Book picks similar to
Make Me Whole (Oil Barrons, #1) by Marie Johnston
single-parent
contemporary
reviewed
alc
Bombshell
Jessica Prince - 2021
After ending the worldās worst relationship, Marin Grey had sworn off men. So it was rather inconvenient that she couldnāt seem to keep her eyes and thoughts off the Ice King himself, Pierce Waltonāalso known as her ex-boyfriendās older, much hotter brother.He was cold, callous, and rude. He was also the most gorgeous man sheād ever laid eyes on, which made the fact that heād hated her from first sight all the more unfair.When circumstances dictate they put their swords away so Marin can help Pierce take care of his son, that ice-cold hate suddenly takes a turn into something much hotter. And if they arenāt careful, they could both be burned alive.
Make Me Yours
Tia Louise - 2019
I did everything by the book. Happily ever after, right?Fast-forward four years, and Iām alone, raising my daughter, caring for my mother-in-law, and trying to keep my stuff together. How did this happen? I was clearly drunk the night I offered a gorgeous girl in a bar $500 a day to be my live-in nanny. Or maybe it was my dick talking. So what if Iāve been alone since forever? Iām focused on launching my new business, not bedding the sexy siren who sleeps down the hall.At least thatās what I keep reminding myselfā¦Ruby Banks: Remington Key is distant, brooding, and incredibly sexy. And when he scoops up his adorable four-year-old daughter Lillie and blows raspberries on her tummy while she squeals with delight, I totally swoon.Bumping into him at our local pub that night slightly drunk and overly frustrated was a total accident. He needed help, and he offered me a ridiculous salary. I couldn't say no. Right?Now heās given me the chance to pay off my debts and take control of my life. I can't screw up this job. But as bad as I want to be good, Iām not sure I can fake itā¦The way he watches me sends heat sizzling through my insides.Our hands touch, our eyes meet, and I want to do
very naughty things
with my new boss. (A STAND-ALONE CONTEMPORARY Romantic Comedy. No cheating; No cliffhangers.)
Stirred
Charity Ferrell - 2020
I can't do this. That's what my ex said after our son was born, leaving me a single dad. These days, my world consists of two things: Noah and my bar. Until herāthe woman I wantābut can never have. My exās sister wasnāt supposed to be stirred into the mix. Even though I try to push her away, my son falls in love with her. As much as I want to keep my distance, I canāt break his heart.Lines become blurred, and fighting our attraction becomes nearly impossible. Even though we know itās wrong, desire doesnāt always fade away.As soon as we cross that line, nothing will be the same and everything will fall apart. And it does.
Only Ever You
C.D. Reiss - 2019
She had a plan, after all. First college, then a climb up the professional ladder. Love, marriage, children. All of it was on the schedule.The cheap Hollywood apartment wasnāt on the list. Neither was the string of heartbreaks. Or the effect her motherās cancer had on her career.Itās hard to stay practical and on point when everything takes a left turn.Enter Sebastian, the nerd across the street. The boy she defended when he couldnāt defend himself. The best friend she promised sheād marry if life didnāt go according to plan.Not only is he successful, confident, and gorgeous, but he also still has their handwritten marriage contract.No one goes through with childhood wedding pacts.Thatās crazy.But their families might just be crazy enough to rent a hall and set a date. All Rachel and Sebastian have to do is fall in love.
His Dirty Author (An Age Gap Romance)
Penny Wylder - 2021
all of them.When he finds out he asks me for my favorite scene.It's a dangerous road to go down, these kind of dirty talks, because we're aboutto spend a LOT of time together working alone in his penthouse.At the rate things are heating up, though, we might not get any work done at all.
Irresistible
Melanie Harlow - 2019
I donāt have time to fall in loveāIām too busy trying to run a business, keep the red socks out of the white laundry, and get the damn pillowcases on without owing a dollar to the swear jar. Sure, Frannie Sawyer is beautiful and sweet, but sheās twenty-seven, the bossās daughter,Ā and my new part-time nannyāwhich means sheās completely off-limits. Itās bad enough I canāt stop fantasizing about her, what kind of jerk wouldĀ I be if I acted on the impulse to kiss her? (Exactly the kind of jerk youāre thinking.) Actually, Iām worse than thatābecause I didnāt stop with a kiss, and now I canāt stay away.Ā Ā She makes me feel like myself again.Ā She reminds me what itās like to want something just for me. Sheās everything I ever needed, but nothing I ever imagined. Iām a former Marine. I should have had the strength to resist her from the start. But I didnāt. And now I have to choose between the life I want and the life she deserves. Even if it means giving her up.
