Book picks similar to
Connected by the Sea by E.L. Todd
romance
new-adult
contemporary-romance
contemporary
Hired Bride
Noelle Adams - 2015
Deanna has spent her life trying to take care of those she loves, and a six-month marriage should be a simple enough way to keep their historic Savannah house from falling down around their heads.Sexy, obnoxious Mitchell Graves needs a wife to finalize a business deal, and he snaps up Deanna as the most expedient option. Because she's quiet, he thinks she'll be easy enough to manage as a wife.He couldn't be more wrong.
Sweet Reunion
Melanie Shawn - 2012
It makes her miss the simplicity of being a teenager, when she was surrounded by her amazing friends, The Fabulous Four, and she was madly in love with her Dad's right hand man, Justin Barnes. His sexy smiles and deep brown eyes had made her heart race in a way she's never felt before or since. When the Fabulous Four unexpectedly show up on her doorstep to support her through this complicated time, things seem to be looking up for Amanda. But that's not the only surprise visit in store for her...Justin Barnes left Hope Falls ten years ago, in the dead of night, and didn't think he'd ever set foot there again. That was just fine with him, except for one little complication: Amanda Jacobs. He had fallen in love with her unruly blonde curls and sparkling sapphire eyes, but she had been a teenager then, five years younger than he - too young for him to act on his attraction. Still, he'd missed her every single day of those ten years. When Justin receives a phone call that his former mentor has passed away, he knows he has to return to Hope Falls. Justin just has one question - will the girl that once adored him have grown into a woman that can't stand him? Or will she still be the only thing in the world that feels like home?
Pierced
Sydney Landon - 2014
I’m twenty-nine, rich and single. Impressive right? I’m also a favorite target for every hungry socialite looking to land the uncatchable catch. Maybe it sounds vain, but the fact that I’m a God between the sheets doesn’t hurt my stock any. What these women don’t know though is that I’m completely screwed up and damaged beyond repair by my past. The only part of me I’ll ever willingly give them is the hour it takes to make them scream…several times. Then I saw her…I’m Lia Adams and I’m in my last year at St. Claire’s University in North Carolina. I grew up with an abusive mother, and a twisted stepfather who was worse…so much worse. I’m so close to escaping from my past and making my dreams come true. I’ll do anything necessary to survive, even work as an escort to help pay for my college expenses. The men that I accompany to various events as an escort for Date Night are mostly harmless and just want an attractive woman on their arm for an evening. It has never gone further than that…until him…Circumstances bring two people that should have never crossed paths together and in the days and weeks ahead, they grow close quickly, each seeing a kindred soul in the other. As ghosts from their past rise to haunt them, they cling to each other as their lives start to spiral out of control. Soon, they realize that they’re both damaged possibly beyond repair. Will their love be what saves or destroys them?This book is meant for mature readers who are 18+. It contains explicit language, and graphic sexual content.**Book 1 of the Lucian & Lia Trilogy.**Words: 73,770
The Shop on Main
Kay Correll - 2014
As she scrambles to maintain her fragile financial security and independence, she fears she may lose more than just The Shop on Main and her home.Nothing is working out like Bella planned--she finds out the man she is falling for, Owen Campbell, is the businessman at the center of all her problems.Owen has secretly longed to belong--somewhere--anywhere--his whole life. When he decides to give his long-lost brother, Jake, back his birthright, he unknowingly thwarts his briefly held hope of a place where he can put down roots and a family he longs for.Nothing is working out like Owen planned--neither Bella nor Jake wants anything to do with him.How can a man who is used to being in control and a woman determined to make it all on her own find a way to happiness?The Shop on Main is Book One of the Comfort Crossing series. Bella and her best friends, Jenny and Becky Lee, navigate the heartaches and triumphs of love and life in the small southern town of Comfort Crossing, Mississippi.
Maid for the Billionaire
Ruth Cardello - 2011
So when business forces him to fly to China, he decides to take her with him, but on his terms. No promises. No complications. Just sex.Abby has always been the responsible one. She doesn't believe in taking risks; especially when it comes to men - until she meets Dominic. He's both infuriating and intoxicating, a heady combination. Their trip to China revives a long forgotten side of Abby, but also reveals a threat to bring down Dominic's company. With no time to explain her actions, Abby must either influence the outcome of his latest venture and save his company or accept her role as his mistress and leave his fate to chance. Does she love him enough to risk losing him for good?
