Book picks similar to
Those Were the Days by Jenny Bravo
young-adult
romance
fiction
ya
Chasing Forever Down
Nikki Chartier - 2013
Instead, she finds a mysterious stranger who plays by his own rules and chases his own dreams, and he's definitely cute enough to disappear with for the night. Convinced that he can help her escape the perfectly corporate future that's been planned for her, Haley agrees to meet him the next day. However, Mr. Mysterious is a no show.Determined to track him down, Haley enlists her best friend Linzi to help, but according to the local newspapers, the guy she met has been dead for years. Knowing he's very much alive, Haley and Linzi follow clues on a scavenger-hunt-style road trip that ultimately lands them in the surf town of Crescent Cove, California, where her mystery guy is no mystery at all. He's living as Colby Taylor, the west coast's biggest professional surfer.But talking to the surf star again is nearly impossible when he's guarded by a hierarchy of beach bums who are determined to send Haley back to the east coast. Haley is up for the challenge of submerging herself in their world, from wild summer nights and beach parties to ocean air and secret kisses in the dark, but when the lines blur between the ocean and the shore, she isn't so sure she's here for Colby anymore. Sure, being thrown off a jet ski sucks, but falling in love with one of these California boys might just be worse.(This is book #1 of the Drenaline Surf series but can be read as a stand-alone novel.)
Flirting with Maybe
Wendy Higgins - 2013
When sophomore Ryan "The Kid" McPhearson makes the Varsity baseball team, he finds himself submersed into the life of upperclassmen, and falling in love with senior Brooke Bennet. To Ryan she's his dream girl, perfect. Maybe to the outside world a two-year age difference doesn't matter, but this is high school. Everything matters. Ryan soon realizes Brooke's life is not so perfect. He becomes her closest friend, her safe place to fall when she needs to escape. Ryan seems to be benched in the friend zone with no chance to bat.Time is both a curse and a blessing. It ushers Brooke away to college, and Ryan into the arms of his first girlfriend. It alters Ryan from a kid to a high school graduate, ready to venture to college himself. But when Ryan sees Brooke again he realizes there are some things even time can't touch.Though much has changed, one question still remains. Will the things that mattered in high school always stand between them?
Dangerous
Suzannah Daniels - 2013
Since then, his life has spiraled out of control. He's been kicked out of private school, deemed a disappointment by his father, and forced to endure his own guilt, anger, and grief. The last thing he wants is a relationship with someone who will have expectations of him. But once he's enticed by the shimmering-pink lips of the oh-so-popular, academically-excelling, straitlaced hottie from his new school, he knows he's in trouble. Seventeen-year-old Dara Golding has one goal for the summer: make enough money to buy a car, so that she can drive to school her senior year. After starting a new job, she realizes that she'll be working with the brooding, motorcycle-riding, bad boy who started attending Quail Mountain High last year. With his less than stellar reputation, he's everything she's afraid of...and that makes him dangerous. Their undeniable attraction has Stone struggling with his inner demons. As Dara slowly allows Stone to claim her heart, a little white lie to cover an ugly truth could determine whether she's his savior or the final straw that will break his sanity.
Wide Awake
Shelly Crane - 2013
A coma. A life she can't remember. When Emma Walker wakes up in the hospital with no knowledge of how she got there, she learns that she's been in a coma for six months. Strangers show up and claim to be her parents, but she can't remember them. She can't remember anyone. Not her friends, not even her boyfriend. Even though she can't remember, everyone wants her to just pick up where she left off, but what she learns about the 'old her' makes her start to wish she'd never woken up. Her boyfriend breaks up with the new girl he's dating to be with her, her parents want her to start planning for college, her friends want their leader back, and her physical therapist with the hazel eyes keeps his distance to save his position at the hospital. Will she ever feel like she recognizes the girl in the mirror?
Tear
Rachel Van Dyken - 2012
But for Natalee Murray, things have just gotten way more difficult. Bored with life, she can't wait to graduate high school and get out of town, especially considering the famous band members from AD2 suddenly start attending her school, making her once boring life, absolutely insane.It starts with a pen. A single brush of fingers, and she is captivated.But Alec and Demetri have a dark secret, one that could shatter their reputations and Natalee's heart. What do you do when one guy paints your life with color while the other infuses your soul with passion? How do you choose when your heart is divided?*This is a New Adult/Mature YA. Minor swearing and drug usage.
Jenny Lopez Has a Bad Week
Lindsey Kelk - 2011
Having spent the summer working in LA, she’s back home in New York, and missing the three key elements in a girl’s life – a roommate, a job and a boyfriend. Jenny formulates a plan; surely someone must need a roommate and surely someone must need a girlfriend?By the end of the day, she has arranged a viewing for a potential roommate, the gay blond aka the Sex God,secured two dates, and work looking after a top supermodel. Things look like they are back on track; everything is going to work out great. If only life was so easy…
Some Girls Do
Amy Andrews - 2015
Her three older brothers are adamant she’s not. They made a death bed promise to their mother that Lacey would stay the distance at design school and Ethan, the oldest, takes this responsibility very seriously. But Lacey is deeply homesick and determined not to be dissuaded again. She’s also impulsive enough to try anything - even faking a pregnancy. Ex-cop turned mechanic, Cooper Grainger - one of Ethan’s oldest friends - agrees to watch out for Lacey in the city even though he has a history with her he’d rather forget. How hard could it be, right? But a couple of years later, Coop is over pulling Lacey out of scrapes and cleaning up her messes as she tries to outrun her grief and sense of dislocation. He takes her back to Jumbuck Springs so she can persuade her brothers to let her come home. But things don’t go according to plan. Before Coop knows it Lacey’s pregnant and he’s putting his hand up as the fake baby daddy, filling in for the town mechanic and moving in with her at the local pub. Lacey is thrilled to have won a reprieve but nothing about the situation sits well with Coop. Least of all having sweet little Lacey Weston as his new roomie…
Second Kiss
Natalie Palmer - 2010
And while she thinks she's the biggest loser in school because of them, there are a few people in her life who would disagree. One of those people is her best friend, Jess Tyler, who is opposite to her in every way. He's popular, good looking, athletic, and intelligent, and he can't get enough of Gemma. But while Gemma is dealing with problems like wrong locker combinations and Valentine's Day dances, Jess is living in a world of serious issues that are foreign to Gemma, until she realizes that he's holding on to her for dear life. Humorous and true to life, Second Kiss is an entertaining saga about a boy and girl who find that their lives have a lot more meaning once they have shared them with each other.