The Reunion
Meghan Quinn - 2022
With their fiftieth wedding anniversary on the horizon, theyāve modeled a beautiful relationship for their three grown children. But to their dismay, that lesson hasnāt quite caught onāthe three siblings just canāt seem to take a chance and find love in their own lives.Thereās Ford, the eldest, devoted to his work and resistant to romanceā¦or so he claims. Cooper, the middle child, canāt get past his divorceāuntil he reconnects with a feisty baker from his past. And Palmer, the baby of the family, is the free-spirited world traveler who always pictured herself with someone other than a handsome small-town family doctor.When the Chance siblings come together to plan the ultimate anniversary party for their parents, theyāll have to navigate romantic entanglements, sibling rivalries, and the definitive end of their childhood. Whatever happens, The Reunion promises to be a fun, flirty, wild ride.
Broken French
Natasha Boyd - 2021
She impulsively takes up her roommates' offer to nanny for a little girl on a mega yacht in the South of France. Even though she can't stand boats, this seems like fate giving her an opportunity to lick her wounds in a bucket list paradise while she figures out how to get her life back.But this little girl she's arrived to look after has a daddy. A widowed, hot, young, billionaire of a daddy. A man who, for all his wealth, is grumpy, conceited, and utterly closed off. But Josie can't help but be drawn closer to this enigmatic man.Xavier Pascale is on an emotional island of his own making. It's just him and his daughter and he likes it that way. He works hard, his shareholders are happy, his best friends are his bodyguard, and the people who work for him. What's wrong with that? But then he meets Josephine Marin. Her arrival in his life is like a deep ocean tremor along a catastrophic emotional fault line. And now... well, now, he's very, very aware of his isolation and his very human need. But he can't be distracted. When he gets distracted terrible things happen.He should send the nanny home.He really should.But what if he just takes what he wants, just this one time ...This is a standalone, contemporary romance. It includes luscious scenes of sparkling blue ocean, and tantalizing, seductive food, as well as a smoking hot, dirty-talking Frenchman. If traveling scares you, or sexy times scare you, then this book is not for you. But if you're looking for a decadent armchair vacation after being stuck in one place for over a year--that will make you laugh, swoon, and cry--then this one is for you!
The Memory Bell
Kat FlanneryKat Flannery - 2021
Gifted the memory bell, a family heirloom, from her grandfatherās will, Graceās excitement is soon squashed when the bell gets broken right after she receives it. While gluing the pieces back in place, she discovers three are still missing. Determined to find them, she is halted when the new detective, Bennet James, investigates her family. Grace is intent on showing the detective her family isnāt capable of murder, but as the investigation deepens, and pieces of the bell show up with ominous notes, Grace soon realizes the Penners are not what they seem. Amidst the tightly knit family; dark secrets, deception, and possibly even murder unfold. Will Grace be able to save the family she loves more than anything without losing herself forever?
If You Ask Me
Libby Hubscher - 2022
She has an answer for how to politely handle any difficult situationā¦until she discovers her husband, Sam, has been cheating on her. Furious and out of sensible solutions, Violet leaves her filter at the door and turns to her column to air her own frustrations. The new, brutally honest Dear Sweetie goes viral, sending more shock waves through Violetās life. When she burns Samās belongings in a front-yard, late-night bonfire, a smoking-hot firefighter named Dez shows up to douse the flames, and an unexpected fling quickly shows potential to become something longer lasting.A lot of people want to see the old polished Violet returnāincluding her boss, who finds her unpredictability hard to manage, and Sam, whoās begging for another chance. But Dez appreciates Violet just the way she isāin fact, he canāt get enough of her. The right answers donāt come easily when Violet finds herself at her own personal crossroads. But maybe, by getting real, Violet can write her own happy ending.
