Book picks similar to
The Best I Could by R.K. Ryals
romance
favorites
ya
young-adult
Cracked Up to Be
Courtney Summers - 2008
She's quit the cheerleading squad, she's dumped her perfect boyfriend, and she's failing school. Her parents are on a constant suicide watch and her counselors think she's playing games, but they don't know that the real reason for this whole mess isn't something she can say out loud. It isn't even something she can say to herself. A horrible thing has happened and it just might be her fault. If she can just remove herself from everybody--be totally alone--then everything will be okay...The problem is, nobody will let her.
Trouble
Samantha Towle - 2013
Running from a person she doesn’t ever want to find her. Running from a past she doesn’t ever want anyone to know. Desperate to find a future, that yesterday, she could only dream of having. Jordan Matthews likes easy. Easy women. Easy life. Then he meets Mia. She’s damaged, troubled and has more baggage than any person can carry. But the more Jordan gets to know Mia-for the first time in his life-he finds himself wanting to try hard for something … for someone … for her.And then life isn’t so easy anymore. Jordan is everything Mia shouldn’t want. A whole bunch of dirty hotness, tattooed, cocky bad boy, who made his money at poker tables and picked his women up in bars. Yet, Mia finds herself falling for him. Then the past Mia was running from, quickly starts to catch up with her. Because that’s the problem with running … you have to stop sometime. And when you stop, you get caught.Full length New Adult Contemporary Romance.Recommended Reading Age 18+
Let There Be Light
A.M. Johnson - 2018
Hard work and drive kept Royal O'Connell one step ahead of his competition. His spot on the swim team, keeping his scholarship, was the only plan that mattered. His world was ebony and ivory. Natural talent and ambition set Camden Morgan apart from the other music majors. His dedication scoring him a full ride. Normally, their paths would have never crossed….But when Royal meets his best friend's new roommate, his big plan and Camden’s controlled environment faces a variable that could destroy it all. Attraction. The world they live in had no room for error. That undeniable pull between them was dangerous and neither one of them could've prepared for the choice they'd have to make. Love isn't always an easy road and, when everything they've worked for is on the line, they'll have to decide if being together is worth the risk. Let There Be Light is a full-length standalone.
Rock
Anyta Sunday - 2014
There’s Lila, too: The other woman, the one who stole the rock-solid foundation of his life. And then . . . There’s Jace. Lila’s son. Lila’s smug, regurgitated-fish-scale-blue eyed son. All Cooper wants is to have his family back the way it once was, but there’s something about this boy that promises things will never be the same again. Sedimentary. Resisting the realities of his new life, Cooper and Jace get off to a rocky start. But rocky start or not, after hundreds of shared memories together, they forge something new. A close . . . friendship. Because friendship is all they can have. Although it’s not like they are real brothers. Technically, they’re not even stepbrothers . . . Metamorphic. But how does that friendship evolve under the pressures of life? Under pressures of the heart?
Taking Chances
Molly McAdams - 2012
Ready to live life her own way and to experience things she's only ever heard of from the jarheads in her father's unit, she's on her way to college at San Diego State University.Thanks to her new roommate, Harper is introduced to a world of parties, gorgeous guys, family, and emotions. She finds herself being torn in two as she quickly falls in love with both her new boyfriend, Brandon, and her roommate's brother, Chase. Despite their dangerous looks and histories, both men adore Harper and would do anything for her, including taking a step back if it would mean she'd be happy.
Love You Hate You Miss You
Elizabeth Scott - 2009
I can see it now: Dear Diary, As I'm set adrift on this crazy sea called "life" . . . I don't think so.It's been seventy-five days. Amy's sick of her parents suddenly taking an interest in her.And she's really sick of people asking her about Julia. Julia's gone now, and she doesn't want to talk about it. They wouldn't get it, anyway. They wouldn't understand what it feels like to have your best friend ripped away from you.They wouldn't understand what it feels like to know it's your fault.Amy's shrink thinks it would help to start a diary. Instead, Amy starts writing letters to Julia.But as she writes letter after letter, she begins to realize that the past wasn't as perfect as she thought it was—and the present deserves a chance too.
Here's to Falling
Christine Zolendz - 2015
Intended for mature readers only.***TRIGGER WARNING!
Malik
Lisa Helen Gray - 2015
Shortly after my parents were murdered I moved in with my Grandma. It meant switching schools, losing friends, and moving away from the only home I knew. All I wanted was to finish the school year hassle free. Switching seats on that first day altered my life. After surviving the loss of my parents I never thought anything could break me, but then HE came into my life.... He wants to hurt me Destroy me Ruin me Tragedy brought me here, and a cruel twist of fate has me desperate to leave. There's also someone here that has me fighting to stay though. All my life I’ve lived in the shadows, trying to go unnoticed, until I met HIM.... Malik Carter.... He’s broody, quiet, and holding on to a dark past. From that first meeting I was drawn to him, his painfully gorgeous looks and model physique, but I also knew he was totally out of my league. He's the boy next door who, with his domineering personality, has somehow etched his way into my life. When the Carter Brothers take it upon themselves to protect me from what’s coming, I’m not sure whether to be relieved or shocked. You see, when a Carter brother loves, they love fiercely, strongly and protectively. No one can get in their way. They’re also used to getting what they want, even if it means getting hurt. There’s one thing you should know about the Carter brothers before you read my story.... If you mess with one, you mess with them all.
Sugar
Deirdre Riordan Hall - 2015
I’ve always been too much and yet not enough.
