Book picks similar to
Getting Wound Up by Jennifer Bernard


romance
jennifer-bernard
contemporary
sports

Reckless Longing


Gina Robinson - 2013
    Her mother’s wild and wanton behavior has left Ellie with a deep longing. To escape. To belong. To know who her real dad is. To really be loved. Her mother finally crosses a line thatsends Ellie running, escaping to college with one, focused goal–to find and confront her bio dad, who doesn’t even know she exists. Then she meets Logan. Hot, charming, and troubled. He turns her world upside down and puts all her plans in jeopardy.Logan Walker is hiding a shameful and painful secret. One that nearly cost him everything. When he meets the beautiful and mysterious Ellie at a Week of Welcome event, something inside him awakens and he finds himself drawn to her.But the attraction they both feel for each other is as delicate as the web of secrets they each hide behind. And as the truths are revealed, their reckless longing may not survive the fallout.

Hardball


C.D. Reiss - 2016
    Perfect swing. Perfect swagger.They call Dash Wallace the Diamond King.He’s the hottest commodity in baseball and in the bedroom. When he runs the bases, every woman’s eyes are glued to his stunning body and a smile that puts the night lights to shame. I’m no queen. I’m a regular girl with a regular job. I just watch him on TV and from the bleachers, season after season. Girls like me grab a guy like that one in a million times.My number just came up, and he is as spectacular in bed as he is on the field.But there’s not a woman in the world who can distract Dash Wallace from the game. Not for a moment. Not even me.Until the night I do. And everything changes.-----Hardball is a SMOKING HOT, SEXY romance with a touch of angst and a ton of heart from CD Reiss. It's a fun, witty, full-length standalone.

Traded: Brody and Kara


Tess Thompson - 2018
    He’s focused on football. When giving in to desire is risky, will they choose to play for love?Nurse Kara Boggs lost everything because she stood up for what’s right. After turning state’s evidence against her mobster father, she’s forced to go underground with an assumed name. But taking a job for a handsome celebrity quarterback could shine a very dangerous public spotlight.After leading his team to a Super Bowl win, Brody Mullen should be on top of the world. But he’s shocked when his quiet seaside homecoming reveals his mother in a cast, and her housekeeper dying from a brain tumor. Frantic to get the best care for the women he adores, he hires a gorgeous nurse… despite her strange request to stay publicly invisible.As Kara’s attraction to the charming jock grows, she becomes trapped by her own high-stakes secrets and the constant threat of exposure. And Brody’s famously strict “no women” rule means falling hard for the beautiful woman could ruin his career.Will they be sidelined by their own rules, or will they complete a pass to passion?Traded: Brody and Kara is the touching first book in the Cliffside Bay small-town romance series. If you like courageous heroines, steadfast heroes, and heartfelt stories of friendship and family, you’ll adore Tess Thompson’s emotional saga.Buy Traded: Brody and Kara to win love’s game today!

A Risk Worth Taking


Heather Hildenbrand - 2013
    Everything she thought she knew—heck, everything she thought she wanted for her own life—feels like a lie. The truth is love is a risk. And the true kind, the kind that lasts, might even be a fairy tale. Reeling from the divorce, Summer derails her own future by breaking up with her parent-approved boyfriend and giving up her lifelong plans for a big-city career. She moves back home, business degree in hand. Dad needs her to fill the gaps her mother left behind; Summer needs to find who she is outside of the cookie-cutter life that failed so miserably for her parents.Ford O’Neal’s future involves one person: himself. He doesn’t have a permanent address and he definitely doesn’t commit. To a place or a person. Raised by hippies, he plans just far enough ahead to secure his next stop, this one landing him at a work-study program at Heritage Plantation where he can grow his own herbal and medicinal creations. Summer is gorgeous and smart and fun to be with, the perfect way to pass five months. It won’t be love—Ford’s got too many things to accomplish, too many places to go, before he settles down. Yet Summer pulls him in, challenging him to rethink his own philosophy. When Ford’s five months are up, each of them must decide if love is really worth the risk.

