Book picks similar to
Ricochet by Jessica Wilde


romance
contemporary-romance
arc
new-adult

Sicko


Amo Jones - 2020
    He swore to protect me.He failed.They all failed.I’m an open box of passé photographs, snapped in chaste daylight, but filtered in sepia. I’m the past that he tried to forget, and he was the future I needed. When he left six years ago, I screamed for him every night. But then it all stopped. My screams were suddenly muffled by cruelty, and further coaxed by pain.But he has come back. He’s not the cute big brother I had a furtive crush on, or the bad boy, rich brat that I hated to love.He’s the ruthless vice president of Wolf Pack MC, and he doesn’t answer to Royce Kane anymore.He answers to Sicko.

Tortured


Nicole Williams - 2017
    She didn’t realize how right she was. When Lance Corporal Brecken Connolly gets taken as a POW, Camryn hopes for the best but steels herself for the worst. In the end, steel was what she needed to survive when he didn’t. She moves on the only way she knows how—gilding herself in more steel. Years go by. She builds a new life. She leaves the old one behind.Until one day, she sees the face of a ghost on the news. Brecken seems to have risen from the dead, but she knows she can’t perform the same miracle for herself. While Brecken was held in a torture camp for the past five years, she’s been trapped in her own kind of prison. One she can't be saved from.The man she mourned comes back to join the living, but the girl he wanted to spend his life with isn’t the same woman he comes back for. Brecken isn’t the same person either. The past five years have changed them both. While he’s determined to put the pieces back together, she’s resolved to let hers rot where they shattered. Broken or not, Brecken wants her back. He’ll do anything to achieve that. Even if it means going against the warden of Camryn’s personal prison—her husband.

Guarding Sophie


Julie Brannagh - 2015
    He likes the seclusion and predictability of the small town…until the biggest surprise of his life turns up in the local grocery store.Sophie Hayes has her own reasons for disappearing without a trace and moving to Noel. This mountain town makes her feel safe for the first time in a long time. But her quiet routine is threatened when Kyle walks back into her life. Growing up in the same Florida town, she always had a little thing for the sexy football player. This tie to her old life, though, could mean she has to run again, even if her heart wants to stay.When the reason she fled shows up in Noel, Kyle and Sophie, with a little extra help from his teammates, must decide to stay and fight for the life, and love, they’ve found together.

Body Talk


Ashlee Price - 2017
    She’s un-touched and my assistant. I’m Dagger Braun though. I’m used to getting what I want. Even if it means risking it all to make her mine. Who would have thought an ex-SEAL like me would open a yoga studio? Before I can offer classes, I need a talented instructor who can follow my lead. No attachments. Just someone who is professional. That was until Whitney walked into my studio... She was smart, funny and gorgeous – a combination that will tempt any man. The throbbing in my pants proves I'm no exception to that temptation. Those innocent eyes and plump lips could be my undoing. Each time I see her, all I want is for her to submit to me…mind, body, and soul. You know what, maybe she's the one? The one I don't want to share and ever let go of. But a dangerous, unsettled score from my past could ruin our only chance at real love. Despite all odds, I am determined to make her mine! ***Body Talk is a full length, stand-alone romance with a guaranteed HEA. No cheating and no cliffhangers.***

