Book picks similar to
Love Hurts by M. Robinson
4-stars
favorite-books-of-all-time
stand-alone
romance
Catch Me
Claire Contreras - 2013
I've experienced a lot of things in my twenty-five years, everything except the one thing I want. It's the one thing that can’t be bought. It can't even be taken, it has to be given. And nobody has ever given it to me, not really anyway. Not until him.Music is the center of both our lives, but as he found his place in it, I lost my way. He soared, while I spiraled down a destructive path.I lost myself in more ways than I can count.The ironic thing is that I didn’t realize how lost I was until he found me. And now that he has, I have to wonder if he'll stay around long enough to catch me.
Bad Habit
Charleigh Rose - 2017
Even bruised and bloodied, he was the most beautiful boy I'd ever seen. We couldn't ever be together. I was too young, and he was too untouchable. He was too troubled, and I was too naive. But the heart is rebellious, and mine decided it didn’t care about any of those things. As I got older, harmless flirting turned to stolen moments in dark corners. Until one day, he was gone without a trace. Now, three years later, he’s back. Callous and cruel. He’s my brother’s best friend. My parents’ worst nightmare. I should hate him. But like a Bad Habit, I can’t quit him. ASHER I was drawn to Briar Vale from the first time she looked up at me with stars in her big, blue eyes. She was just a kid, nothing but elbows and knees, but she was the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen. We could never be together. I was too old and she was too off limits. She was too good and I was too fucked up. Eventually, the temptation became too much to resist. I risked everything for a kiss and she betrayed me. Three years have passed and I’m forced to see her again, but now she's all grown up. She’s my best friend’s baby sister. My downfall. I hate her for what she did. But she's always been my drug of choice
Curvy Attraction
Tara Brent - 2018
I’m religious, he’s his own God. He’s a playboy, I’m a virgin. He’s chiseled. Well, I have my own curves! And yet we fit perfectly together. Tristan Blackwood and Bethany Ballard are an unlikely couple, especially with Tristan’s eccentric older sister warning her neighbor Bethany, to stay away. Bethany is ecstatic when Tristan shows an interest in her. And there is no way she was going to let Colleen ruin her one chance of real love. In a drunken stupor, Colleen reveals a dark secret of the Blackwood family. A secret that can never be revealed to Tristan. If exposed it could shatter the very foundation of his existence. Yet, if Bethany keeps this secret away from him, will he ever be able to forgive her?
Filthy Gods
R. Scarlett - 2018
Wealthy. Elite. Attractive. The gentlemen’s secret society at Yale was filled with them.And Nathaniel Radcliffe, the bane of my existence, was one of them.As the right hand of the American Gods, he was conceited and arrogant. A dangerously handsome man in a tailored custom suit and shiny black oxford loafers.The classroom was our battlefield. We made a sport out of arguing and debating, ready to do anything in order to win over the other.Deadly opponents, deadlier minds.I'd sworn I'd never give him the upper hand, until...The secret I’ve been hiding for the last three years?He just discovered it… and now he has all the power.Prelude in the American Gods series.
Taken by the Bratva (Bratva Brotherhood)
Bianca Cole - 2022
The man I’ve secretly craved since he was assigned to me. The man who won’t tell me why he has kidnapped me. There’s a darkness in his eyes I’ve never seen in them before. I fear him as much as I long for him. Now I'm alone with him, feelings I’ve tried to ignore return.He has my heart in the palm of his hand, but will he crush it or claim it? Taken by the Bratva is the fifth and final book in the Bratva Brotherhood Series. It's a safe story with no cliffhangers, a HEA and no cheating. This story has hot scenes, some dark themes, and bad language. Like most of the books by Bianca Cole it features an over the top possessive alpha male.
Fallen Too Far
Abbi Glines - 2012
His famous father’s guilt money, his mother’s desperation to win his love, and his charm are the three reasons he has never been told no.Blaire Wynn left her small farmhouse in Alabama, after her mother passed away, to move in with her father and his new wife in their sprawling beach house along the Florida gulf coast. She isn’t prepared for the lifestyle change and she knows she’ll never fit into this world. Then there is her sexy stepbrother who her father leaves her with for the summer while he runs off to Paris with his wife. Rush is as spoiled as he is gorgeous. He is also getting under her skin. She knows he is anything but good for her and that he’ll never be faithful to anyone. He is jaded and has secrets Blaire knows she may never uncover but even knowing all of that…Blaire just may have fallen too far.