Quick Trick


Skye Jordan - 2015
    If he has to be off the ice for three weeks of recovery, he‘ll do it on his back—breaking in a new wanna-be cowgirl every night. But pressure from the team’s owner and Grant’s parents land him in his hometown of Holly, North Carolina instead. Things look up when he learns the hometown beauty who was once so out of his league is now single, and sexier than ever. Determined to slip in a night with her while he’s in town, Grant is shocked to discover one will never be enough. Faith Nicholas has no interest in the newest Saber-son gossip. After losing her father just months before, she is now on the verge of losing their family hardware store—which is also her home. She couldn’t care less about the Saber’s big money or flashy toys. But she can’t seem to keep Grant out of her store--or her dreams. His magnetic charisma is impossible to ignore, and the longer he stays in town, the more she finds to love about a man who isn’t as superficial as he’d like others to believe.With a struggling store, four-hundred miles and a rigorous hockey season looming between them, Grant will have to pull out his very best moves if he’s going to make this quick trick last forever. ROUGH RIDER HOCKEY NOVELSQUICK TRICKHOT PUCKDIRTY SCOREWILD ZONE

Escape In You


Rachel Schurig - 2013
    A womanizer. A fighter. Dangerous. The type of guy most girls do their best to avoid. But Zoe Janes is no saint herself. In fact, she sees in Jet the perfect opportunity to distract herself from her responsibilities at home and the mistakes that keep her trapped there. He’s gorgeous, likes to party, and is clearly only interested in having fun—just like Zoe. The more time they spend together, the harder it is for Zoe to stick to her “fun only” mantra. Jet is getting under her skin, making her believe things could actually be different. She knows they’re both trapped by the sins of their past but Jet is starting to make her think freedom might actually be possible. And that makes him the most dangerous boy of all.

Only for Him


Cristin Harber - 2015
    He’s the stuff high school crushes are made of, Mister Popular, and captain of every team. She’s artsy, cute, and not in his league, though fully aware of Summerland’s "I Dream of Dating Grayson Ford" support group.I can’t say no. The girl’s had my heart since before I knew it went missing.He hides a life of hell. His father hates him, his mother’s gone. Emma is his only savior, yet she doesn’t know her power over him. She’s the only girl he wants, the only one he could ever tell—though he won’t.I’m stronger, bigger, more of a man than he’ll ever be, but because I ruined his life, I’ve taken his crap, his attacks, the vulgar nature of his existence.Until she discovers Gray’s embarrassment, his humiliation. Emma fights for him, for a chance. Theirs is a Cinderella story that she believes impossible. But as the layers peel back, it’s just a guy who needs a girl in order to keep breathing.My mind is already doodling Mrs. Grayson Ford in imaginary notebooks. He has no clue where my head is at… But, given that I didn’t see what just happened coming, maybe I have no clue where his head is at either.______* ONLY FOR HIM is the first book in the Only series, all of which will release in Spring 2015.

Block & Tackle


Elise Faber - 2017
    . . basically act as a wife-on-steroids.(4) THE IMPORTANT ONE: Do not, under any circumstances, fall in love with Devon Scott—demanding boss, former NHL player, and all-around gorgeous specimen of the male persuasion.Job performance:Failing. Absolutely failing at number four.Off Guard by Stephanie FournetLife couldn’t be better for Charlie Woodruff.After a year of holding out, she’s finally landed the job she’s always wanted in the city of her dreams. An apartment she can afford and new friends at work make the transition easy.When she meets a gorgeous stranger who makes her laugh and steals her breath, it seems like the icing on the cake...Until Charlie discovers he’s a client.Hutch Barlow — newly drafted wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders — looks like an avenging angel, hangs on her every word, and is completely off-limits. The trouble is he also refuses to take “no” for an answer.And if she’s being honest, Charlie doesn’t want him to.But seeing him means she could lose everything — including her heart.Off Limits by Kristin VaydenEverything about Ava screams off limits.To want her is to invite disaster.To pursue her is to risk my job.To kiss her might cost me my best friend.But all those risks seem small in light of the first problem.She hates me.To her I’m a sell out, choosing to advance my career rather than protect my biggest client.Her brother.And my best friend.She hasn’t spoken to me in over a year, but that ends now.Because I’m done with holding back.To hell with the consequences.Wish me luck...

