Book picks similar to
The Ruse by Judy CorryJudy Corry
romance
giveaways
young-adult
ya-romance
Chasing Spring
R.S. Grey - 2016
I didn't belong in the small town, but my dad wouldn't listen. He dragged me back home in his beat-up truck and dropped a bomb along the way: Chase Matthews was moving in with us. He was the golden boy of my high school, my former best friend, and the last person I wanted sleeping across the hall. His presence was too great a reminder of the ghosts I was trying to forget.I didn't ask for a hero. I don't want to be saved.To me, Lilah Calloway meant late nights sneakin'; out, moonlit hair, and sparklers in July. She was my best friend until the day she left and I'd assumed Blackwater had seen the last of her. Then, like a tempest, she rolled back into town for the final half of senior year. The chopped hair and dark devil-may-care attitude warned most people away, but I knew if I fought hard enough, I could find the lost girl.I didn't want to be her hero. Some girls don't need to be saved.
The Way to Game the Walk of Shame
Jenn P. Nguyen - 2016
After all, it’s better to be the girl who tames the wild surfer than just another notch on his surfboard.
Young Love Murder
April Brookshire - 2011
The teenager was raised to be an assassin and taught to never fall in love. She lives for the job until she meets Gabriel Sanchez, the son of her latest target. Wealthy, spoiled and self-indulgent, Gabriel Sanchez is a teenage playboy. Setting his sights on the beautiful Annabelle, he's drawn to the mysterious new girl who's playing hard to get. Gabriel also finds himself pulled into a world of deception, violence and murder. Off-centered for the first time in her life, Annabelle struggles to fight her doomed attraction for the handsome Gabriel. In this gritty, mature YA novel, you'll follow Annabelle and Gabriel in an intense, funny, angry, crazy, rocky and passionate romance. As two worlds collide and they're repeatedly thrown together and pulled apart by fate, will Annabelle and Gabriel overcome betrayals, revenge and heartbreak to find a lasting love?
When You Get the Chance
Emma Lord - 2022
Not her lovable but super-introverted dad, who after raising Millie alone, doesn’t want to watch her leave home to pursue her dream. Not her pesky and ongoing drama club rival, Oliver, who is the very definition of Simmering Romantic Tension. And not the “Millie Moods,” the feelings of intense emotion that threaten to overwhelm, always at maddeningly inconvenient times. Millie needs an ally. And when a left-open browser brings Millie to her dad’s embarrassingly moody LiveJournal from 2003, Millie knows just what to do. She’s going to find her mom.There’s Steph, a still-aspiring stage actress and receptionist at a talent agency. There’s Farrah, ethereal dance teacher who clearly doesn’t have the two left feet Millie has. And Beth, the chipper and sweet stage enthusiast with an equally exuberant fifteen-year-old daughter (A possible sister?! This is getting out of hand). But how can you find a new part of your life and expect it to fit into your old one, without leaving any marks? And why is it that when you go looking for the past, it somehow keeps bringing you back to what you’ve had all along?
Vanishing Girls
Lauren Oliver - 2015
But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it's too late.
My Darling Arrow
Saffron A. Kent - 2020
It’s not as if I’m ever going to send you this letter and there are a million reasons why.First of all, I was sent to St. Mary’s School for Troubled Teenagers – an all-girls reform school – as a punishment for a petty, totally inconsequential crime. Not to ogle the principal’s hot son around the campus.Second of all, you’re a giant jerk. You’re arrogant and moody and so cold. Sometimes I think I shouldn’t even like you.But strangely your coldness sets me on fire. The way your athletic body moves on the soccer field and the way your powerful thighs sprawl across that bike of yours, make me go inappropriately breathless. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that you, Arrow Carlisle, are not only the principal’s hot son. You also happen to be the love of my sister’s life. And I really shouldn’t be thinking about my sister’s boyfriend or rather fiancé (I overheard a conversation about the ring that I shouldn’t have.)Now if I can only stop writing you these meaningless letters that I’ll never send and you’ll never read…Never yours,SalemNOTE: This book is a standalone and DOES NOT contain cheating.
Blind Kiss
Renee Carlino - 2018
Fourteen years ago, this shop was her childhood dance studio... Now she’s a suburban housewife, dreading the moment her son departs for MIT, leaving her with an impeccably decorated McMansion and a failing marriage. She had her chance at wild, stars-in-her-eyes happiness, but that was a lifetime ago. After The Kiss. Before The Decision.The Kiss was soulful. Magical. Earth-shattering, And it was all for a free gift card. Asked to participate in a psych study that posed the question, “Can you have sexual chemistry without knowing what the other person looks like?” Penny agreed to be blindfolded, make polite conversation with a total stranger, and kiss him. She never expected The Kiss to change her life forever and introduce her to Gavin: tattooed, gorgeous, and spontaneous enough to ask her out seconds after the blindfolds came off.For a year, they danced between friendship and romance—until Penny made The Decision that forced them to settle for friendship. Now, fourteen years later, both of their lives are about to radically change—and it’s his turn to decide what will become of their once-in-a-lifetime connection."
