Book picks similar to
Sugarcoated Pain by Summer Nawaz
romance
dnf
contemporary
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Playing with Fire
L.J. Shen - 2020
A scarred girl without direction. A love story carved in secrets, inked with pain and sealed with a lie. Grace Shaw and West St. Claire are arctic opposites.She is the strange girl from the food truck.He is the mysterious underground fighter who stormed into her sleepy Texan college town on his motorcycle one day, and has been wreaking havoc since.She is invisible to the world.He is the town’s beloved bad boy.She is a reject.He is trouble.When West thrusts himself into Grace’s quiet life, she scrambles to figure out if he is her happily-ever-after or tragic ending.But the harder she pushes him away, the more he pulls her out of her shell.Grace doesn’t know much about anything beyond her town’s limits, but she does know this:She is falling in love with the hottest guy in Sheridan U.And when you play with fire—you ought to get burned.
Things We Never Got Over
Lucy Score - 2022
Unless you count his basset hound, Waylon. Knox doesn’t tolerate drama, even when it comes in the form of a stranded runaway bride.Naomi wasn’t just running away from her wedding. She was riding to the rescue of her estranged twin to Knockemout, Virginia, a rough-around-the-edges town where disputes are settled the old-fashioned way…with fists and beer. Usually in that order.Too bad for Naomi her evil twin hasn’t changed at all. After helping herself to Naomi’s car and cash, Tina leaves her with something unexpected. The niece Naomi didn’t know she had. Now she’s stuck in town with no car, no job, no plan, and no home with an 11-year-old going on thirty to take care of.There’s a reason Knox doesn’t do complications or high-maintenance women, especially not the romantic ones. But since Naomi’s life imploded right in front of him, the least he can do is help her out of her jam. And just as soon as she stops getting into new trouble he can leave her alone and get back to his peaceful, solitary life.At least, that’s the plan until the trouble turns to real danger.
Things I Wanted To Say (But Never Did)
Monica Murphy - 2021
Dark and thunderous, furious and fierce. Cold, heartless and devastatingly beautiful, like the statues in our prep school gardens. The school with his family name on the sign. He can do no wrong here. This is his domain. He’s a menace on campus. Adored and feared. Hated and respected. His taunting words carve into my skin, shredding me to ribbons. Yet his intense gaze scorches my blood, fills me with a longing I don’t understand. When I stumble upon him one night alone, I find him broken. Bleeding. My instincts scream to leave and let him suffer, but I can’t. I sneak him into my room. Clean him up. Fall for his lies. Let him possess every single part of me until I’m the one left a gasping, broken mess. When he leaves me alone in the dead of night, he takes my journal with him. Now he knows all my secrets. My hate. My truth. And he promises to use my words against me. I’ll be ruined if my darkest secret gets out. That’s when I strike a bargain with the devil. I’ll let Whit Lancaster ruin me behind closed doors instead.
Vein Of Love
R. Scarlett - 2016
On the eve she turns nineteen, Molly leaves for her birthday party against her parent’s wishes, sick of their warnings about her “betrothal to a demon.”Except that she’s very much betrothed, and he’s very much a demon—one who’s only agreed to the nuptials to steal Molly’s ancient daemon powers. Brash, arrogant, and built like a Greek god, Tensley Knight keeps showing up to save Molly from otherworldly attacks, only to insult her a moment later.As Molly learns more about the demon world, she realizes two things: that her family’s safety depends on a successful marriage, while any chance of freedom she’ll ever have calls for Tensley’s demise.Yet sometimes Molly spots a tortured soul beyond those liquid grey eyes, and there’s no denying the way her skin tingles when Tensley touches it. In Vein of Love, safety requires sacrifice, foe becomes lover, and one must decide whether to kiss...or to kill.
Most of All You
Mia Sheridan - 2017
. .Crystal learned long ago that love brings only pain. Feeling nothing at all is far better than being hurt again. She guards her wounded heart behind a hard exterior and carries within her a deep mistrust of men, who, in her experience, have only ever used and taken.A man in need of help . . .Then Gabriel Dalton walks into her life. Despite the terrible darkness of his past, there's an undeniable goodness in him. And even though she knows the cost, Crystal finds herself drawn to Gabriel. His quiet strength is wearing down her defenses and his gentle patience is causing her to question everything she thought she knew.Only love can mend a shattered heart . . .Crystal and Gabriel never imagined that the world, which had stolen everything from them, would bring them a deep love like this. Except fate will only take them so far, and now the choice is theirs: Harden their hearts once again or find the courage to shed their painful pasts.
Hunter
Eden Summers - 2018
I've been running for ten years - fleeing my past and clawing my way toward an inescapable act of vengeance. Until he walks into my life, sure and strong and full of secrets. He dilutes my thirst for retribution with his touch. He obliterates my need for solitude with his kiss. But it's his hidden agenda that makes the hair on the back of my neck prickle. He wants something. Something that doesn't revolve around sweaty skin and tangled silk sheets like he'd have me believe. I have to stop falling for him, otherwise the last ten years will all be for nothing. I need to keep running, keep fighting for vengeance, even though I know he will track me down. But trying to escape him is just another problem. Because now I crave the hunt.
