Book picks similar to
Reprieve by A.E. Woodward
new-adult
standalone
stand-alone
contemporary
Taking Connor
B.N. Toler - 2015
Connor Stevens fit that bill. His reputation preceded him. With a hard body and vivid tattoos dispersed across his flesh, he certainly drew the judgmental eyes of conservative tight-asses. Even I had those same thoughts…regardless of how highly Blake spoke of him. But those opinions were about to be challenged. I’d promised to pick Connor up from prison—where he’d served eight years for manslaughter. When Blake passed away, I had every intention of honoring our agreement. Taking Connor home would be my ultimate show of gratitude. Blake never disclosed why Connor killed a man, and I never had the guts to ask. Ever daunted, and against my better judgment, I soon grew to feel close to Connor, in spite of how perverse it was. Still, I vowed to brush off those feelings at all costs. At least I thought I would. Until all hell broke loose… Diving head-first, I relished in the time spent in Connor’s damnation. But when he was thrust into hell, it didn’t matter how wrong it was to love him. It was immaterial what he’d done…or why. I came out swinging and clawing, and submerged into the inferno with him, refusing to leave until we both walked out hand in hand. My instinct was to fight. Connor wouldn’t burn alone. I would save him. Or turn to ash right beside him.
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.
Pocketful of Sand
Michelle Leighton - 2015
And I’m hope for her heartache.”—Cole Danzer.I don’t know what makes a great love story. Is it that instant attraction when boy meets girl? The passionate kisses and the fairy-tale ending? Or is it a lifetime of tragedy, paid in advance, for a few stolen moments of pure bliss? The pain and the suffering that, in the end, you can say are worth it for having found the missing piece of your soul? The answer is: I don’t know. I don’t know what makes a great love story. I only know what makes my love story. I only know that finding Cole when I did, when Emmy and I were running from a nightmare, was the only thing that saved me. That saved us. He was more broken than I was, but somehow we took each other’s shattered pieces and made a whole. If that is what makes a great love story, if that is what makes an epic romance, then mine…ours is the greatest of them all.**Contains material that some may find disturbing. Not intended for readers under the age of 18**
Raine's Haven
Shari J. Ryan - 2017
From inside of my house, he was perfect. Then I found out everything looked different from afar. Raine, a blunt and hot tempered man was living a life he wasn't proud of, and I found myself oddly attracted to the sickening reality he opened my eyes to.RaineShe thought I'd fall for her seductive ploy and scarlet-glossed lips. She was right. Every person in this small town had something negative to say about Haven Leigh's life—the girl who had been handed everything on a silver platter. I ignored the rumors, and instead, searched for her truths.While struggling with disabling side-effects left behind by my coke-addict mother, Haven became the hope I needed. She was the good I wanted to be.But, as it turns out, she was the trouble I should have stayed away from.
Revelry
Kandi Steiner - 2017
She never expected to be divorced at twenty-seven, but now that the court date has passed, it’s official. The paperwork is final. Her feelings on it aren’t. Spending the summer in a small mountain town outside Seattle is exactly what she needs. The peaceful scenery is a given, the cat with the croaky meow is a surprise, but the real kicker? A broody neighbor with nice arms, a strange reputation, and absolutely no interest in her. Anderson Black is perfectly fine being lost. He doesn’t care about the town’s new resident — he’s too busy fighting his own demons. But when he’s brought face to face with Wren, he can see her still-fresh wounds from a mile away. What he doesn’t see coming is his need to know who put them there — or his desperation to mend them. Sometimes getting lost is the way to find yourself. Sometimes healing only adds a new scar. And sometimes the last place you expected to be is exactly where you find home.
Watch over Me
Tara Sivec - 2013
She has a family that loves her, friends that make her laugh, and she's wrapped up in the excitement of graduating high school and going off to college to pursue her dream of becoming an author. When her mother, who also happens to be Addison's best friend, dies unexpectedly, her world comes to a crashing halt. Death changes everyone... To make the pain go away, Addison and her father travel down separate, dark paths. She chooses to end her grief forever, while he drowns his sorrows in the bottom of a bottle. How do you learn to live again when the most important person in your life is gone? Addison struggles to pick up the pieces of her life. Instead of getting back to being the carefree teenager she once was, she's stuck handling all of the responsibilities that should have been her father's. She has no time to grieve, no time for emotions, and no time for happiness...until Zander Reinhardt walks in. All it takes is one little handwritten note on a napkin to kick-start her back to life and help her realize that maybe there's more to that life than pain. But can it really be that simple? Can she really trust this man who makes her feel alive again for the first time in a year?
Come Back to Me
Mila Gray - 2014
Jessa's finally following her dreams and Kit's discovered there's someone he'd sacrifice everything for.Jessa's prepared to wait for Kit no matter what. But when something more than distance and time rips them apart they're forced to decide whether what they have is really worth fighting for.
The Replacement
Rachael Wade - 2014
I’m twenty-three years old and I’m known as the town whore.No, not the kind who exchanges sexual favors for money. The other kind. The kind who gives it all away for free, whenever and however she likes. I am that girl. The one everyone whispers about and the one none of the girls seem to like, because all of their boyfriends either want to sleep with me or already have. Promiscuity is my thing—the kind that slowly, violently turns my insides black, but gives me something I need.All things considered, I’m not completely reckless. I’m safe, and contrary to popular opinion, I do have a heart. I live in a world of careless choices, and with those choices come careless people. I cannot judge them, because I am one of them. I too bow down to the altar of the self-serving. I am not a good friend. I am not and never could be anyone’s girlfriend. I’m convinced any goodness in me shriveled up and died long ago.But I am a replacement. That is something I know how to be, and this is a story of the lengths I’d go to in order to keep it that way.