Delayed Penalty


Shey Stahl - 2013
    As long as the non-offending team maintains possession, the referee allows play to continue and signals a delayed penalty by raising his arm.I’m Evan Mason, an NHL hockey player for the Chicago Blackhawks. I spend my nights roughing up two hundred pound defensemen and, at times, spend more time in the penalty box than I do on the ice.That’s my job. One night changed everything I thought I once knew about my life on, and off, the ice. A girl. A brutally beaten girl left to die in an alley.I don’t know why or how but something made me stay that night after taking her to the hospital. I didn’t know her, nor did I have an obligation to stay but something inside of me rooted me there telling me I should stay. Saving a life is worth something. At least I thought so. And I wouldn’t have been me if I just simply left her there. Any man who put his heart and soul into a game of hockey couldn’t just walk away when someone needed them. She had no one else right now. The same guy who saw determination where there was desire, now saw hope where there was once despair.I couldn’t leave. That wouldn’t be me. No, not a man that put all he had into something some called just a game. I couldn’t walk away from her holding onto life, weak and powerless to something she had no control over.So I stayed. In a room full of family members praying for their loved ones to pull through, I prayed for a girl I didn’t know and had never met before, to have a beating heart. While others’ sorrows turned to grieving pain, I sat waiting on the words of the unknown.No bond is stronger than the ones you’ll bleed for.

Ugly


Margaret McHeyzer - 2015
    Contains violence and some explicit language.

Amnesia


Cambria Hebert - 2017
    A place where everyone knows everyone, yet…No one knows me.I don’t know me.If a woman doesn’t know her own name, does she really exist?I don’t know my natural hair color, my birthdate, or where I live.I am invisible.To everyone, to everything, even to myself.Except to him. I see the recognition deep in his stare, the way it lingers on my face as if I’m a puzzle he’s desperate to put together.I just want answers, the truth… knowledge. His lips are sealed. Still, his eyes beguile me.I can’t trust anyone, not even myself. Someone wants me dead, the same someone who tried to bury me in a watery grave. They’ll come for me again… I won’t know their face.I don’t even know mine.I am amnesia.

Beat


Amity Cross - 2014
    Then one day they lose the battle and she’s all alone.Now twenty-two, Ren reluctantly goes to find her estranged father. He owns the down and out boxing studio, Beat, and Ren finds herself drawn to the ring. She thrives on learning a new way of fighting a life that kept kicking her down…instead of struggling against the current, she kicks it right between the legs.Then one day, Ash Fuller, her Dad's star fighter comes back to town. Mysterious, handsome… Dangerous… Everything Ren doesn't need.But he's got other ideas……and so does she.

Turn on a Dime


Tiffany Snow - 2013
    Yes, he plays the field, changing women as often as he changes his ties, but they’re not complaining. He has only two rules – 1) Don’t date employees and 2) Don’t get emotionally involved. Those rules have served him well. He sees no reason to change his ways, until his Runner, an employee in his law firm named Kathleen Turner, does an unexpected face plant in his lap.Kathleen’s too young, too innocent, and suddenly much too vulnerable when her friend is murdered and Blane knows she could be next. Keeping her alive means keeping her close, but can Blane keep her safe...from him? Kathleen’s like no woman he’s ever met, and protecting her could be the one thing he never expected that would make his life turn on a dime.TURN ON A DIME – BLANE’S TURN is a companion novel to NO TURNING BACK, Book One in The Kathleen Turner Series.

The Dark Light of Day


T.M. Frazier - 2013
    Two broken souls that can't be healed, they can't be saved. Abby and Jake have to decide if they can accept the darkness not only within one another, but within themselves. If they can accept each other for who they really are they might learn that love isn't always found in the light...WARNING: This is NOT your typical romance. The story of Jake & Abby contains disturbing situations, graphic violence, sex, strong language, drug use, and all types of abuse.The Dark Light of Day is a King series prequel.

Fighting for Flight


J.B. Salsbury - 2013
    Liberated from the neglectful home of her prostitute mother, she finds solace as a mechanic. With few friends, she’s content with the simple life. Flying under the radar is all she knows, and more than she expects.Until she catches the eye of local celebrity, UFL playboy Jonah Slade. Weeks away from his title fight, Jonah is determined to stay focused on everything he’s trained so hard to achieve. Undefeated in the octagon, he’s at the height of his career. But resisting Raven’s effortless allure and uncomplicated nature is a fight he can’t win. Jonah trades in his bad-boy reputation and puts his heart on the line. But when her father contacts her, setting in motion the ugly truth of her destiny, Jonah must choose. In a high-stakes gamble where love and freedom hang in the balance, a war is waged where the price of losing is a fate worse than death.Will the hotheaded Jonah be able to restrain his inner fighter to save the woman he loves? Or will Raven be forced into a life she’s been desperate to avoid?Word Count: 112,406