Heartbreakers and Fakers
Cameron Lund - 2021
But when Penny wakes up on Jordan's lawn the morning after his first-day-of-summer bash, she knows something went terribly wrong the night before.She kissed Kai Tanaka.Kai, her long-time nemesis. Kai, Olivia's boyfriend. Penny can't figure out what could have inspired her to do it--she loves Jordan and she would never hurt Olivia--but one thing's for sure: freshly dumped, and out a best friend, the idyllic summer she pictured is over.And despite the fact that Jordan seems to be seeking comfort (and a whole lot more) in Olivia, all Penny can think about is winning him back. Kai wants to save his relationship too, so they come up with a plan: convince their friends that they really do have feelings for each other. After all, no one can resist a good love story, and maybe seeing Penny and Kai together will make Jordan and Olivia change their minds.But as summer heats up, so does Penny and Kai's "relationship," and Penny starts to question whether she's truly faking it with Kai, if he's really as terrible as she always thought he was, and if the life she's fighting so hard to get back is the one she really wants.
Badly Behaved
Meagan Brandy - 2021
A chameleon. I’m whatever I must be.And what I must be is a flawless daughter, a skilled socialite, and the perfect prize to the man who signed along the dotted line. Not that I’m complaining. I’m all for a contractual agreement, a quick and clean catapult into the next phase of rich girl life. One that takes little thought, less effort, and zero devotion. It’s exactly what I want. An impassive life. A calculated future. Or, it was until the lights went out, darkness took over, and I learned what it meant to live.To feel.To fall. But everyone knows what thrives in the night burns in the light and flames were among us. There is no escape. No turning back. No ending within my control. My mother always says our choices determine our consequences. 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.
From the Embers
Aly Martinez - 2021
As a single dad with nowhere else to go, I moved into her guest house. And somehow, through the guilt and grief, we forged an unlikely team.It took years, but I watched the gradual return of her smile—slow and life-altering.The two of us could sit outside for hours, talking about nothing, and it filled the massive hole in my chest with new life.I may have carried her out of that fire, but the truth was, Bree saved me.As we healed, the secrets and lies of the past smoldered in the ashes, threatening to ignite again.Our love was born from the embers, and together we would go up in flames.
If You're Out There
Katy Loutzenhiser - 2019
Worse, Priya’s social media has turned into a stream of ungrammatical posts chronicling a sunny, vapid new life that doesn’t sound like her at all.Everyone tells Zan not to be an idiot: Let Priya do her reinvention thing and move on. But until Zan hears Priya say it, she won’t be able to admit that their friendship is finished.It’s only when she meets Logan, the compelling new guy in Spanish class, that Zan begins to open up about her sadness, her insecurity, her sense of total betrayal. And he’s just as willing as she is to throw himself into the investigation when everyone else thinks her suspicions are crazy.Then a clue hidden in Priya’s latest selfie introduces a new, deeply disturbing possibility:Maybe Priya isn’t just not answering Zan’s emails.Maybe she can’t.
The Wreckage of Us
Brittainy C. Cherry - 2020
I know I should stay away from Ian Parker. But when my drug-dealing stepdad kicks me out, I have nowhere to go. Squatting in an abandoned shed on Ian’s grandpa’s farm seems like as good a plan as any. Ian finds me there, of course, and he insists on me moving into his spare room. I should say no, but the appeal of a roof and a warm bed is too much. Not to mention Ian’s brown eyes and strong arms. We’re nothing alike, but the spark between us is undeniable. My life is finally looking up. Until I call the cops on my stepdad and unintentionally get my pregnant mom arrested. Now I have to sacrifice my dreams to take care of my mom’s baby. She’s the only family I have left. Meanwhile, Ian’s band is taking off; his dreams are coming true. Ian is my one chance at love. I just hope he doesn’t become the one chance that got away.
The Bad Boy and the Tomboy
Nicole Nwosu - 2020
Romance is the last thing on Macy’s mind, until Cedric Cahill ― the one boy she’s ever crushed on ― asks her out on a date.Handsome and charismatic, Cedric’s everything Macy has ever wanted in a boyfriend. There’s just one problem: Cedric’s cousin Sam. Brazen and unapologetic with a bad-boy reputation to match, Sam has an annoying way of constantly showing up in Macy’s life. Something crackles beneath their “just friends” relationship, and soon Macy’s thinking about him in all the ways she shouldn’t ― pushing things too far when she’s around him.As the tension between them escalates, Macy needs to decide if it’s worth risking both a friendship and a relationship to find out where her heart’s loyalties truly lie. Especially when the truth behind Sam’s bad-boy demeanor changes everything between them forever.
Therapy
Kathryn Perez - 2014
I’m needy. I’m broken. Cutting breaks through my numbness, but only opens more wounds. Depression, self-harm, bullying....that's my reality. Sex and guys....that's my escape. The space between the truth and lies is blurred leaving me torn, lost and confused. And while the monsters that live in my head try to beat me-- the two men that I love try to save me. This is my story of friendship, heartache, and the grueling journey that is mental-illness.Warning: Due to possible triggering subject matter and some sexual situations this book is not recommended for anyone under the age of 17 years old.
Cruel Boy
Clarissa Wild - 2019
Rich boys sin best.Gossip always goes around at Falcon Elite Prep.Everyone knows Nate Wilson, the most popular football quarterback and every girl’s crush.But there’s more behind those drop-dead gorgeous eyes and that killer smile …He’s a notorious heartbreaker …And he’s got his eyes set on me.The twisted games he plays are cruel and dangerous.He teases and tempts me … just to ruin me.Because I know the one thing he doesn’t want anyone to know.A big, dirty secret …And there’s nothing bad boys won’t do to keep a secret buried.