Book picks similar to
Distractions by J.L. Brooks


contemporary-romance
freebies
dark
stand-alone

Love Beyond Words


Emma Scott - 2014
    A passionate reader, she uses the writing of the world-famous and reclusive novelist Rafael Melendez Mendón to assuage her grief. His words are her refuge, his characters better company than anyone she could meet in real life… until Julian Kovač walks into the café one summer evening. He is a handsome, quiet young man and Natalie feels an instant connection. But Julian has a secret that is both the most wonderful revelation Natalie could possibly imagine…and the very thing that could tear them apart.

The Safe Bet


Brittney Sahin - 2015
    No attachments, no relationships — he's too busy transforming his knack for military intelligence into a multi-million-dollar enterprise. But when headstrong event planner Kate Adams comes barreling into his life, everything changes.From the moment she arrives in Charlotte, Kate is tongue-tied by Michael. She's never fallen for a client before, but then she's never had a client like him — sleek, hard, and impenetrable as steel.While Kate struggles to keep her distance, a stalker sends her tumbling more deeply into Michael's world. The former Marine is equipped and willing to protect her, and yet Kate finds herself growing more terrified than ever in his care. For as they grow closer, she realizes that Michael has his own secret past. And while he might save her life, he will surely break her heart.Author's Note: Previously titled: Silenced Memories. This is a STAND-ALONE romantic mystery novel. Hidden Truths: Former Marines. Strong female leads. No cliffhangers.

Black Box


Cassia Leo - 2014
    Their first encounter changes Mikki's life forever, but their second meeting leaves them both buried beneath the emotional wreckage of a violent attack. Mikki is left with more questions and grief than she can handle, while Crush is forced to forget the girl who saved his life.Now nineteen years old, Mikki Gladstone has decided she's tired of the mind-numbing meds. She books a flight to Los Angeles to end her life far away from her loving, though often distant, family.Twenty-one-year-old Crush has always channeled his blackest thoughts into his music, but he's never had great aspirations. He decides to fly to Los Angeles to record a demo of the only song he's never performed in public; a song he wrote for a girl he doesn't even know: Black Box. He has no expectations of fame and he's never felt like his life had any purpose... until he meets Mikki in Terminal B.When Mikki and Crush cross paths for the third time in Terminal B, neither has any idea who the other person is; until they slowly piece together their history and realize that fate has more in store for them than just another love story.

Dark Mafia Prince


Annika Martin - 2016
    So trusting.
Like you think I’m not a monster.
Like I won’t wrap your hair in my fist and bend you to my will.
Like I won’t sacrifice you, piece by piece, to save my brother.I’m the most dangerous enemy you’ll ever have because every time you look at me, you see somebody good. That friend who died.And when you look at me like that, I die again.MiraI spent years making myself invisible.A good girl, apart from the noise.
Then you came back, beautiful and deadly in your Armani suit.
Don’t look at me like you still know me, you say.
But I remember your smile and those sunny days.Before they lowered your small casket into the ground.
Before they told us the prince was dead.

Our Husband


Stephanie Bond - 2000
    But how even?Fate has just thrown a curveball at the women in Raymond Carmichael's life-- all three of them. When they meet at his hospital bed, they discover they're all married to the same man. And when Raymond suddenly dies, the police suspect that one of these spunky ladies has commited murder...The Socialite-- Blonde, post-menopausal, and mad as hell, Beatrix always suspected Raymond married her for her daddy's money...twenty-one years ago.The Doctor-- a smart, small-town family physician, thirty-five-year-old Nathalie had ironically insisted on only one thing from her husband of seven years...absolute honesty.The Stripper-- Twenty-one and an exotic dancer, Ruby would have chalked up her brief marriage to a learning experience...if she hadn't been pregnant.Now they're three women left with a man's betrayal-- and worse, each other. But one thing they each insist-- they didn't kill Raymond. What can they do? Something outrageous and probably impossible: stick together to catch a murderer...A Selection of the Doubleday Book Club

