Book picks similar to
It Was You by Anna Cruise


new-adult
romance
college
contemporary-romance

Shattered Rose


T.L. Gray - 2013
    GrayAvery Nichols knows how to wear the mask. Perfect student, perfect daughter and perfect friend. Nobody would ever guess that inside, Avery is a prisoner to her own self loathing. Then she meets him…and everything changes. Handsome, charming and self assured, Jake Matthew sweeps Avery off her feet in an effortless fashion. Avery knows that Jake is everything she needs and all she has ever wanted. She would destroy herself to be loved by him…until he walks away.Broken and lost, Avery meets Parker. His genuine, caring nature reaches past the mask and the shattered pieces her heart begin to slowly heal. But just when Avery starts to feel whole again, she realizes the impossible.Jake never really left.

Breathe into Me


Amanda Stone - 2013
    Kane's reputation is far from perfect, but is there more to him than what everyone else sees?Kelsey soon learns that you can’t run from your past, no matter how hard you try. When her nightmares find her once again, Kelsey must find the courage to face the demons that have been haunting her and save the people she loves most.

Kiss This


Hadley Quinn - 2013
    When she meets Teague, their attraction to one another is off the charts, and for the first time in two years, she wants to disregard her rule. But Camryn makes a bet that he can't go just one week without kissing her. She's protecting her own fragile heart, but her wit and smart mouth end up driving Teague crazy. When Teague is equally skilled at her challenge, their friendship turns complicated. He's not at all what she assumed, and he makes her feel things she never expected to feel. But sharing her true reasons for the no-kiss bet hurts too much and she keeps him in the dark. Teague has his own secrets to hide, starting with his last name. It's the reason he left town--to lick his wounds until he can piece his life back together. His time with Camryn proves that it might actually be possible, but with the threat of his family and his past ruining all that he's finally gained, can he really take that risk again?Loving might be easy; learning to trust again could be too difficult to achieve...

The Space Between


Victoria H. Smith - 2013
    Losing high-stakes poker has its consequences, but he’d repeatedly face them just to hear Lacey Douglas sing. Drake sees Lacey light up the stage, and he has to have her. But his intentions for being on her side of town turn out to be the reason he can’t. Chicago native Lacey has dreams of the opera, but life has its obstacles. Lacey has come to know her hardships as part of living in the real world and accepts them fully. When Lacey meets the intense and invigorating Drake, a fire is lit inside her, unleashing those dreams again.Two paths that should have never crossed prove to create the exact pairing the other needs. But when their worlds take time to catch up, everything they have is tested. Finding the space between the two sides that challenge them will be hard, but it’s the only place that will keep them together.The Space Between is a new adult contemporary romance.

Bouquet Toss


Melissa Brown - 2012
    Be it a blessing or a curse, Daphne (a hopeless romantic and perpetual single girl) catches the bouquet at every single wedding she attends. Daphne’s love life is a mess. Her first love, Mayson, haunts her heart and keeps her from pursuing happiness with any man who comes along. As she struggles to move on from the one who got away, Daphne wonders if she will ever break her curse and find her happily ever after.

Imperfect Chemistry


Mary Frame - 2014
    Having obtained her PhD in microbiology by the age of 20, she's amassed a wealth of knowledge, but one subject still eludes her - people. The pendulum of passions experienced by those around her confuses and intrigues her, so when she's offered a grant to study emotion as a pathogen, she jumps on the opportunity.Enter Jensen Walker, Lucy's neighbor and the one person she finds appealing. Jensen's life is the stuff of campus legend: messy, emotional, and complicated. Basically, the perfect starting point for Lucy's study. When her tenaciousness wears him down and he consents to help her, sparks fly. To her surprise, Lucy finds herself battling with her own emotions, as foreign as they are intense. With the clock ticking on her deadline, Lucy must decide what's more important: analyzing her passions... or giving in to them?

That Man 1


Nelle L'Amour - 2014
    Until he meets Jennifer McCoy, his outspoken new assistant and development executive.Newly engaged Jennifer has no idea that her devastating new boss is the man she kissed, blindfolded, in a game of Truth or Dare. That kiss, that man, that beautiful stranger she cannot forget.Blake hasn’t been able to stop thinking about that kiss either…and he’ll do anything to win Jennifer —even if it means being a beautiful bastard and breaking all the rules.

Lovers at Heart


Melissa Foster - 2013
    When Max Armstrong walked into his life six months earlier, he saw right through the efficient and capable façade she wore like a shield, to the sweet, sensual woman who lay beneath. She sparked an unfamiliar desire in him for more than a one-night stand, leaving his heart reeling and his blood boiling. But one mistake caused her to turn away, and now, after six months of longing for the one woman he cannot have, he's going home to try to forget her all together.Max Armstrong has a successful career, a comfortable lifestyle, and she's never needed a man to help her find her way--until Treat Braden caught her attention at a wedding in Nassau, causing a surge of emotions too reminiscent of the painful past she'd spent years trying to forget. Max will do anything to avoid reliving that pain--including forgoing her toe-curling, heart-pounding desire for Treat.When a chance encounter turns into a night of intense passion, Treat realizes that the mistake he made six months earlier may cause him to lose Max completely. He will do everything within his power to win her heart forever--and Max is forced to face her hurtful past head on for the man she cannot help but love.**CONTENT WARNING: Due to mature content, recommended for readers aged 18+**