The Lie
Karla Sorensen - 2021
Especially not hotheaded tight ends with tattoos and impulse control problems. That’s why Dominic Walker is completely off my radar. Sort of. Babysitting the team troublemaker when he’s forced to volunteer for the foundation where I work means I can’t exactly avoid him. I wish I had though. Because once I get to know Dominic, it’s almost impossible to ignore the feelings he brings out in me. Pretty soon, I’m breaking all my rules. I just have to hope he doesn’t break my heart in the process.
Sea of Ruin
Pam Godwin - 2020
Wanted for piracy, she fears neither God nor death nor man. Except Priest Farrell. The unfaithful, stormy-eyed libertine hunts her with terrifying possessiveness. Nothing will stop him from coming for her. Not his unforgivable betrayal. Not when she's captured by the ice-cold pirate hunter, Lord Ashley Cutler. She must escape Ashley's prison and Priest's deceit. But can she walk away from their twisted desires? Two gorgeous captains stand on opposite sides of the law. When they collide in a battle to protect her, the lines blur between enemies and lovers. Passion heats, secrets unravel, and hearts entangle until they break. Can love prevail in the sea of ruin?
Trouble
Tia Louise - 2021
But his naughty eyes flashed, his full lips curled into a knowing smile, and I should have run.I didn’t. I kissed him instead.Then he gave me a job when I needed it the most.I never get involved with clients, but Spencer Carrollton is wickedly handsome in a bespoke suit. He’s devastatingly sexy out of it. He’s possessive, demanding, and the best sex I’ve ever had. He’s an arrogant billionaire, who thinks I’ll fall at his feet, but I’m not going down that road again.Until he pulls me out of danger and insists I move in with him to be safe.As the nights pass and we grow closer, I know I’m losing this fight.Spencer Carrollton always gets what he wants.The trouble is, he wants me.(TROUBLE is a STAND-ALONE, enemies-to-lovers, billionaire-boss romance. No cheating. No cliffhanger.)
Second Chance Contract
M. Robinson - 2021
Robinson comes a best friend’s baby sister, second chance billionaire romance.She was my best friends little sister which meant she was off limits, but I couldn’t help myself. I never could when it came to her and in the end, I just left town and made something of my myself.Ten years later and I was one of the richest men in the world. I had everything I ever wanted except for her. Little did I know, life would give me a second chance to make things right by her.She was suddenly my publicist, treating me as if I was nothing more than another client when I stole all her firsts. Including her heart.I needed to take matters into my own hands, making her an offer she couldn’t refuse.For the next time days, she signed a contract stating…She was mine.
Stalked by the Kraken
Lillian Lark - 2021
She says that the most we can have are the three nights she promised me, but the dark part of myself isn’t going to let the woman who snared its attention go.I found her. I hunted her. She’s mine.**Stalked by the Kraken is a monster romance that features tentacles. This book is a standalone and takes place in the same world as, and prior to the events of, Three of Hearts with some character crossover.Content Warning: Book includes breeding behavior and mentions infertility.
King of Corium
C. Hallman - 2021
Assassins, mafia leaders, arms dealers and art thieves.You name it, this college houses them.Here nothing can touch them.Upon arriving I knew Aspen would be here, she was the daughter of our enemy, a snake in the grass like her father. I had no intention of sparring with her. That is until she opened her pretty little mouth. One sentence and she became my next target, and a woman that I would do anything to see on her knees at my feet.If she thought the university was the only nightmare she would have to face, she was wrong.I was the king, and this was my kingdom.**King of Corium is a dark romance novel, that contains dark themes, including dub-con, non-con. It is not a standalone novel.**
Voyeur
Fiona Cole - 2018
Once she walked into my classroom, another smiling college freshman, I knew I should stop going. Stop watching. But I couldn’t do it. Everything about her makes me want more, and once I realize she wants me too, the temptation becomes irresistible. The worst part is that she has no idea her professor is the one watching behind the glass. I just have to hope that once she finds out the truth, she wants the same thing I do. Because now that I've seen all of her, I can't look away.Stand-alone.
Sweet Filthy Boy
Christina Lauren - 2014
They aren’t supposed to be with someone like him.But after a crazy Vegas weekend celebrating her college graduation—and terrified of the future path she knows is a cop-out—Mia Holland makes the wildest decision of her life: follow Ansel Guillaume—her sweet, filthy fling—to France for the summer and just…play.When feelings begin to develop behind the provocative roles they take on, and their temporary masquerade adventures begin to feel real, Mia will have to decide if she belongs in the life she left because it was all wrong, or in the strange new one that seems worlds away.