Vicious Prince


Lili St. Germain - 2018
    A brutal abduction.And a love so forbidden, it might destroy them both.Avery Capulet is missing.Taken by a madman. Kept in the dark.She might not survive.He’ll use her body. Destroy her mind. All before he ever lays a hand on her.Rome Montague is a drug dealer. A criminal. A thief.And he needs the secrets Avery and her family are keeping – even if it means cutting them out of her pretty Capulet flesh.Rome Montague is missing – but nobody will miss him.Not that it matters; After the things he’s done to this girl, he doesn’t deserve to be found.Vicious Prince, set in the criminal underbelly of San Francisco, follows two warring families who are ruled by blood, power and twisted desire.Please note this book was formerly titled Verona Blood.

I See You


Ker Dukey - 2015
    I capture you in your vulnerability; that smile, your laugh, those tears. I document you and sell your secrets. When I watch you through my lens you’re mine until I pass you to the buyer. I, like most people, have a fetish for pretty things and in my job I get to be around a lot of pretty things. They pay me to watch them and capture them in a frame for many purposes, and sometimes I like my profession a little more than I should. I took a job to capture her… I wanted to capture and keep her in more than just the image. This time I will take myself away from the lens and become the client because I cannot resist her, she reminds me too much of my first, I need to have her.Traumatised from a vicious attack, Nina Drake finds herself shut off from the world until her neighbour brings her out of more than just her nightmares. Even after moving and changing her name, she still can’t shake the feeling of being watched. The memories are so close. And so is the shadow of the creator of them all.

Deep Under


Lisa Renee Jones - 2016
     Kyle, one of the alpha men of Walker Security, is hot, bothered, and intense, and when Myla lands in his line of fire, she'll soon learn her secrets, and her passion, belong to him. Myla is beautiful, a dove with clipped wings, captive by the wolf, a rich and powerful man. One look into her eyes and Kyle could see the pain, the fear... the desperation. Or so it seems. He's been fooled before by a woman and it cost him everything and everyone he loved. He won't be fooled again.

Owned by the Hitman


Alexis Abbott - 2016
    I will not hurt you, unless you want me to.”I'm in deep to the Mafia. My father was the one who made the deal, and when I inherited his club, I also inherited his troubles.Ivan wants to save me, or so he says. More like he wants me to be his slave for a year. After the one-night stand I had with him, though, would that be so bad? With his impossibly hard body, and the way he always makes me scream...But he's still a monster. He's a criminal, and something so much worse.And yet I can't stop the tingling in my body every time I think of how he touched me, and those dark but delicious words rolling off his tongue, tinged with his Russian accent.He knows what I'll say, even before I do. "I'll take your offer."

Make Me Forget


Anna Brooks - 2014
    She knows she’ll see him when she moves back to Wisconsin. She’s planning on it, the connection she still feels to him after all these years is undeniable. But one lie tore them apart years ago, and she’s afraid some mistakes can’t be forgiven.Travis Parker doesn’t like liars. When he was younger, lies burned him in a bad way. It only took one summer with Charlotte’s innocence to know that she was it for him. When he thought he finally had something to look forward to, one misguided lie shattered everything he believed.Now, Char’s back, but she’s not the same girl he once knew.Make Me Forget is the first book in a series of second chance romances featuring the most loyal men as they battle their past in order to secure a future with their one true love. Defeat is not an option when their hearts are on the line. Each emotional and angsty story can be read as a standalone.