Throwaway
Heather Huffman - 2010
But even if Jessie could walk away from Spence, there are darker forces of evil who won't let her go that easily. In this romantic suspense, author Heather Huffman delivers an adventure from the vibrant streets of St. Louis to the caves of the Ozarks as Jessie discovers whether she can love another, whether she can love herself, and whether any of it is enough.Throwaway is the first installment in the surprisingly warm and funny series The Throwaways, twelve novels that don’t shy away from the dark corners of this world but always shine the light of hope. At the core of the series is a group of strong but often unlikely heroes and heroines coming from all walks of life whose lives intertwine as they fight for justice, for love, and to leave their indelible mark on this world.Immerse yourself in a world of suspense, laughter, and love with The Throwaways.
Across the Creek
Jeremy Asher - 2012
An unlikely childhood romance between a poor boy and a wealthy girl began the day Jesse decided to do the impossible and cross the creek. A love was born, one that would become their shelter, protecting them from the storms of their lives, until the day Jesse witnessed his mother’s murder, forcing him to leave his childhood home…and first love. Ten years later, life has finally gotten better for Jesse. He has a loving family, a charming pet shop to run, and one semester left before graduating with a degree in architecture. Everything is great, until the day fate intervenes and his long-lost love walks into his shop and back into his life.Sarah, engaged to a budding attorney, is struggling to keep everything together. Her father, diagnosed with terminal cancer, is running out of time. Sarah races to build their dream business while planning her wedding in time for her father to walk her down the aisle.Their brief encounter starts a series of events that neither Jesse nor Sarah expects. After a decade of running, Jesse is now forced to face the demons from his past, while Sarah has to choose between her handsome attorney and her first love. Just when they think love has given them a second chance, Jesse is faced with an impossible decision, one that will change their lives forever.Across the Creek is the first in a 2-book series. Beneath the Willow is the second.
The Rules for Disappearing
Ashley Elston - 2013
. . But now that she’s been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last. Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from her. But for now, they’ve given her a new name, Megan Rose Jones, and a horrible hair color. For the past eight months, Meg has begged her father to answer one question: What on earth did he do – or see – that landed them in this god-awful mess? Meg has just about had it with all the Suits’ rules — and her dad’s silence. If he won’t help, it’s time she got some answers for herself. But Meg isn’t counting on Ethan Landry, an adorable Louisiana farm boy who’s too smart for his own good. He knows Meg is hiding something big. And it just might get both of them killed. As they embark on a perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there’s only one rule that really matters — survival.
Game of Gods
Staci Hart - 2013
Just don’t ask her to figure out her own heart. Instead, she toys with the hearts of humans. It’s a little game the gods play, and this time it’s Aphrodite’s turn to defend the domain of love. The battleground is New York City, and the stakes are high—the winner receives a token, a favor the loser must fulfill. But every god has secrets. Every god lies. And no god can be trusted.Apollo is no exception. He killed Aphrodite’s love, and for that, he can never be forgiven. But Apollo is on a mission to win. For thousands of years, Aphrodite has kept him from the one he loves, but the wind has shifted, and now is his chance.God and goddess will choose their players. The clock will start. Two humans will fall in love, or they won’t—their fates are intertwined with the gods, their hearts slave to their circumstance, a slave to the game.And in this game of love, Aphrodite never loses.*Formerly titled Paper Fools
Feels like Home
Evelyn Adams - 2014
But when her carefully constructed life crumbles around her, Autumn's forced to return to the small southern town that never let her forget she came from the wrong side of the tracks. Jude Southerland, the town doctor, is used to taking care of people and with a pedigree that has the Ladies Auxiliary reaching for their fans, he’s easily the town’s most eligible bachelor – a status he has no intention of changing. That is until he almost runs down the Maddox girl he never noticed in school and suddenly finds her lush curves, dark curls and blue eyes consuming his thoughts, day and night. Autumn would like nothing more than to live happily ever after with Jude. But with every local matron in the valley trying to marry him off to their own daughters, she knows they won’t let her forget that she's not good enough and never will be. With the chance to finally find happiness, can she overcome her family history and find the confidence she needs to believe in herself or will she let love pass her by?
Until Midnight
Melissa Landers - 2014
Homesick and worried about the upcoming year apart, Cara is desperate to make these final hours count. Worst of all, Cara is missing Christmas, stuck on board an alien spaceship. When Aelyx learns that Cara is forgoing her favorite holiday, he tries to recreate Christmas in space by researching traditional earth customs…but a few things get lost in translation.Coming December 23rd, this FREE short story will include multi-chapter excerpts of both ALIENATED and the sequel, INVADED.
Heartbreak
Skye Warren - 2016
He's the new boy with a bad reputation.Falling in love in the wrong place and the wrong time never felt so good.