Book picks similar to
Taking Charge by Bridgitte Lesley


romance
not-interested
contemporary-romance
standalone

Home for Christmas


Emme Rollins - 2014
     Forced from her home and holding the key to a horrible secret, Ginny is haunted by her memories and pursued by a man who will stop at nothing to regain his control over her. The appearance of a mysterious man in her time of greatest need forces Ginny to decide whether she will take the chance to trust this handsome stranger. Note: This book appeared earlier as Christmas Stalking. I hope you enjoy this expanded and rewritten version.

Lessons Learned: A sequel to Teach Me


Amy Lynn Steele - 2014
    Two years later all of Allison's dreams seemed to be coming true. She had survived major heart surgery, gotten married to the man of her dreams, and was accepted to one of the top literary schools in Southern California. It wasn't until her best friend, Christina Harper, revealed she was pregnant that Ali began to feel a void in her life. As desire for a family grows, so does the realization that with her heart condition having a child could mean losing her life.

Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes


Alexa Martin - 2021
    Well, at least on Instagram. Her brand is clean eating, good vibes, Pilates, and casually looking like a sun-kissed goddess. In real life, however, she's a total disaster. She has a strained relationship with her fame-hungry mom and her latest bad decision emptied out her entire savings account.Lauren Turner had a plan: graduate medical school and become the top surgeon in the country. But when she became unexpectedly pregnant, those plans changed. And when her fiancé left her, they changed again. Now navigating the new world of coparenting, mom groups, and dating, she decides to launch a mommy podcast with all the advice she wishes someone had given her.Jude and Lauren don't have much in common, but maybe that's why they've been best friends since the third grade. Through ups and downs, they've been by each other's sides. But now? They're broke, single, and do the only thing that makes sense--move in together, just like they talked about when they were teenagers. Except when they were younger, the plan didn't include a five-year-old daughter and more baggage than their new townhouse can hold.

After the Sky Fell Down


Megan Nugen Isbell - 2012
    But when tragedy strikes, she is left to pick up the pieces of her now shattered life. As she tries to make sense of her new reality, life takes another startling turn, leading her down a path she never imagined. Through it all she finds comfort in a surprising companion who becomes her best friend and rock as she tries to rebuild her life. But when she unexpectedly meets someone, whose kindness and understanding offers her a chance at a fresh start, she struggles to move forward, afraid to leave her past behind. Will she be able to move on and find peace with her past in order to discover her future or will she let her past condemn her to a life of loneliness, unable to let go of a life that can never be?

Salt Bay Sunrise: A Brother's Best Friend, Wounded Veteran, Tropical Romantic Adventure


Juliet Brilee - 2020
    He’s an embattled veteran determined to help. When she gets in over her head, will their love sink or swim?Ecotour captain Willow McBride enjoys introducing tourists to the many wonders of the sea. But with financial pressure mounting, she reluctantly takes on a group of mysterious “treasure hunters” with unclear intentions. And the salt really hits the fan when her hunky high school crush wanders back into her life out of nowhere.Grant Taylor needs a fresh start. After checking out of the VA hospital with a still-mangled arm, he agrees to look in on his friend’s sister back in his hometown. And though he remains haunted by the people he let die, he’s unprepared for the way her familiar face makes his wounded heart skip a beat.Despite falling for the handsome soldier from her past, Willow still can’t let him interfere with her clients’ increasingly illegal demands. But if Grant wants to fulfill his obligation and protect the lovely mariner, he’ll have to confront his terror of open water.Can the reunited pair dodge a bullet and sail off into the sunset?Salt Bay Sunrise is the charming first book in the Escape to Valencia Cove for Tropical Romance series. If you like fanning old flames, sizzling secrets, and a dash of suspense, then you’ll adore Juliet Brilee’s sweet story.

