store.Now the bank is pulling the lease on The Bridge. Despondent and without answers, Charlie considers the unthinkable. Then tragedy strikes, and suddenly, everything changes. In the face of desperate brokenness and lost opportunities, could the miracle of a second chance actually unfold?The Bridge is a love story set against the struggle of the American bookstore, a love story you will never forget.

Heartbreak, Tennessee


Ruby Laska - 2012
    She begged Mac to run away with her after she learned a terrible secret about their two families. When Mac refused, Amber vowed to disappear forever.But now, Amber has been forced to return to help her employer plan a theme park to be set in Heartbreak. She intends to get the trip over with as quickly as possible and return to her life in Nashville, a life that includes a relationship with aspiring singer Dean Hamilton.Unfortunately, negotiating the theme park isn’t as easy as Amber had hoped. The park’s number one opponent is Heartbreak’s mayor—none other than Mac. And when he’s not shooting down her proposal, he’s proposing the kind of collaboration that ignites long-buried passions.

Solving for Ex


LeighAnn Kopans - 2013
     Ashley Price doesn’t have much in life after being bullied so hard she had to leave her old school to live with her aunt and uncle in Pittsburgh. But the camera she borrowed from her best friend and secret crush Brendan, and her off the charts math abilities, make things a lot more bearable. Plus, since Brendan is the captain, making the school Mathletes team should be easy. But when gorgeous new girl Sofia rolls in and steals Brendan, Ashley's place on the team, and her fragile foothold on the Mansfield Park Prep social totem pole, it’s on. Sofia is everything Ashley left her old school to escape. The only thing Ashley didn’t count on is Sofia’s sexy twin brother Vincent. Vincent is not only the hottest boy in school, he’s charming, sweet, and he’s got his eye on Ashley. He’s also not taking no for an answer. There's no real reason Ashley shouldn't like Vincent, but with the battle lines being drawn between her and Sofia, Ashley’s not sure which side he’s on. Or which side she wants him to be on. She does know Sofia is trouble with a capital T, and she’s determined to make Brendan see it. SOLVING FOR EX is a YA contemporary romance that remixes Mansfield Park as Clueless meets Mean Girls in a crazy mix of high school society, mathletic competition, and teenage romance.

Grow Old With Me


Melinda Evaul - 2010
    Benjamin Pruitt plans to repair the town’s buildings before retiring to a solitary life. Sarah Campbell longs for freedom since her long task as caregiver has ended.Can Benjamin and Sarah piece the tattered remnants of their lives into a beautiful design to warm their waning years?Melinda Evaul and her husband enjoy traveling the back roads of North Carolina and Tennessee where rural culture and history are preserved through a unique art form—Quilt Barn Squares.Come follow her adventures along the Quilt Trails of America in this series of novels.

The Seven Steps to Closure


Donna Joy Usher - 2012
    Things go from bad to worse when she discovers that, not only is her ex-husband engaged to her cousin - Tash, the woman he left her for - but that Jake is also running for Lord Mayor of Sydney.Desperate to leave the destructive relationship behind and with nothing to lose, she decides- with encouragement from her three best friends - to follow the dubious advice from a magazine article, Closure in Seven Easy Steps.The Seven Steps to Closure follows Tara on her sometimes disastrous- always hilarious - path to achieve the seemingly impossible.

Two Days of a Dream


Kathryn Gilmore - 2012
    College at eighteen 2. Career at twenty-two 3. Marriage at twenty-four 4. Kids at twenty-sixEverything in its right order. Except, for Kelly, life didn’t follow the order after step two. After a hard day of corporate climbing in Lincoln, Nebraska, Kelly slips into a vintage nightgown and goes to sleep. The next thing she knows she’s in a dream ... maybe.The frustrating, stone-cold Captain Duran maybe just what she’s not looking for, but what she needs. She knows it's only her subconscious creating the commanding and handsome man who orders his way into her heart so she dreads when her alarm clock will wrench her from her heart’s desire. In Iraq, Duran had come to grips with the fact that he would be alone for the rest of his military career, but Kelly turns his orderly life upside down when she appears in his tent. The woman is more than interesting, but is also crazy. He doesn't want to like the hard-nosed woman that keeps popping up in his cot, but maybe he's crazy too. --Amazon.com

How to Sleep with a Movie Star


Kristin Harmel - 2006
    The tabloids pick up the story, and she learns that not everything printed is true.

The Dean's List


Kelly Collins - 2015
    He’s a heartbroken client. Falling in love was never in the contract… Grad student River Roberts is at the head of her class. But outside of the lecture hall, she’s struggling to make ends meet. Refusing to let her diploma slip through her fingers, she joins a secret student society that caters to the wealthy alumni’s deepest desires. But when she starts to fall for a handsome client, she realizes she never factored in the price her heart would pay.After his wife’s death, Jonathan Ferris fills his waking hours with high-powered acquisitions and commodity trading. But no amount of cold hard cash can keep him warm at night. Consumed by loneliness, he turns to his alma mater’s escort service. But his passionate encounters with a co-ed who’s as smart as she is sexy make him wonder if there’s something more between them than money. With graduation fast approaching, can River and Jonathan see past the price tag and open their hearts to true love?The Dean’s List is the first standalone novel in the steamy Making the Grade romance series. If you like secret societies, sizzling sex scenes, and forbidden love affairs, then you’ll adore Kelly Collins’ irresistible read. Buy The Dean’s List to enroll in a sultry secret romance today!