Sugar Legowski-Gracia wasn’t always fat, but fat is what she is now at age seventeen. Not as fat as her mama, who is so big she hasn’t gotten out of bed in months. Not as heavy as her brother, Skunk, who has more meanness in him than fat, which is saying something. But she’s large enough to be the object of ridicule wherever she is: at the grocery store, walking down the street, at school. Sugar’s life is dictated by taking care of Mama in their run-down home—cooking, shopping, and, well, eating. A lot of eating, which Sugar hates as much as she loves.When Sugar meets Even (not Evan—his nearly illiterate father misspelled his name on the birth certificate), she has the new experience of someone seeing her and not her body. As their unlikely friendship builds, Sugar allows herself to think about the future for the first time, a future not weighed down by her body or her mother.Soon Sugar will have to decide whether to become the girl that Even helps her see within herself or to sink into the darkness of the skin-deep role her family and her life have created for her.
Touch Me Not
Apryl Baker - 2015
Not accidentally, not casually…and certainly not intimately. This makes it impossible for her to confess to her best friend Adam Roberts that she’s in love with him. She can’t give him the sort of relationship he needs, so she watches in silence while he plans his wedding with someone else.Enter Nikoli Kinkaid, the campus manwhore…Nikoli is a self-proclaimed connoisseur of women, and he wants to add Lily to his list of conquests, but she wants nothing to do with him—until he makes her an offer she can’t refuse. He’ll teach her to enjoy human contact again, giving her a chance to win over Adam, while Nikoli uses all his considerable charm to seduce her.But Lily raises the stakes…Lily loves cars. Her late father was a racer, and she grew up under the hood of a car and on the racetrack. Nikoli has a limited edition 1970 Plymouth Barracuda she covets, so she informs him the terms of their deal also require he not sleep with anyone for six months. If he does, she’ll win the car. If she surrenders and ends up in his bed, his beloved ’Cuda is his to keep.In an intricate dance of control and surrender, a reluctant friendship becomes something more. Lily begins to crave things she never believed she could, and Nikoli realizes there is more at stake than his reputation. If Lily overcomes her phobia, will she crave Adam’s touch as she’s starting to crave Nikoli’s? Or will she only find pleasure from the touch of a semi-reformed manwhore?
Beautiful Broken Rules
Kimberly Lauren - 2013
That’s why this hard-partying college student plays by her own code of bedroom conduct, refusing to stay with the same guy for too long. She gets all the pleasure of having a good time without the messiness of a relationship.. So what if frat house–hopping has earned her a certain reputation around campus? At least no one gets hurt this way—especially her.When ridiculously gorgeous Jaxon Riley moves in next door, Emerson’s not sure how long her vow against emotional intimacy can last. Jaxon’s tattoo, muscles, and sexy voice make him tempting, but he also seems to really understand her…until his jealous ex-girlfriend and Emerson’s life-changing discovery about her parents get thrown into the mix. After everything she’s been through, can Emerson handle a real relationship? Or will breaking her rules just lead to a broken heart?
Revised edition: This edition of Beautiful Broken Rules includes editorial revisions.
If You Stay
Courtney Cole - 1999
Seriously. He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match. But he’s got his reasons. His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why. What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count. As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work. His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade. So he slipped far, far from it. Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the ugliness, the black void that he doesn’t want to deal with. If he pretends that the emptiness isn’t there, then it isn’t, right? Wrong. And it’s never more apparent than when he meets Mila. Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air to his hardened frown, the beauty to his ugly heart. He doesn’t know how to not hurt her, but he quickly realizes that he’s got to figure it out because he needs her to breathe.When memories of his mother’s death resurface from where he’s repressed them for so long, Mila is there to catch him when the guilt starts making sense. Mila is the one…the one who can save him from his broken troubled heart; from his issues, from the emptiness. But only if he can stop being an asshole long enough to allow it. He knows that. And he’s working on it. But is that enough to make her stay?
Paper Princess
Erin Watt - 2016
She’s spent her whole life moving from town to town with her flighty mother, struggling to make ends meet and believing that someday she’ll climb out of the gutter. After her mother’s death, Ella is truly alone. Until Callum Royal appears, plucking Ella out of poverty and tossing her into his posh mansion among his five sons who all hate her. Each Royal boy is more magnetic than the last, but none as captivating as Reed Royal, the boy who is determined to send her back to the slums she came from.Reed doesn’t want her. He says she doesn’t belong with the Royals.He might be right.Wealth. Excess. Deception. It’s like nothing Ella has ever experienced, and if she’s going to survive her time in the Royal palace, she’ll need to learn to issue her own Royal decrees.
Escaping Me
Elizabeth Lee - 2013
Forget the memory of walking in on her boyfriend in the middle of, well, another girl. Forget how she had her entire life planned out. And, forget about being perfect all the time. Unfortunately, she was Whitney Vandaveer and despite the fact that she moved to the middle of nowhere – she couldn't. He always knew he would never be more than nothing. No job, no money, no future. Cole Pritchett had accepted the fact that he would always be the screw up and he was okay with it. Until he met her. Here's the thing they quickly found out – sometimes we all need a little help escaping who we think we are.
Her Best Friend's Brother
T.J. Dell - 2011
The problem? Tony is her best friend's older brother. Lately Tony has started looking at her in a new way and he emails her all the time. Could it be possible that he is starting to see her as more than his kid sister's best friend? Tony knows Libby McKay is off limits. She's his sister's best friend for crying out loud! But she is also smart, funny, and seriously hot. Plus she's not afraid to get a little sweaty-- on the track that is. Tony can't seem to help himself, besides what's a few emails? The occasional phone call? He can keep things light and friendly-- Can't he?