Fallen Angel


Laura Taylor - 1996
    But can he accept who and what she has been? Multiple Award-Winning Romance Writer Laura Taylor touches our hearts with her sensitive perception of two wary lovers who find renewal in each other’s arms.” ROMANTIC TIMES Book ReviewsReaders Praise FALLEN ANGEL:“Excellence continues!”“Laura Taylor’s FALLEN ANGEL has it all!”“FALLEN ANGEL kept me reading late into the night.”“A timeless love story – everything you want in a romance.”“Laura Taylor writes with the power and sensuality that characterizes the best authors in the series romance genre.” Romantic Times Book Reviews

My Uptown Girl


C. Morgan - 2020
    I’m all for it.The electricity between us has me taking one step back and three forward.This is the woman I want beside and beneath me for the rest of my life.But her father thinks I’m riffraff. And he just might be right.Maybe if I just keep things professional, which is almost impossible.Heat blazes in and out of the kitchen as we try to work together, and I’ve got one thing on my mind.Owning every part of her.No matter what her family or anyone else thinks about it.This woman is my uptown girl.

Toccata Obbligato ~ Serenading Kyra


Jennifer Theriot - 2014
    With his outlandish cocky demeanor - tatted up and pierced, compared in looks to Adam Levine - his constant use of the F-bomb, and the seductive gyrations he performs for the ladies on stage, affirm he is a man every woman craves. But there is only one woman who is able to capture his heart, Kyra Edwards.That chance meeting at a little coffee shop in Evanston began their journey of compromise, pain, dedication and love.From the night he took her virginity to Todd's past sex-capades and consequences threatening their relationship, will Kyra be able to deal with it? With Todd and his band Avenue touring on the road, can he prove to Kyra that he is a changed man? Can he be faithful and avoid temptation?Jennifer Theriot brings us yet another contemporary romance love story that will capture our hearts. This is truly a story of Beauty and the Beast, where we admire the beauty that is Kyra and adore the beast known as Todd.You loved him in Out of the Box Awakening and Out of the Box Regifted. In the pages of Toccata Obbligato ~Serenading Kyra, you'll get inside his head - see what makes him tick and get to know the woman who captured his heart......This rock star romance short story is a companion novella of the Out of the Box series.It contains adult situations and language, and is intended for readers over the age of 18.

Baking Bree


Sarah West - 2013
    But when her grandmother dies in a hang gliding accident, leaving Bree a small fortune and a house, she uses the opportunity to reinvent herself.Despite her family’s disapproval, and the fact she can’t boil water without a fire extinguisher nearby, Bree enrolls in a culinary course, taught by the dreamy Chef Simon. After a rough start, she is shocked to discover that she is actually enjoying herself…and Simon!When things start to heat up outside the kitchen, Bree is faced with the difficult task of figuring out what she wants...before it’s too late.

Hannah's Blessing


Collette Scott - 2011
    However, she was not prepared to meet his enigmatic step-brother, Devlan Doyle. He was a man accustomed to getting whatever he wanted, and he wanted Diana. Not only was Diana's child his heiress, but her stubborn pride and disinterest intrigues him. Following a near-tragic accident that forces them together, Devlan sets out to conquer her distrust. Whisked away on a fairytale of a lifetime, Diana and Hannah discover that they are not immune to his charms. But is his determination alone strong enough to win their trust and love, or will he lose the two people he has grown to care for the most?

The Versions of Us


Laura Barnett - 2015
    One Day meets Sliding Doors in this outstanding debut that is causing a buzz across the publishing worldSome moments can change your life for ever. Have you ever wondered, what if...?A man is walking down a country lane. A woman, cycling towards him, swerves to avoid a dog. On that moment, their future hinges. There are three possible outcomes, three small decisions that could determine the rest of their life.Eva and Jim are nineteen and students at Cambridge when their paths first cross in 1958. And then there is David, Eva's then-lover, an ambitious actor who loves Eva deeply. The Versions of Us follows the three different courses their lives could take following this first meeting. Lives filled with love, betrayal, ambition but through it all is a deep connection that endures whatever fate might throw at them.The Versions of Us explores the idea that there are moments when our lives might have turned out differently, the tiny factors or decisions that could determine our fate, and the precarious nature of the foundations upon which we build our lives. It is also a story about the nature of love and how it grows, changes and evolves as we go through the vagaries of life.