30 Days


K. Larsen - 2013
    Dealing with the loss of her only sister. A suicide attempt that doesn’t end in death and a husband who wants her inheritance. Elle’s life is a catastrophe. But she has a list and thirty things she’s determined to accomplish. Love isn't on that list but it comes crashing unexpectedly into her life. Boxing coach and personal trainer at the gym he co-owns, Colin’s content with his life. Until a chance meeting with a woman eating alone at a restaurant sets his heart in motion. As secrets unveil themselves his only goal becomes holding on to what he’s found.

Protector


Michelle Horst - 2016
     A Stand Alone Suspense Romance I’ve always been a hunter, ruthless to the core. I don’t take prisoners and I show no mercy. Then my best friend and his family are taken. Only one member of his family survives the assault. Riley. Her wounded eyes beg me to keep her safe, but she’s only a reminder of the failure I am. Being stuck in the same house, I’m forced to acknowledge her. Her hot body. Her sweet smile. Her seductive mouth.I can only lie to myself for so long before I have to face the truth. It’s not just her forgiveness I want. I want to make her mine. All of her. The broken pieces as well. I want to feel her trembling under my touch. I want to hear her breaths racing as I take her. But there’s still someone out there hunting us. He’s taking out my team and now he’s coming after Riley. Let him come. I’ll make him suffer for threatening to hurt her. I’ll kill him for murdering those closest to me. The killing comes easy. But loving is hard. I’ll always have enemies and to protect Riley I might just have to let her go. ** A Stand Alone Romance. Not recommended if you don't enjoy dark romance with sensitive scenes. +18 Only. All books have HEA and no cheating. **

On His Watch


Katie Ruggle - 2016
    But in a place this far off the map, trust is hard to come by and secrets can be murder...Ice rescue diver Derek Warner never meant to be a hero. But when two little girls go missing, he's the first in line to bring them home-even if that means scouring the wilderness with the woman he once loved and lost, Artemis Rey.Artemis has never stopped wanting Derek. Now, racing to find the girls before it's too late, minutes turn to hours. Night falls. Old flames rekindle. And a danger grows in the darkest wilderness that may be more than even the Search and Rescue brotherhood can hope to face...

Don't Make Me Beautiful


Elle Casey - 2013
    If you liked the movie "Sleeping With the Enemy", then you might like this story too. No one knew a woman lived there or that she even existed. A monster, living in darkness...At twenty-two, Nicole doesn't even look human anymore. The beast made sure of that. So she hides. A monster, consigned to a life of fear and solitude. This is all she deserves, she is quite sure of that.  And then one day out of the blue, the autographed baseball caught by Brian Jensen at the latest Marlins game enters her prison and manages to turn her world completely upside down.Temptation comes in the form of pity at first, and then perhaps something more. Does she dare to believe the things she's told, that this is not the life she was meant to live? That being a monster is not her forever-fate? And will she be willing to risk everything, to reach out and accept the helping hands around her and share her deepest, darkest secrets? She knows only too well that hands can hurt. Finding out whether they can also heal is a risky proposition, especially when the beast is still out there. Looking for her.Content warning: Violence, foul language, and adult situations. Not meant for younger readers. A note from Elle about this book: A really long time ago, I read an article in a newspaper or a magazine (I haven’t been able to locate the original) about a woman who was so badly beaten over a long period of time, she couldn’t leave her house. I thought about that woman a lot over the years and about what her thoughts might have been, her fears, her reality … and this book was my attempt to both exorcise those thoughts from my brain and also shed some light on a subject —domestic violence— that I feel should never be left in darkness.