Book picks similar to
Fallen Men by Brian O'Hare
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Something in the Way
Jessica Hawkins - 2017
Under the sweat and dirt, Manning Sutter was as handsome as the sun was bright. He was older, darker, experienced. I wore a smiley-face t-shirt and had never even been kissed. Yet we saw something in each other that would link us in ways that couldn’t be broken...no matter how hard we tried.I loved Manning before I knew the meaning of the word. I was too young, he said. I would wait. Through all the carefully-chosen words hiding what we knew to be true, through his struggle to keep me innocent, and through infinitely-starry nights—I would wait. But I’d learn that life isn’t always fair. That no matter how much you achieve, none of it matters if you suffer the heartbreak that comes with falling for someone you can never have. Because even though I saw Manning first, that didn’t matter. My older sister saw him next.
Like Dragonflies
K. Webster - 2019
Pampered. Spoiled.Slowly suffocating under my mother’s stifling thumb.He’s the bad boy from Duncan.Poor. Abused. Criminal.Being swallowed by the darkness each passing second.Two lost souls searching for freedom and happiness.We’re lonely—broken—and trapped.Until the universe brings us together.Sometimes love is instantaneous.A supernova collision of emotions.Something that cannot be ignored.As our hearts tangle to the point they’ll never be able to part, the past comes creeping up like an evil villain. The mistakes of our parents become our consequences to face.We’re madly, deeply, foolishly in love.Soul mates who finally found each other.Two people who share the same father.
Heart of Marley
T.K. Leigh - 2014
Having trouble coping with the loss of her soul mate, their mother tries to find comfort in drugs and alcohol… And an abusive man with a penchant for underage girls.No longer able to stand listening to his sister’s screams and cries every night for nearly three years, Cam takes matters into his own hands and they’re finally able to escape the nightmare.They’re finally able to start over…But the nightmare still haunts Marley. The years go on and she is forced to put on a smile, making everyone think that she is the perfect, well-adjusted teenager that she is supposed to be… Until she is faced with a painful reminder of her past during her senior year of high school and she’s no longer able to keep on the mask that she has been compelled to wear.Heart Of Marley is a prequel novel to T.K. Leigh’s Heart of Light.
The Pursuit of Lucy Banning
Olivia Newport - 2012
Expected to marry an up-and-coming banker from a respected family, Lucy fears she will be forced to abandon her charity work--and the classes she is secretly taking at the newly opened University of Chicago. When she meets an unconventional young architect who is working on plans for the upcoming 1893 World's Fair, Lucy imagines a life lived on her own terms. Can she break away from her family's expectations? And will she ever be loved for who she truly is? Readers will love being swept away into a world of mansions, secrets, and romance as they follow Lucy through the streets of the Windy City during one of the most exciting times in the city's history. From opulent upper-class homes to the well-worn rooms of an orphanage, Olivia Newport breathes life and romance into the pages of history--and everyone is invited.
How She Died, How I Lived
Mary Crockett - 2018
The five girls Kyle texted that day. The girls it could have been. Only Jamie--beautiful, saintly Jamie--was kind enough to respond. And it got her killed.On the eve of Kyle's sentencing a year after Jamie's death, all the other "chosen ones" are coping in various ways. But our tenacious narrator is full of anger, stuck somewhere between the horrifying past and the unknown future as she tries to piece together why she gets to live, while Jamie is dead.Now she finds herself drawn to Charlie, Jamie's boyfriend--knowing all the while that their relationship will always be haunted by what-ifs and why-nots. Is hope possible in the face of such violence? Is forgiveness? How do you go on living when you know it could have been you instead?
Unteachable
Leah Raeder - 2013
The summer before senior year, she has plans: get into a great film school, convince her mom to go into rehab, and absolutely do not, under any circumstances, screw up her own future.But life has a way of throwing her plans into free-fall.When Maise meets Evan at a carnival one night, their chemistry is immediate, intense, and short-lived. Which is exactly how she likes it: no strings. But afterward, she can’t get Evan out of her head. He’s taught her that a hookup can be something more. It can be an unexpected connection with someone who truly understands her. Someone who sees beyond her bravado to the scared but strong girl inside.That someone turns out to be her new film class teacher, Mr. Evan Wilke.Maise and Evan resolve to keep their hands off each other, but the attraction is too much to bear. Together, they’re real and genuine; apart, they’re just actors playing their parts for everyone else. And their masks are slipping. People start to notice. Rumors fly. When the truth comes to light in a shocking way, they may learn they were just playing parts for each other, too.Smart, sexy, and provocative, Unteachable is about what happens when a love story goes off-script.
21 Stolen Kisses
Lauren Blakely - 2015
. . even though she shouldn't.When I first met him I resisted.Like any forbidden love, I told myself he was a crush, and it would pass.That was a lie. It never faded.And I never expected he would fall for me just as hard.There were so many reasons that should have kept us apart, least of all, the decade that separated us.Growing up in New York City, I learned early on that love is a double-edged sword.Love broke up my parents, love took away my friends, and love — the big, intense, never-been-like-this-beforelove — landed me in therapy.Now I'm heading to college, and it's time to give love a clean slate again. But, can I really start over when he's still in my life?Because the one man I've always wanted, and also the only guy I absolutely can't have...And he wants me just as fiercely.Can I settle for anything less than the love of my life?