The Start of Us


Lauren Blakely - 2013
    Last Times. Connections. And No Regrets...I only wanted a tattoo. A mark on my body to remind me of who I used to be. Something to hold onto when I started my penance for all the things I’d done wrong, the bad choices I’d made by the time I turned nineteen. Instead, I found a night of possibility, of truth, of hope for the future. And the most intense physical connection I’ve ever had. The only one I’ve ever had, and one I will never forget.Trey...When she walked into my tattoo shop, I knew she was like me. Harley had secrets. She had a messed-up past, and things she wanted to run from, or forget ever happened. I couldn’t let her go. So we agreed on one night – to spend it together wandering around the city, getting to know each other, the clock ticking because we knew tomorrow would bring an end to the possibility of an us.Unless tonight was only the start.How can one night be the start of something when tomorrow it has to end?

Mangled Hearts


Felicia Tatum - 2013
    Until the person she blames for her heartache is assigned as her new client. Cade doesn’t take life seriously, finding it easier to drink his problems away than deal with them. But when Francesca steps back into his life, he’s forced to revisit the past. Can he bring himself to tell her the truth about her sister’s death? Will the truth bring them back together, or push them further apart?

Temporary Bliss


B.J. Harvey - 2013
    Temporary feelings. Until a late-night encounter creates a permanent longing for bliss of another kind… Makenna Lewis cringes at any mention of the word commitment. Her past experience with the L-word did little more than teach her that anything involving feelings is a dangerous path indeed. She no longer wants or needs a relationship, but she still enjoys men. Even if her attachment to them is only temporary.That is, until a late night encounter with the delicious Daniel Winters turns her preconceived notion of commitment completely on its head. He makes her feel things she vowed to never feel again, and when Daniel pushes for more than she’s willing to give, she falters.What do you do when something that you’ve known to be so wrong in the past feels so damn right in the present?If you’re Mac, you run and hide.Lucky for Mac, Daniel isn’t the type of man who takes no for an answer.

Undescribable


Shantel Tessier - 2013
    Focusing on her new friends and rebuilding her broken life, Samantha is content. Until she meets him – attorney by day and a cocky, foul mouth playboy by night. All girls want Slade Long, but not one has ever been able to keep his attention for long. Having a different woman in his bed every night is how he prefers it-no emotion, no connection. Until he meets her - an angel with the sweetest voice he has ever heard and the most enticing green eyes. Samantha makes him second guess his actions and has him wanting something he didn’t know existed. How can a man who has never been in love, be so sure? Can real love happen this fast? Burned by her past, Samantha struggles to keep up with the overwhelming passion she feels for Slade. She knows that he will be nothing but trouble to her already fragile heart, but how long can she continue to deny the love that she feels for him? Will Samantha let Slade prove his love is real, or will she push him away? She thought she knew love…… He thought he never wanted love….. Together they will show each other what they can’t live without.

The Last One


Tawdra Kandle - 2014
    The last year has been a roller coaster: her widowed mother just married a long-time family friend. Her younger brother unexpectedly became a father and a husband. Everyone's life is changing. . .except for hers. As she begins her final summer of college, Meghan's looking for excitement and maybe a little romance. Nothing serious; this girl just wants to have fun. But the only man for Meghan turns out to be the last one she expects. Sam Reynolds doesn't need excitement, and he doesn't want romance. Fun is out of the question. He's been the steady, responsible one since his parents were killed, and serious is his way of life. When Sam rescues Meghan alongside a dark Georgia backroad, she falls hard for his deep brown eyes and slow drawl. But making him see her as more than just a party girl won't be easy. Sam's tempted by the fiery young artist, even as he realizes that giving into his feelings will mean radical change. . .maybe more than he can handle. Nobody ever said love was simple.

Make Me Forget


Anna Brooks - 2014
    She knows she’ll see him when she moves back to Wisconsin. She’s planning on it, the connection she still feels to him after all these years is undeniable. But one lie tore them apart years ago, and she’s afraid some mistakes can’t be forgiven.Travis Parker doesn’t like liars. When he was younger, lies burned him in a bad way. It only took one summer with Charlotte’s innocence to know that she was it for him. When he thought he finally had something to look forward to, one misguided lie shattered everything he believed.Now, Char’s back, but she’s not the same girl he once knew.Make Me Forget is the first book in a series of second chance romances featuring the most loyal men as they battle their past in order to secure a future with their one true love. Defeat is not an option when their hearts are on the line. Each emotional and angsty story can be read as a standalone.

Offside


Juliana Stone - 2012
    Not because Billie's talent is in question, but because Billie is a woman. And though these are modern times, some of the local guys still have a problem letting a girl into their 'men's club.'Soon, Billie is at the center of a small town battle of the sexes, with everyone choosing sides. Her sisters. The townsfolk. Her friends. And yet, the only person whose opinion she cares about doesn't seem to care much at all. Logan Forest, the man who broke her heart when she was eighteen and the man she now shares the bench with every Friday night. She's got a lot to prove and though Billie Jo Barker scores on the ice, will this girl ever score with the man of her dreams?