Broken
Lauren Layne - 2014
or destroy them.When Olivia Middleton abandons the glamour of Park Avenue for a remote, coastal town in Maine, everyone assumes she’s being the kind do-gooder she’s always been. But Olivia has a secret: helping an injured war veteran reenter society isn’t about charity—it’s about penance. Only, Olivia’s client isn’t the grateful elderly man she’s expecting. Instead, he’s a brooding twenty-four-year-old who has no intention of being Olivia’s path to redemption . . . and whose smoldering gaze and forbidden touch might be her undoing.Paul Langdon doesn’t need a mirror to show him he’s no longer the hotshot quarterback he was before the war. He knows he’s ugly—inside and out. He’ll do anything to stay in self-imposed exile, even accept his father’s ultimatum that Paul tolerate the newest caretaker for three months or lose his inheritance. But Paul doesn’t count on the beautiful twenty-two-year-old who makes him long for things that he can never have. And the more she slips past his defenses, the more keeping his distance is impossible.Now Paul and Olivia have to decide: Will they help each other heal? Or are they forever broken?
The Songbook of Benny Lament
Amy Harmon - 2021
With his father’s deep ties to the mob, the Bronx piano man has learned that love and family can get you in trouble. So he keeps to himself, writing songs for other musicians, avoiding the spotlight…until the night his father brings him to see Esther Mine sing.Esther is a petite powerhouse with a gorgeous voice. And when Benny writes a hit song and performs it with her, their collaboration thrusts the duo onto the national stage…and stirs up old issues and new scrutiny that the mob—and Benny—would rather avoid.It would be easier to walk away. But the music and the woman are too hard for the piano man to resist. Benny’s songs and Esther’s vocals are an explosive combination, a sound that fans can’t get enough of. But though America might love the music they make together, some people aren’t ready for Benny Lament and Esther Mine on—or off—the stage.
One is a Promise
Pam Godwin - 2017
My dark rebel in leather. My powerhouse of passion, devastating smiles, and impulsiveness.When his job sends him overseas, he promises to return to me.A promise that’s destroyed in the most irrevocable way.Two years later, an arrogant suit invades my heartbroken loneliness.Clean-cut and stern, Trace is everything Cole wasn’t.At first, he’s a job that will rescue my dance company. But as he intrudes on my life, our hostile relationship evolves.He knows I’m still in love with Cole, but his dedication is my undoing.Then a catastrophic moment changes everything.Promises resurface.Lies entangle.And an impossible choice shatters my world.I love two men, and I can only have one.The TANGLED LIES series must be read in order.One is a PromiseTwo is a LieThree is a War
Ruin
Rachel Van Dyken - 2013
I've been running away from the memories that haunt me for so long that depression has become my only comfort. I was content in the darkness...until Wes Michals offered to be my light.I didn't know that time wasn't my ally -- that every second that ticked past was one step closer to the end of something that was beginning to mean the end of myself. He tried to warn me. He promised me all he was able to offer--each moment as it came--but it would never be enough.Sometimes when you think it's the end, it's only the beginning. Wes thought he could save me, but in giving me everything, he ruined me. Because after one kiss, one touch, I couldn't--I wouldn't ever be the same.And from that moment on, his heartbeat became my own.
Crow's Row
Julie Hockley - 2011
Just completing her freshman year at Callister University, Emily faces a quiet summer in the city slums, supporting herself by working at the campus library. During one of her jogs through the nearby cemetery while visiting her brother Bill's grave, Emily witnesses a brutal killing-and then she blacks out. When Emily regains consciousness, she realizes she's been kidnapped by a young crime boss and his gang. She is hurled into a secret underworld, wondering why she is still alive and for how long.Held captive in rural Vermont, she tries to make sense of her situation and what it means. While uncovering secrets about her brother and his untimely death, Emily falls in love with her very rich and very dangerous captor, twenty-six year-old Cameron. She understands it's a forbidden love and one that won't allow her to return to her previous life. But love may not be enough to save Emily when no one even knows she is missing.
