Book picks similar to
Blossoms & Steel by Mindy Michele


romance
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Keep Me Warm


C. Morgan - 2019
    My wealth.But a weekend at the Winter Moon Lodge is exactly what I need to clear my head.And the hordes of hunky handsome guys that are coming out of the woodwork are just what the doctor ordered.But one has my attention without effort.Hunter. And this man is on the prowl.I, for one, am happy to get caught up in his net.Unfortunately, my family will never accept him.Wealth hasn’t corrupted me, but they’re a different story.If our love affair could just be a fling, all would be fine, but I can’t settle for anything less than all of him.Love or family? That is the question…

The Way We Loved


Tinley Blake - 2019
    Exactly one hundred and thirty-two months since I’ve seen his face or kissed his lips.4017 days since his heart was mine.Calvin Hunt is the last person I should be thinking about. I’d moved on, got over him. Or so I thought. Twelve hours ago I arrived back home, ready for a fresh start after catching my fiancé in bed with my best friend. Now all I can think about is Cal. Maybe it’s merely nostalgia, but I can’t help wondering if young love really can stand the test of time.Blakelynn was my best friend and love of my life until she chased her dreams all the way out of town, leaving scraps of my heart along the highway. I never thought I’d see her again—wasn’t prepared for her return. I certainly didn't expect her to show up and change everything I'd worked so hard to build. She may have everyone else fooled, but I'm not falling for it.Blakelynn Smith might look like heaven, but she’s making my life hell.

Wild and Free (The Wilder Brothers #1)


Nicole Elliot - 2018
    And well, they aren't wrong. Billionaire. Real estate mogul. And insomniac. Which is what led me to her. She is beautiful. Perfect kissable lips. Curves in all the right places. She makes this country boy wanna throw her over my shoulder and make her mine. There's just one problem. The girl who saved my life? I don't even know her name. This game is harder than most. But that girl, man, she's a prize worth fighting for. Wild and Free is the first of the Wilder Brothers Series, about five wild brothers and their quest for love. USA Today Bestselling Author Nicole Elliot really knows how to heat up the South in these books. Book 2, Accidentally Wild is also now available!

I Wanted It to be You: Rebel Rendezvous #1


Piper James - 2022
    One is a guy I met online, who I’ll never work up the guts to meet in real life. And the other? That’s a long story…My life feels like it’s falling apart at the seams—I’m broke, my restaurant is on the verge of failure, and my brother’s best friend just moved back to town. Okay, so maybe Brooks Callahan’s return isn’t a life-ending event, but it sure feels like it. Eight years ago, he told me he wanted me. He was just a kid, and honestly, so was I. When I tried to let him down gently, he lashed out, his awful words scarring me in ways they never should have.Now Brooks is the only one who can help me, and I have to find a way to put our issues to bed. Metaphorically, not literally. That would be ridiculous, right? Of course, it would.Maybe I’ll ask the guy I’ve crushed on for months…my online friend whose posts always seem to reverberate in my soul. Whose messages make me laugh. Think. Feel.The one who has his own crush…on someone else.What am I going to do?

Damaged & Deadly: A World of Chaos Standalone


Samantha Bee - 2021
    Abused. Forgotten. Thrown away. The endless cycle of pain and abandonment that I’ve been living in. Somehow, I never let it break me. Until I met him. His games, his lies, his punishments. They twisted and molded me to fit his desires. He was breaking me down. Leaving this world of misery behind no longer sounded so bad. I had only ever known pain anyways. Until I was saved. Now, I have a new life. New friends. Maybe even a new family. I found a purpose and people who are willing to help me fight back for the first time ever. But everything comes at a price. War is on the horizon and I’m caught right in the middle of it. This time, I have something I’ve never had before, people I want to help protect. I can’t deny my damage. I’ll never be the same again. So this time, I’ll turn my scars into ammunition. This time, I’ll tear down the very ones who hurt me. They call it war. I call it revenge. Because this time?I’m going to be the one that’s deadly.Damaged & Deadly is A World of Chaos standalone. It is a full-length dark romance that can be read on its own.

Ruthless Saint


S. Massery - 2021
    His gaze steals my breath.Even if my heart thinks this could work, my brain knows better.We say “I do” with his brother’s blood on our clothes,and the bars of my gilded cage slam closed.Our wedding vows are forever – ’til death do us part.But with enemies closing in from all sides, death might be closer than we think.Please note: this book contains dark content that some readers may find distressing.

Stay


Garnet Christie - 2021
    The root-word of heartbreak.Saber was the boy terrorizing our school halls. His uncle was the man who exterminated the happiness in my life by taking my parents from me.I’ve spent the last seventeen years shutting out the nightmares, piecing my existence back together.But the bandages are fragile.Saber’s return to Copperslane shreds through the tender healing I’ve tried to nurture.I’m left with two hopes.That Saber doesn’t stay and he’ll stop looking at me like he understands pain.Saber:I never thought a name could be a light. But in my darkest moments, Eliza is the single hope I’ve ever known.She was the candle guiding me out of the abyss.Seeing her reawakens dreams once lost––that her love is mine.Unfortunately, our twisted past weaves only suffering for my flower.And her thinking that I know nothing of pain shreds through my heart.Now I’m wondering if I should stay, and if she's my fiore at all anymore.Stay is an adult novel and while it is not a dark romance, some of the subjects matters this book touches on are extremely dark. Not all themes are explicitly shown, however, topics include abuse––physical and verbal, many scenes dealing with alcoholism, recalls of death, as well as foul language. Reader discretion is advised.

The Kiss Quotient


Helen Hoang - 2018
    She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan—from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he's making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic...