My Summer in Seoul
Rachel Van Dyken - 2021
Intern with Koreaās number one record label? Yes, please. Find out thereās a huge scandal I need to help āmanageāā¦ not so much. Add in the fact that I donāt recognize the āsuperstarsā of the label and think theyāre internsā¦And my dream job quickly becomes more of a nightmare.But Iām in Seoul, the one place that is beginning to feel more and more like home...Except it isnāt home, and the drama surrounding the biggest K-pop group in the world, SWT, is consuming my every moment. Spoiler alert. They hate me. Everything I do is wrong: wrong clothes, wrong honorifics, wrong manners. Till the leader of SWT takes pity on me.But pity is dangerous when it comes from someone as beautiful as him. Every SWT member is gorgeous, perfect, and cultivated to be an idolā¦ lethal to a girlās heart.And sanity. But fame plus a perfect face and voice donāt equal an easy life. As their comeback nears, the stakes rise higher. Suicide watchā¦Angry fansā¦Threatsā¦All I want to do is survive. But the price for survival might mean losing my heart.And like a character in a K-drama, Iām not sure if there will be an actual happily ever afterā¦Or simply a lesson learned.
Indie Saint
V.K. Fox - 2021
But searching for the secrets of magic puts Jane on a collision course with villains and monsters so sinister they previously only existed in fiction. To save reality and live to see the year 2000, Jane will have to escape a morally gray ancient cult-poration, team up with a gun nun from a neighboring comba-convent, and captain a band of eccentric heroes to stop a middle aged madwoman from ripping a hole in the multiverse.Spicy Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets the X Files in this Urban Fantasy Romance adventure full of Arthurian mythology, complex multi-book puzzles, smart humor, and slow burn m/f and m/m love stories.
Watch Me Fall
Erin Trejo
Then she left me to raise my daughter on my own. I made through every obstacle in my path and still grew my businesses to what they are today. So when life throws me a curveball in the form of my daughter's best friend, I'm not ready. She's perfect. Everything a man could ask for but she's off-limits. She's forbidden fruit. Something I can't have. And yet one touch just isn't enough. I need more and I'm willing to put everything on the line for this girl regardless of the consequences.
Just One Look
Lindsay CameronLindsay Cameron - 2021
Eyes aren't the windows to the soul. Emails are.Cassie Woodson is adrift. After suffering an epic tumble down the corporate ladder, Cassie finds the only way she can pay her bills is to take a thankless temp job reviewing correspondence for a large-scale fraud suit. The daily drudgery amplifies all that her life is lacking--love, friends, stability--and leaves her with too much time on her hands, which she spends fixating on the mistakes that brought her to this point.While sorting through a relentless deluge of emails, something catches her eye: the tender (and totally private) exchanges between a partner at the firm, Forest Watts, and his enchanting wife, Annabelle. Cassie knows she shouldn't read them. But it's just one look. And once that door opens, she finds she can't look away.Every day, twenty floors below Forest's corner office, Cassie dissects their emails from her dingy workstation. A few clicks of her mouse and she can see every adoring word they write to each other. By peeking into their apparently perfect life, Cassie finds renewed purpose and happiness, reveling in their penchant for vintage wines, morning juice presses, and lavish dinner parties thrown in their stately Westchester home. There are no secrets from her. Or so she thinks.Her admiration quickly escalates into all-out mimicry, because she wants this life more than anything. Maybe if she plays make-believe long enough, it will become real for her. But when Cassie orchestrates a "chance" meeting with Forest in the real world and sees something that throws the state of his marriage into question, the fantasy she's been carefully cultivating shatters. Suddenly, she doesn't simply admire Annabelle--she wants to take her place. And she's armed with the tools to make that happen.
The Last Queen: A Novel of Courage and Resistance
Chitra Banerjee DivakaruniChitra Banerjee Divakaruni
In this dazzling novel, based on true-life events, bestselling author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni presents the unforgettable story of Jindan, who transformed herself from daughter of the royal kennel keeper to powerful monarch. Sharp-eyed, stubborn, and passionate, Jindan was known for her beauty. When she caught the eye of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, she was elevated to royalty, becoming his youngest and last queen--and his favorite. And when her son, barely six years old, unexpectedly inherited the throne, Jindan assumed the regency. She transformed herself from pampered wife to warrior ruler, determined to protect her people and her son's birthright from the encroaching British Empire.Defying tradition, she stepped out of the zenana, cast aside the veil, and conducted state business in public, inspiring her subjects in two wars. Her power and influence were so formidable that the British, fearing an uprising, robbed the rebel queen of everything she had, but nothing crushed her indomitable will.An exquisite love story of a king and a commoner, a cautionary tale about loyalty and betrayal, a powerful parable of the indestructible bond between mother and child, and an inspiration for our times, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's novel brings alive one of the most fearless women of the nineteenth century, one whose story cries out to be told.