The Billionaire's Reluctant Bride
Elle E. Kay - 2019
What could go wrong?When people see Zachary Williams they see a billionaire entrepreneur who changed the face of an entire industry, but without love and family it's worthless to him. Lonely and frustrated with the dating scene, he remembers an agreement he made with his best friend when they were in their teens. Zach searches out Addison and offers her the deal of a lifetime.When Addison hears from her childhood friend and he invokes a pact they made as teenagers, she thinks he’s joking. By the time she figures out how serious he is, she’s committed herself to his crazy marriage scheme with no way to back out gracefully.After a quick beach wedding on his private island, the staff and their families depart. Not long after, the hurricane hits and it's just the two of them battling nature together. Find out how childhood friends find romance and love while they weather the storm of a lifetime in The Billionaire’s Reluctant Bride.
Worldwalker
Jamie Dalton - 2022
Adalyn’s life as a cook in the king's kitchen, will soon end, when the spirits of the past reach out to her, warning that things are not all as they seem, in the Kingdom of Peiruin. Having long since rid itself of magic, the world has not seen a human with magical power, in five hundred years. Overwhelmed that her life may be forfeit, if her newfound abilities are discovered, Adalyn must find the strength to rise to the challenge of being the only worldwalker. On her quest to hone her magic, Adalyn enlists the help of the secret race of dwarves and elves and discovers she may be the key to saving them all -- or bringing the kingdom a war that’s long overdue.Write toAa
Precisely Terminated
Amanda L. Davis - 2011
Monica, a Noble who avoided the implanting and escaped a death sentence at the age of four, is now sixteen and is in hiding. She lives with the slaves inside the walls of the Cantral palace, pretending to be one of them while the slave council plots a way to use her chip-less state to destroy the all-powerful computers that strike down any hint of rebellion.The Nobles hear of Monica’s survival and try to exterminate her before she ruins their upper-class utopia. The rebels send her to find a missing paper bearing instructions on how to shut down the computers that control the chips in Cillineese, a major city-state. The Nobles are alerted to the plan and prepare to seal Cillineese in a giant dome to gas the inhabitants, including Monica.The fate of millions rides on Monica’s shoulders. As the only chip-less person in the world, she must find the paper, destroy the computers, and free Cillineese from the Nobles’ iron fist before they strike with the ultimate punishment—death for everyone inside the city walls.
Very Bad Things
Ilsa Madden-Mills - 2013
And why wouldn't they? Valedictorian of her class and a Texas beauty queen, she's well on her way to Princeton after kissing everyone goodbye at graduation.Until the day she cracks wide open in front of the entire school.Leo Tate is a tattooed bad boy who's sworn to never fall in love, especially with a high school girl.But she keeps showing up at his gym, wearing short skirts and tempting him with her list of bad things.He wants to resist her, but with one touch of her lips, forbidden love has never tasted so sweet.Welcome to Briarwood Academy . . . where sometimes, the best things in life are Very Bad Things.*Mature Content**Author’s note: Each book in the BW series is written as a stand-alone love story following a new couple, but you’ll enjoy reading the other titles and seeing familiar faces return.1: VERY BAD THINGS (Nora and Leo)2: VERY WICKED THINGS (Dovey and Cuba)3. VERY TWISTED THINGS (Violet and Sebastian)
Loyalty
Bethany-Kris - 2018
The rules set out for him are clear—keep out of trouble, maintain a low profile, and stay stable. But stability is a delicate balance for a man like John, and shaky ground is only a single step away. A chance encounter with a blue-eyed woman might just change his whole world. Siena Calabrese’s life revolves around cooking numbers, and scrubbing books clean. After all, a girl is only useful to men in the mafia, if she isn’t totally useless. As long as she does what they want, then she can maintain the illusion of freedom. But illusions are only delusions in the grand scheme of her life, and reality is far more dangerous. A man with secrets might just be the one thing she didn’t know she needed. In this life, family is everything. Or, that’s how it should be. Distrust. Love. Betrayal. Loyalty. Mix it all together, and it makes for a volatile city. A war is coming.
Ink and Foxglove
Bethany Anne Lovejoy - 2021
Ever since, there have been whispers from humans and Seelie alike that the beasts will return to reclaim the stolen throne.I heard the rumors, but they seemed so far away. As a human girl adopted by fae nobility after my mother’s untimely death, I felt safe behind the bars of the gilded cage gifted to me.That is, until Luka Kinsley returns; a man who I could just as easily go a lifetime without ever seeing again and a fae noble whose lineage is far from perfect. Luka cashes in a debt owed by my adoptive parents, dragging me into his employ. That’s when I became suspicious. There have always been rumors about Luka’s parentage, that he’s part Unseelie, but he’s hiding a secret far greater than that…One which could topple a kingdom.
Weak for Him
Lyra Parish - 2014
Bright lights. Sex.Jennifer is made an offer: sell her virginity to the highest bidder and transform into one of Finnley's girls. But she finds herself weak for him, and doesn't fully realize what she's agreed to until it's too late.Will she rise to the challenge and play by the rules in a land where money is king and love is prohibited? Or will she lose herself and values in the attempt?Weak for Him has unlady-like language, adult subject matter, and s-e-x-ual situations. There is resolution at the end but the story does continue on to Weak Without Him.
My Absolute Darling
Gabriel Tallent - 2017
She knows how to snare a rabbit, sharpen a blade and splint a bone. She knows that her daddy loves her more than anything else in this world and he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her with him.But she doesn’t know why she feels so different from the other girls at school; why the line between love and pain can be so hard to see. Or why making a friend may be the bravest and most terrifying thing she has ever done.Sometimes the people you’re supposed to trust are the ones who do most harm. And what you’ve been taught to fear is the very thing that will save you…