Stain
Francette Phal - 2015
Always chasing after you." I didn't know it was possible to fall so deeply into someone. To drown so strongly into their bottomless depths coming up for air was unfathomable. Until he comes along, with his sun-hot radiance, and eclipses the candle that is me. He's Lucifer before the fall, beautiful but the devil is in the way he looks at me. In the way his touch brands his name across every inch of my skin. His kisses possess my soul in the most sinful of ways. Maddox Moore is my beginning and my end. Protector, friend, and lover—he's become my sole religion. At his side I become fearless, in his arms I burn to cinders, and in worshiping him I lose myself and discover the person he sees in me. But nothing is forever. Moments are ephemeral. No matter how much you want something life inevitably reminds you that you can't have it. I'm damaged. He's broken. We're both covered in stains. Stains that make it impossible for us to hold onto each other. MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY 18+ Warning: This book contains graphic content which may not be suitable for sensitive readers.**Standalone novel**
My Time in the Affair
Stylo Fantome - 2015
Now, before you judge me, hear my story. Hear how much I'm like you, how similar my thoughts are to your own. Yes, I'm a horrible person. Yes, I've done horrible things. Yes, I don't deserve forgiveness. Yes, bad things happened because of my actions. But I'm willing to bet I've done things that maybe, just maybe, you have thought of doing. Maybe, just maybe, you're not as innocent as you'd like to think. Or maybe I'm not so guilty ... Full Length Standalone Novel, 85,000+ words
Number Thirteen
Bella Jewel - 2014
A master we've never seen.Obedience will become all we know in our shallow existence. It is the only emotion we're permitted to feel.When we're bad, we're punished. When we're good, we're rewarded. Our scars run deep. Yet we survive, because we have to... because HE teaches us to.All of us are special, we feel it with everything we are.He has us for a reason, but it's a reason we don't know.We've never seen his face, but we know that something deeply broken lies beneath the darkness. With every touch, with every punishment, we know it. Then something changed. He showed me who he truly is.Now I want him.I'll go against everything I know to be with him. A monster. My monster. Loving him is a sin, but a sinner I am. I won't stop until I see every part of him. Even the parts he keeps locked deep down inside. I am Number Thirteen, and this is my story.
Obsessed
R.J. Lewis - 2016
He became my addiction the moment I met him at 10 years old. He was my best friend from childhood. He protected me and guided me. I loved him fiercely long before I really understood what love was. We were inseparable. He knew how I felt, and sometimes he would stare at me in ways that made me breathless. But there were boundaries. Lines that couldn't be crossed. Looks that shouldn't be exchanged. Lips that shouldn't be kissed. We weren't supposed to love each other. Not in **that** way. Because, you see, Aston was also my adopted brother... Aston Elise was off-limits, a temptation that cursed my existence with this visceral hunger to have her, possess her, and taste her like she was made for me. I was tormented and on the brink of falling. If I stepped over that boundary, if I gave into my want, I wasn’t sure I could survive the disappointment of my adopted parents. We would all be affected. Our lives wouldn’t be the way it was. That change was irreversible, and the damage would be permanent. It was a scary thought, destroying a foundation and rebuilding it without knowing what it might end up looking like. But my want for her…it sat in the core of me, growing and growing. And want is a dangerous fucking thing. It clouds your judgment, it makes you weak, and I knew…I knew without a doubt, it was only a matter of time before I cracked. Obsession was devotion. Obsession was mania and need. It was a compulsive urge to self-gratify by wanting, and wanting, and wanting ‘til it hurt, ‘til you could feel it there in your bones, gnawing its way deeper within you. Obsession was my craze for Elise. She was my impulse. My…pulse itself. It wasn’t healthy. I knew that. I didn’t fucking care either.
Slip of the Tongue
Jessica Hawkins - 2016
Nathan Hunt has her coffee waiting every morning. He holds her hand until the last second. He worships the Manhattan sidewalk she walks on. Until one day, he just…stops. And Sadie finds herself in the last place she ever expected to be. Lonely in her marriage.When rugged and sexy Finn Cohen moves into the apartment across the hall, he and Sadie share an immediate spark. Finn reveals dreams for a different life. Sadie wants to save her marriage. Their secrets should keep them apart, not ignite a blistering affair. But while Sadie’s marriage runs colder by the day, she and Finn burn hotter.Her husband doesn’t want her anymore.The man next door would give up everything to have her.Slip of the Tongue is a standalone contemporary romance. The second book in the series, The First Taste, is a standalone about a different couple.
Perfect Lie
Teresa Mummert - 2013
That’s why Brock and I never had a chance. I had to start my life over. College was my chance to become someone new. I changed everything about myself to fit in, but one person saw through my facade. The attraction between Abel and I was undeniable, but I still hadn’t healed from the painful secret I carried around with me. Abel struggled to get me to face my past in order to move forward. In doing so, he revealed a secret of his own; one that changed everything I thought I knew. A secret that would bring Brock back into my life and force me to face the truth of what really happened the day I lost him.
Compulsive
Lia Fairchild - 2015
Lies destroy.But some lies protect. Gray Donovan is a compulsive liar using it as a defense mechanism to survive her shattered past.When she starts seeing therapist Daniel Harrison, she can no longer deny the truths that have plagued her for so many years. She must now stand and face them. Opening up to Daniel leaves her exposed and vulnerable. When her soul is bared to him, she can’t contain the attraction or the feelings he elicits.Daniel feels drawn to his new patient, but he knows he will have to fight it in order to resurrect Gray from her demons. His will and his judgment are tested as he battles his own doubts…and faces his own secrets.**Content Warning: Due to language and sexual situations, this book is intended for 18+ Only**