Be Here Now


Andrea Wolfe - 2013
    Attacked her. Raped her. Left her for dead. She lost her whole life in New Orleans and fled to Seattle, hoping to find sanctuary from her dark past. Simone LeClair isn't sure if she'll ever love anyone again—or if she even wants to.That is, until she meets the beautiful Aiden Meyers, a man with a myriad problems of his own, a man that wears different masks to keep his conflicting worlds separate from each other. For some strange reason, as soon as Simone lays her eyes on him, she can't look away. He's unlike any man she's ever met, and that makes him all the more unbelievable.When she's with him, all her pain becomes a distant memory, pain that she believed she'd never escape. But as Aiden's walls start to crumble, and the worlds he juggles start to collide, Simone realizes he's dangerous in a whole new way - she's fallen hard for him, even though he's on a downward spiral that threatens to take her down with him.Will Simone sink with him?Or will she pull herself out before it's too late?Full length (93,000 word) New Adult Contemporary RomanceMature Content Warning: Contains adult language and content.HEA ending.

If The Seas Catch Fire


L.A. Witt - 2016
    Years later, through ruthless strategy and tireless patience, he’s a contract killer working for the three families ruling Cape Swan… and he’s nearly in position to bring them all down from the inside.Domenico “Dom” Maisano is Mafia royalty, a made man… and a hitman. He’s caught up in a violent life he can’t escape, struggling to maintain an image he doesn’t want, and suppressing desires he can’t have.A chance encounter throws the killers into each other’s paths. Though Dom knows he’s playing a dangerous game, he’s intrigued and keeps coming back. Sergei can’t resist him either—Dom is everything he set out to destroy, but he’s also everything he’s ever ached for in a man.Then Sergei gets the contract he’s been waiting for—the hit that promises to bring the town’s Mafia to its knees.But when a capo makes an unexpected move, Sergei must choose between dropping the hammer on the families he vowed to annihilate, and protecting the man he swore he wouldn’t love.And the wrong choice—or even the right one—will destroy them both.

The Dirty Ones


J.A. Huss - 2018
    I wrote dirty, I wrote erotic, I wrote the truth.And then they called me a liar. But it's not me who's lying, it's them.Our story isn't for everyone. It's not even for us.So if you're looking for the fairy tale and the stupid prince on his dumb white horse, move along. You've got a hold of the wrong book. This is not your story, this is not your life, and this is not your opportunity to dip your frightened little toe into the dark pool of water and "try new things" and then pull it out and decide... #NotForMe.When you go in with us you go all in. So make a decision before you turn this page. Because I'm making one promise with this book.Just one.We are The Dirty Ones and this is our truth.The Dirty Ones is a brand new, thrilling, standalone romance about the secret world of erotica authors by New York Times bestselling author, JA Huss.

Deeper


Blue Ashcroft - 2013
    It’s a promise she made the day her boyfriend died in a water park accident, one she still blames herself for. Now she’s a senior lifeguard in a new town with a new pool and she’s just going to keep her head down and everyone safe. Until a mysterious guy follows her into the waves at the pre-season bonfire and kisses her senseless. It’s just one mistake, and Rain is determined to put it behind her, until the dark haired, blue eyed hottie turns out to be her new co-supervisor Knight Mcallister. Knight is hot, tatted, and carrying baggage of his own. He’s not happy about having Rain for a co-supervisor, and he’s even less happy about his attraction to her. But between lifeguard drama, hot underwater kisses, and a growing attraction between them that can’t be stopped, Knight and Rain are being pulled deeper into their pasts, and realizing that sometimes too much broken can make a relationship impossible.Then again sometimes it’s the broken parts of us that fit together best.

Hidden Sins


Karice Bolton - 2014
    Is she worth dying for? His answer is yes. When Hannah Walker rolls into her new town on fumes, she doesn’t expect her past to catch up to her so quickly. But the moment her card is declined for a lousy cup of coffee, she realizes nowhere is safe, and her life on the run has just gotten more complex. Luke Fletcher has made it his mission in life to protect. When he meets Hannah Walker, she makes it clear that his services aren’t needed and neither is he, but there’s something in her eyes that tells another story. Once he begins investigating the woman with many names, he realizes one thing is clear. Whoever, she’s running from won’t stop until she’s dead. Determined to gain Hannah’s trust and break down her walls, Luke begins to share his own history, but where that leads could cost them more than their hearts as the sins of others threatens to destroy them both.