Noah
Elizabeth Reyes - 2012
After disconnecting with the world two years ago to be at the side of her dying mother, she’s left alone, unemployed, overweight, and feeling a decade older than her twenty-eight years. When her best friend coaxes her into joining the local gym to ditch her depression and rejuvenate her life, she meets Noah. Assigned to help Veronica lose weight, Noah is everything she expected a young trainer to be—perfectly chiseled, supportive and motivating. Add to that, he’s incredibly sexy. He’s everything she’s ever looked for in a man. What she least expected was for him to fall for her, but he has. There's just one glaring problem: Noah is eight years younger.Noah Quintanilla has his eye on a boxing title—someday. Down for a few months with an injury, his maintenance-boy pay at 5th Street Gym won't cut it. He’s finally given the opportunity to train. The catch? His trainee is an out-of-shape woman with a free week pass. Taking on the challenge, Noah stumbles into one of the closest friendships he’s ever known, and before he knows it, he’s in love. But Veronica’s not having it—the age difference is too much. Their platonic relationship means having to watch her date other men—something that would make him crazy. Believing he's the man for her, Noah sets out to prove that age is but an illusion, and there's more to him than just a number.
Catch My Fall
Ella Fox - 2013
In need of a fresh start, she settles into a new town and begins to make a new life. Tristan Chamberlain has always kept girls at arm's length and he has no intention of changing. He’s caring, smart, handsome, but he’s also dealing with a lifetime of guilt that’s slowly but surely destroying him.Sometimes what you run from is the one thing that will save you.Separately, they’re both free-falling. Together, they’re about to find that love can create the strongest safety net of all.
Sometimes Never
Cheryl McIntyre - 2012
She’s content with her current no-strings-attached extracurricular activity with the lead singer of her band. She’s never believed in love and commitment.Mason starts his eighth school in five years anticipating nothing more than the usual—boring classes, fighting more than making friends, and girls happily willing to succumb to his easy smile. He’s never put much stock into love at first sight—until he sees her.Regardless of their painful pasts, Hope and Mason discover that sometimes never can become forever.
*This is a mature young adult. Recommended for 17+ due to sensitive subject material, harsh language, and sexual situations.
Accidentally Married
Victorine E. Lieske - 2014
Her rent is due and she needs a job. Desperately. After getting a tip about an open position, she rushes to Jameson Technologies and meets CEO Jared Jameson. Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding, she is put in the awkward position of pretending to be his girlfriend. Not the job she was applying for. And when she finds out Jared lied to her to get what he wanted, she decides to get back at him. In front of his family. Jared is stunned when Madison announces they are getting married. She pushed her revenge too far. How can he tell them it’s all a lie? And when his sick aunt asks them to be married before she dies, Madison comes up with a hair-brained plan to hire an actor and stage a fake wedding. What they both don’t know is Jared’s father has found out about the fake wedding. And he’s got his own hair-brained plan. This is a sweet romance, appropriate for any age.
Glimpse
Stacey Wallace Benefiel - 2010
At her sixteenth birthday party, held in the basement of her dad’s church, she finally finds the courage to talk to him. Turns out, the devastating crush is mutual.As Avery takes her hand and leads her out onto the makeshift dance floor, Zellie is overwhelmed by her first vision of his death; shocking because not only are they both covered in his blood, but they’re old, like thirty-five, and she is pregnant.Afraid to tell anyone about the vision, (she’d just be labeled a freaky black magic witch, right?) Zellie keeps the knowledge of Avery’s future to herself and tries to act like any other teenager in love. When they get caught on their way to a secret rendezvous by her mom and his dad, they are forbidden to see each other.Convinced that their parents are freaking out unnecessarily, Avery and Zellie vow to be together no matter what. They continue their relationship in secret until Zellie learns that their parents are just trying to prevent her and Avery from suffering like they did. The visions are hereditary, they’re dangerous, and if they stay together the visions will come true.Now Zellie must choose between severing all ties with Avery, like her mom did to prevent his father’s death, and finding a way to change Avery’s future.