Hot Quit
Kathryn Roberts - 2013
As a major player in the high-stakes world of corporate restructuring, she’s learned how to handle many different people and problems, but one thing she doesn’t know how to handle is a horse. Enter Jackson Morgan, a trainer who specializes in the Western event of cutting, in which a horse and rider work to separate a single cow from the herd. Alexandria hires him to teach her how to ride, so she can curry favor with Everett Covington, a crusty Texan whose trucking business Alexandria desperately needs to purchase in order to pull off a lucrative deal—and whose passion happens to be cutting horses.The consummate city slicker, Alexandria gamely goes about learning the sport of cutting, but things get complicated when she starts to fall for the cowboy who’s teaching her. Soon she discovers that in order to acquire the trucking company she’s been chasing, she’ll have to rein in her emotions.
Cree
H.J. Bellus - 2014
A broken family, an asshole husband and the loss of loved ones have left me crying Uncle, and declaring a serious case of the Fuck-Its! I had my heart broken, stomped on and shattered before I ever started on my journey to find my little piece of happiness. With a bucket list, a '66 Ford and wild dreams, I set out on an adventure that changed my life forever. I found Cree… A pirate with a little princess and they swept me off my ever lovin' feet, filling my world with sprinkles, mac n’ cheese and the courage to live again. They forced my fragile heart to trust and love without fear. But the truth is, nobody’s past stays hidden forever. It’s an invisible monster waiting to attack and destroy. It has the capability to ruin everything you’ve worked to set right. All it takes is one final blow to the gut to end everything… Mature Content Warning. Recommended for ages 17+ due to language and sexual content. Please note: this book was previously named My Now & Forever.
The Rebel of Raleigh High
Callie Hart - 2019
Please be advised, this book comes with a trigger warning. Intended for readers 17+ * Silver Hit me. Kick me. Hurt me. Hate me. There’s nothing that the students of Raleigh High can do to Silver Parisi anymore. Over the past year, she’s had to endure more pain and suffering than most people are asked to bear in their lifetimes. She’s a pariah, an outcast, a ghost. She’s also never been one to take shit lying down, though…despite what half the football team might say. With only one hundred and sixty-eight days left of the school year, it won’t be long until graduation, and Silver’s planning on skipping town and leaving Raleigh firmly in her rearview mirror… Until he comes along… Alex Orphan. Degenerate. Reprobate. Deviant. Alex Moretti’s earned most of his labels, and he’s not ashamed of a single one of them. He’ll earn far worse before he’s finished with his new found ‘friends’ at Raleigh High. Having spent years being ground down under the boot heel of society, it’s time for a little payback. And if exacting revenge upon the heads of the Raleigh elite means he can also help the beautiful girl who hovers in the shadows, then that’s all for the better. Oil and water. Fire and ice. The differences between Silver and Alex are broader than any chasm. To reach one another, they must take a leap of faith and fall into the divide. And falling? Nothing good ever came from falling.
Tears of Tess
Pepper Winters - 2013
Happy, content, everything neat and perfect.Then it all changed.I was sold.”Tess Snow has everything she ever wanted: one more semester before a career in property development, a loving boyfriend, and a future dazzling bright with possibility. For their two year anniversary, Brax surprises Tess with a romantic trip to Mexico. Sandy beaches, delicious cocktails, and soul-connecting sex set the mood for a wonderful holiday. With a full heart, and looking forward to a passion filled week, Tess is on top of the world.But lusty paradise is shattered.Kidnapped. Drugged. Stolen. Tess is forced into a world full of darkness and terror. Captive and alone with no savior, no lover, no faith, no future, Tess evolves from terrified girl to fierce fighter. But no matter her strength, it can’t save her from the horror of being sold.Can Brax find Tess before she’s broken and ruined, or will Tess’s new owner change her life forever?A New Adult Dark Contemporary Romance, not suitable for people sensitive to grief, slavery, and nonconsensual sex. A story about finding love in the strangest of places, a will of iron that grows from necessity, and forgiveness that may not be enough.