The Cowboy's Bride


Donna Alward - 2006
    By marrying Alexis Grayson, he'll be able to access the trust fund his parents left behind...and keep Windover Ranch alive.Alexis isn't sure how she's going to get through the next several months, especially when her baby is born. When Connor lands in her life, he seems heaven-sent, and the temporary solution he offers is both crazy and perfect. A fake marriage to save his ranch and give her the security she needs.But when happens when the wedding doesn't seem so fake after all? Can this bride-for-hire become Connor's wife-for-real?

Forever & Always


Jasinda Wilder - 2013
    Even if it’s just random stuff, nothing important, they’re important to me. Gramps is great, and I love working on the ranch.But…I’m lonely.I feel disconnected, like I’m no one, like I don’t belong anywhere. Like I’m just here until something else happens. I don’t even know what I want with my future. But your letters, they make me feel connected to something, to someone. I had a crush on you, when we first met. I thought you were beautiful. So beautiful. It was hard to think of anything else. Then camp ended and we never got together, and now all I have of you is these letters.S**t.I just told you I have a crush on you. HAD. Had a crush. Not sure what is anymore. A letter-crush? A literary love? That’s stupid. Sorry. I just have this rule with myself that I never throw away what I write and I always send it, so hopefully this doesn’t weird you out too much. I had a dream about you too. Same kind of thing. Us, in the darkness, together.Just us.And it was like you said, a memory turned into a dream, but a memory of something that’s never happened, but in the dream it felt so real, and it was more, I don’t even know, more RIGHT than anything I’ve ever felt, in life or in dreams. I wonder what it means that we both had the same dream about each other. Maybe nothing, maybe everything. You tell me.Cade----------------------------------------------------------------Cade,We’re pen pals. Maybe that’s all we’ll ever be. I don’t know. If we met IRL (in real life, in case you’re not familiar with the term) what would happen? And just FYI, the term you used, a literary love? It was beautiful. So beautiful. That term means something, between us now. We are literary loves. Lovers? I do love you, in some strange way. Knowing about you, in these letters, knowing your hurt and your joys, it means something so important to me, that I just can’t describe. I need your art, and your letters, and your literary love.If we never have anything else between us, I need this. I do. Maybe this letter will only complicate things, but like you I have a rule that I never erase or throw away what I’ve written and I always send it, no matter what I write in the letter. Your literary love,Ever

Go Deep


Bella Love-Wins - 2016
     I'm not riding a wave to the NFL. I am the wave, and everyone knows it, including my fans, opponents, coaches, every NFL agent who matters, and the hot little chicks who follow me around. I'm the whole package...with a package that leaves chicks wanting more. There's just one exception. Cassidy Greyson. She is the uptight cheerleader, my brother's best friend, and a fellow student in a few of my courses. Getting a piece of her is now my informal senior year 'pet' project. Little does she know she's about to be owned. Cassidy Greyson 
I worked my butt off for three school years and two long summers so I could graduate early and get the hell out of my backwater life in Louisiana. Sure, I stuck to the cheerleading, but only because it was a family tradition that my mother insisted I keep up. Just because my older sister, Caroline, fell for the 'be-a-cheerleader-to-marry-an-NFL-star' trap, doesn't mean I want to follow in their footsteps. This is why Slade 'Slaughter' Clark doesn't have a chance in hell. I've avoided falling for the arrogant jock up until now, and there's no way I'll let him in. My business professor may have thought he was doing us both a favor when he forced Slade and me to partner up for a major project. I just wish I didn't have to stare into his sexy hazel eyes or watch him flex his tight, bulky muscles while we work together. *Author's note. Go Deep is a full length, standalone story with a HEA ending and no cliffhanger. This story is light on football and heavy on steamy romance.

Father Found


Judith Arnold - 1997
    Never did he expect to find the unplanned result of that fling - a healthy, wailing baby named Samantha - strapped into a car seat on his back porch, along with a suitcase full of diapers and infant apparel and a note informing Jamie that he’s her father.Maybe he is and maybe he isn’t. But first things first. He’s never fed a baby or changed a diaper in his life. He doesn’t own a crib or a stroller. In a panic, he phones the nearest hospital, where neonatal nurse Allison Winslow takes his call and tells him about a class she teaches called the Daddy School.Classes on how to be a dad are exactly what Jamie needs. But when he attends his first class and sees the tall, earnest, amazingly beautiful and even more amazingly competent Allison, he realizes that he might just need more from her than her lectures on how to hold a baby.Jamie’s efforts to be a father to this precious baby touch Allison. His sense of humor amuses her. His striking good looks turn her on. But how can she trust the sort of guy who’d sleep with a stranger on vacation, without giving a thought to the consequences? How can she give her heart to such a reckless man?