Breathless
Eve Carter - 2013
Except lately, it has been bad impressions. Frustrated and wounded, he surrounds himself with women, booze and drugs, until one day, he finds himself in a world of trouble. Kicked out by his brother, he relocates to California for the summer to help his uncle open Rookies, a local sports bar. In Santa Monica, Jesse meets the one woman who can lead him back on the right path, the beautiful 22 year old, Niki Milani. Only problem, she is not interested. Niki has her own demons to fight. A past that left her emotional abandoned by her own blood, her father. She keeps her heart guarded and finds it difficult to trust a man again. Especially not a bad boy player who is even more messed up than her. However, Jesse never backs down from a challenge. Blinded by a sizzling attraction, he is determined to prove to Niki that there is more to him than what appears on the surface. That he is the one who can heal her heart.The story of Jesse and Niki is a New Adult Romance that will leave you breathless.
Birthday Cake
Minx Malone - 2011
How hard can that be?My best friend is deployed and he worries about his little sister being alone. But I don’t mind taking her out for her birthday. I just have to remember one thing. 1) Keep my hands off her ridiculously curvy body.But there’s just one problem. Mara has her own ideas about what we should do for her birthday. And she wants a lot more than a Hallmark card.
Good Girl Gone Plaid
Shelli Stevens - 2013
In high school Sarah fell for her best friend’s older brother—one of the sexy, Scottish McLaughlin boys. But a painful betrayal showed her she’d been a fool to give her heart to a bad boy. At least it made it easier to leave him and move halfway around the world when her Navy dad got stationed in Japan. Eleven years later, the death of her grandmother has forced Sarah back to Whidbey Island for a month. It’s the length of time she must stay in her inherited house before she’s allowed to sell it, take the money and run. But when she sees Ian, bad as ever and still looking like sin on a stick, she can’t keep her mouth from watering. One look at Sarah stirs up the regret lingering in Ian’s heart—and never-forgotten desire lingering in his body. He should walk away, especially since divorced single mothers aren’t his style. But when she starts showing up at his family’s pub, he can’t resist a little casual seduction for old time’s sake. One thing quickly becomes clear, though. The heat between them is causing an avalanche of secrets and betrayal and nothing will ever be the same.Product Warnings: A bad-boy hero who’s good with his hands, a heroine who’s trying to be good. Contains liberal consumption of Scotch whisky, a Highland Games competition, men in kilts wielding large poles, and a potential Sarah McLaughlin of the non-musical kind.
Surrender
Melody Anne - 2013
Arianna (Ari) Lynn Harlow has led a charmed life until tragedy strikes her family. He’s looking for a no-emotions attached mistress, she’s looking for redemption.They are not a pair that should ever work, but undeniable attraction and devastating tragedies bring them together in the city by the bay where he fights to keep their relationship nothing more than an enjoyable way to meet his needs, and she battles to not lose herself in him. Spending time with Ari starts cracking the hard shell that Rafe has built around his heart, but he denies the affect she has on him until it’s too late to stop the inevitable conclusion that their relationship is headed for.Rafe once believed in happily ever after, coming from a large Italian family. He’s got the Midas touch, since every endeavor he tries turns to gold. That all ends when his wife walks out the door and leaves him blindsided. His devastation quickly turns to steel when he decides no woman will fool him again. From that point on he treats relationships as nothing more than business transactions where both party’s come out mutually benefited.Just when Ari has sunk to the lowest she’s ever been she finds an ad in the paper announcing a job that’s too good to be true. It turns out she’s right. She makes it through the intense rounds of interviews only to find out the job is for a mistress to the powerful Rafe Palazzo, owner of Palazzo Enterprises. Rafe gives her a day to think about whether she wants the position or not, and she’s sent on her way, only to find out her mother’s near-terminal position has taken a turn for the worse. Her mom’s only in the hospital because Ari messed up, and her mother’s the one who paid the price. Is Rafe her savior, or will he take her with him straight to the depths of hell?
Shuttered Affections
Rene Folsom - 2013
The crippling memories of an abusive relationship, and the lack of support from her family, lead her to flee her old life and begin anew.After settling into a quaint college town, Juliana finally feels at peace, content to stay under the radar and keep things simple.Until Aiden Stone, her new photography professor, crashes into her life, blurring the line between love and lust. As their torrid affair reaches untold heights, Juliana struggles to keep her shuttered emotions, and growing affections, from throwing her into a relationship she isn't prepared for.With her newfound romance blinding her from the looming shadows of her past, her nightmares become reality, and she is forced to discover her true strength within.Warning: This novel contains sexual situations and is meant for adult readers ages 18 and up.