Love On The Luminous


Chencia C. Higgins - 2020
    Fresh out of a decade long union, she’d rather just pick up the pieces of her life and try to create something she could be proud of again. Random glimpses and a few mind-scrambling encounters with a man who makes her heart beat wildly have her questioning her stance, but she manages to keep her hands to herself and her legs firmly closed until the last day of the trip.When the return to shore is delayed because of health concerns on land, Morgan takes it as a sign to throw her caution into the wind and let that man have what he wants. Spoiler alert: he wants her.Love On The Luminous is part of a short story series dubbed The Luminous Cruise Chronicles. This series is written by a group of authors who found themselves inspired during an otherwise stressful situation.The Luminous Cruise Chronicles:Love On The Luminous - Chencia C. HigginsLove On Deck - AshleyNicoleLove Under Quarantine - Nicole FallsLove Overboard - D. RoseLove On Cruise Control - T. KeyLove Unexpected - TurtleberryLove's False Start - Diana W.Love Lessons - Honesty Price

Sins of a King


Emma Slate - 2016
    Billionaire. Criminal.I should hate him for what he’s done to me, but I’m powerless to resist him.His touch engulfs me. His demands conquer me.But Flynn Campbell isn’t who I thought he was.Suddenly, I’m thrust into a world of seduction and sin.Ensnared by danger and power, foreign desires burn within me.It's time to embrace the darkness...And become a queen.

Bittersweet Surrender


Q.B. Tyler - 2021
     The office where she’d sat twice a week as she tried to repair the glaring problems in her marriage. The marriage that she’d fought hard to save to a man that wasn’t fighting alongside her. She’d been lied to, ignored and used as a pawn to climb his ladder to success. Charlotte was broken, not just her marriage. But, then she met Dr. Montgomery and everything changed. They say love is patient and kind of course, but what happens when that love comes at the cost of everything? Love was a force that took no prisoners when it decided to strike and Charlotte had been hit—hard. By a man that wasn’t her husband. By the very man who was supposed to save her marriage. *Bittersweet Surrender is part one of the Bittersweet duet and must be read before Bittersweet Addiction.

Where Good Girls Go To Die


Holly Renee - 2017
    He was my brother's best friend and the definition of unavailable. But I didn't care. I had loved him for as long as I could remember. He was worth the risk. He was worth everything. But then he broke my heart as easily as I fell for him. He watched me fall, spiraling out of control, and as I reached for him, he wasn't there to catch me. So I ran. Four years later, I never expected to see him again. He was still my brother's best friend, and he was more unavailable than ever. He looked every bit the bad boy I knew he was, covered in tattoos and a crooked smile. Guarding my heart from him was top priority because Parker James was where good girls go to die. Unfortunately for him, I wasn't a good girl anymore.

Beneath the Stars


Emily McIntire - 2020
    I loved him before I knew what lovin' was. I pulled, he pushed. I gave, he took. I loved... I lost. Now he's back. All grown up and sexy as sin. But things changed while he was gone. So, he can show those dimples and flex those muscles all he wants. It won't change a thing. Chase Adams is nothin' but a lost memory. I'll do everything I can to keep him that way. Chase Growing up, there were only two women I ever loved. Neither one of them ever really loved me back. Until her. Alina. My Goldi. She was everything that's good. I was the bad. She was the brightest goddamn star. I was the black hole shredding her to pieces.I loved her wrong, losing her to my demons. But now I'm back. A better man. I'll do everything I can to make her remember us, even if all she wants is to forget.***Beneath the Stars is a full-length, interconnected standalone featuring strong language, explicit sexual scenes and mature situations which may be considered triggers for some. Reader discretion is advised. Please note that while there is a HEA for the main characters at the end of this book, since it is an interconnected standalone, there are themes and side stories that run through the series and may not be resolved immediately.

Enigma of Life


Shandi Boyes - 2016
    . . I don't see how this will end well. After a chance meeting, Isabelle was falling at Isaac Holt's feet--literally. His enigmatic personality set her pulse racing, but no matter how much Izzy craves Isaac's touch, she can't have him. Morally and ethically, he is off limits. He is the enemy. Her astute brain understands this, but her lust-driven heart needs a little more convincing. Join a fast-paced story based on forbidden love. Can two people on opposing sides of the team work together for love? Or will outsider influences force their cart off the tracks before the fireworks truly begin? This is a story about two people NOT destined to be together. This is not your typical love story. Not everything is black and white: there is a whole heap of gray no one pays any attention to. Lovers of Meghan March's Beneath Series and Sylvia Day's Bared to You are devouring Enigma of Life! Scroll up to one click this suspenseful romance now! Please note: Book 1 and 4's covers were recently switched.

The Roommate Risk


Talia Hibbert - 2018
    What she doesn’t believe in is love. Her life is perfect without all that romance rubbish—until a plumbing disaster screws everything up and leaves Jas homeless. Luckily, she has someone to turn to: her best friend Rahul.For seven years, Rahul Khan has followed three simple rules.* Don’t touch Jasmine if you can help it.* Don’t look at her arse in that skirt.* And don’t ever—ever—tell her you love her.He should’ve added another rule: Do not, under any circumstances, let Jas move into your house. Now Rahul is living with the friend he can’t have, and it’s decimating his control. He knows their shared dinners aren’t dates, their late-night kisses are a mistake, and the tenderness in Jasmine’s gaze is only temporary. One wrong word could send his skittish best friend running.So why is he tempted to risk it all?This book was previously published as Wanna Bet?. The Roommate Risk is a steamy, standalone, diverse romance. This book is 75,000 words of fluff, angst, and extreme pleasure, with NO cliffhangers, NO cheating, and a guaranteed HEA. Please be aware: this story contains themes of parental neglect and abandonment, parental death, and alcohol dependence that could trigger certain audiences.