Stripped


Allie Juliette Mousseau - 2016
    While entertaining at the popular L.A. strip club known for catering to the feminine wild, the fever-inducing Aussie with the sex-saturated accent and moves to match is preparing for the audition of a lifetime on the sensational hit reality show Then Prove You Can Dance. When retired principal dancer and ballerina Emilie Cartier stumbles into his dressing room, she’s still reeling from the one wrong spin that altered her entire life and obliterated her dreams. After a humiliating public, albeit meteoric, orgasm—the kind so desperate to escape, it took over her body without her brain's permission—and a second, more intimate and deliriously deliberate one, Emilie makes a deal with Stone: he helps her get her dancing mojo back and she readies him for his national audition. But she insists he keeps his wily, wandering hands to himself and his dirty mouth shut. Of course, that’s going to be an extremely hard challenge—one of herculean proportions. Emilie is not prepared for Stone—the way he spins her mind dizzy, rocks her body into sweet oblivion or dirty dances into her every daydream—and falling in love with him is so definitely not an option. The closer Stone gets to Emilie, the more he realizes he’d do anything to make her his own. Problem is, he’s a real f*ck-up with relationships. And that means he’s dangerously close to becoming her next major f*ck-up. What happens when all of the emotional layers—along with the stage props, their dancewear and every last shred of their clothes—are ultimately stripped?

Perfectly Hopeless


Holly Hood - 2012
    At one time, she was sure she knew what love was. She thought she was in it, but not anymore.Maven never expected to meet Henri Levitt that summer, the brown-haired, brown-eyed guy that keeps to himself and is always working odd jobs. Henri lives with his relatives, and to everyone, seems quiet and introverted. He’s happy to stay busy, and if that means little social life, that is fine by him.Nobody in Portwood thinks twice about Henri, but after an embarrassing accident at The Yogurt Hut, Maven finally notices him. After meeting Henri that day, her life changes in ways she never counted on.Spending the summer with Henri shows Maven there is more to life than heartbreak, and that some people do change you for the better. Maven learns a lot over that summer. And after meeting Henri, her life will never be the same.

Second Time Around: Small Town Second Chance Romance


Alandra Knight - 2019
    He’s lived them. Four years earlier, he and his brother lost their wives. Since then, they’ve been left to raise their children all alone.His world is everything mine can never be.It doesn’t matter that our chemistry is off the charts. It doesn’t matter that Jaxson’s arms are the only ones I feel safe in.He and I are like oil and water – and while opposites clearly attract, I can’t believe there’d ever be a place for a girl like me in Jaxson’s world of foam dart battles and bedtime stories.Or, at least, that’s what I thought until we both dared open our hearts – and began wondering if, just maybe, we deserved a shot at love the second time around.Second Time Around is the first in Alandra Knight's Finding Our Forever series - emotionally intense tales of true love, featuring beautifully crafted characters overcoming the darkest odds to earn their happily-ever-after.

Sketch


Laramie Briscoe - 2016
    I opened my own tattoo shop two years ago, and I’ve finally gotten to the point where I’m going to be able to give my wife everything she’s ever wanted. I’m going to be able to take time off and spend a day a week with her. In fact, tonight, I stopped and grabbed some wine, got her flowers, and those chocolates she likes. What I wasn’t prepared for was to be met at the front door by her carrying her sh*t out. She loves me, but she’s not in love with me anymore. What kind of bulls*it excuse is that? I’ve left her alone too often, I’ve been completely focused on one goal, and apparently she’s sick of waiting. So here I stand. Half the man I was, p*ssed as f*ck, because while I was busy making a better life for us, she was under the impression I was leaving her lonely. I know one day she’ll see what I’ve been doing has been for us, and when that day comes… She can damn well come crawling back to me.