Payback


Amy Daws - 2019
    Her cheating ex deserves to see her living her best life; a one-night-stand with a hot South African soccer player would be the perfect revenge. Right? Wrong. Allie is so, so wrong. ROAN DEWALT HAS ALL THE MOVES. On and off the field he’s at the top of his game. Roan respects hard-work, dedication—and follow through. He’s not a one and done kind of man, and he’s far from being done with Allie Harris. One sexy night and two years later, Allie’s job brings her back to town. An opportunity for the perfect replay Roan has been fantasizing about since they slept together. THE PROBLEM? Allie Harris has a secret; one she’s been keeping from Roan all this time. Video proof of their one night together—taken without his consent. Will Allie’s payback plan come back to bite them both? Or can she erase her past mistake and embrace a new future with Roan?

The Neanderthal Box Set


Penny Reid - 2014
     There are three things you need to know about Janie Morris: 1) She is incapable of engaging in a conversation without volunteering TMTI (Too Much Trivial Information), especially when she is unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her more than Quinn Sullivan, and 3) She doesn't know how to knit. After losing her boyfriend, apartment, and job in the same day, Janie Morris can't help wondering what new torment fate has in store. To her utter mortification, Quinn Sullivan- aka Sir McHotpants- witnesses it all then keeps turning up like a pair of shoes you lust after but can't afford. The last thing she expects is for Quinn- the focus of her slightly, albeit harmless, stalkerish tendencies- to make her an offer she can't refuse. NEANDERTHAL MARRIES HUMAN This book is not a standalone. It is the sequel to ‘Neanderthal Seeks Human,’ it is book #1.5 in the ‘Knitting in the City’ series, and it is a full length, 105k word novel. There are three things you should know about Quinn Sullivan: 1) He is madly in love with Janie Morris, 2) He’s not above playing dirty to get what (or who) he wants, and 3) He doesn’t know how to knit. After just five months of dating Janie, Quinn—former Wendell and unapologetic autocrat—is ready to propose marriage. In fact, he’s more than ready. If it were up to Quinn, he would efficiently propose, marry, and beget Janie with child all in the same day—thereby avoiding the drama and angst that accompanies the four stages of pre-matrimony: engagement, meeting the parents, bachelor/bachelorette party, and overblown, superfluous wedding day traditions. But Janie, much to Quinn’s dismay, tosses a wrench in his efficacious endeavors and challenges him to prove his devotion by going through the matrimonial motions, no matter how minute and mundane. Will Quinn last until the wedding day? Or will he yield to his tyrant impulses? Regardless, one thing is for certain, Quinn Sullivan will have to learn to expect the Spanish Inquisition (i.e. the unexpected) if he plans to have and keep Janie Morris as his wife.

Every Little Piece


Kate Ashton - 2013
    A story of love, hope and healing.** Needing the truth… I wanted to spend the night before graduation making out with Seth, but one of my best friends had the whole night planned. Lucky for me, we ran into him and his friends playing pool where we made some silly bet over a game, and the losers had to run through town in nothing but their underwear. A year later, I wish more than ever we’d just made out at Raker’s Bluff instead, because maybe the night would’ve turned out differently. Now Seth’s back, the guy who broke my heart, the guy I’m still in love with…I just hope he doesn’t break me all over again. Desperate for redemption… No one wants to fess up to having a screwed-up family. When my parents dropped the big divorce bomb on me, I decided to keep it a secret. Just the thought of the pity-stares and pats-on-the-back made me feel sick. I’d tell Haley and my friends another time. Except, I never got the chance. Stuff happened. Stuff that totally sucked and changed our lives forever. Instead of telling my truth, I took the coward’s way out, and I’ve regretted it ever since. But I’m back, determined to tell Haley everything, down to the last gritty detail, if she’ll give me the chance…even if it means losing her forever.