Book picks similar to
Crushing on You by Jen Trinh


romance
contemporary-romance
poc-author
dnf

This Close to Okay


Leesa Cross-Smith - 2021
    On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home from work when she spots a man precariously standing on the side of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally shares his name: Emmett. Over the course of the emotionally charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe space for Emmett, though she hesitates to confess that this is also her day job. But what she doesn't realize is that he's not the only one who needs healing -- and she's not the only one with secrets.Alternating between Tallie and Emmett's perspectives as they inch closer to the truth of what brought Emmett to the bridge's edge -- as well as the hard truths Tallie has been grappling with in her own life -- This Close to Okay is a vibrant, powerful story of two strangers brought together by wild chance at the moment they needed each other most.

Yours Completely


Krista Lakes - 2015
    do they? Jace Connors: Stretched thin from running a business and organizing a wedding, the last thing Jace needs is the world's most eligible bachelorettes trying to sneak their way into his bed. When he meets Ella grooming the inn's horses, though, she leaves him breathless. Jace knows that he can't let her get away... Ella McDaniels: What starts as an almost-kiss in the barn ends up captivating Ella, even though she knows that the richly dressed Jace is out of her league. However, when he keeps showing up wherever she is, her attraction to him grows. And if she can outwit her wicked stepmother, she just might be able to dance with him at the wedding reception ball. There's only one problem... What if Jace is actually the groom? This novel is the first in Krista Lakes' new series Billionaires and Brides and, for a limited time, comes with a bonus novel, Sunrise Kisses!

Heartless


Winter Renshaw - 2016
    It was raining sideways that morning, and my plan was to return it the next day; safe and dry. Only I kept it. I kept it, and I read it. A week later, overwhelmed with curiosity and feeling guilty for harboring secrets that didn’t belong to me, I tried to return it. Only I wasn’t expecting to meet him. Unapologetically heartless and enigmatically sexy, he claims he knows nothing about the journal I found outside his place, but the reticent glint in his blue-green gaze tells me otherwise. There’s something different about him; something damaged yet magical, and I’m drawn to him; pulled into his orbit. There’s just one problem. The more I get to know him, the more I’m positive the journal belonged to him... ...and the more I find myself hoping, selfishly, that I’m wrong.

Fancy Pants


Susan Elizabeth Phillips - 1989
    Now she's broke, furious, and limping down a backwoods road in an ugly pink Southern Belle gown. He was tall, lean, and All-American gorgeous. He liked his brews cold and women loved to keep him warm. So why is he stopping his car for this woebegone, surly Scarlett?

On a Tuesday


Whitney G. - 2017
    Became best friends, then lovers, on a Tuesday. And everything fell apart on a Tuesday... Charlotte Taylor has three automatic strikes in my book: 1) She hates me. She also claims that I'm a "domineering jerk with a huge, overbearing ego." (I do have something huge. It's not my ego, though.) 2) She takes our mandatory tutoring sessions way too seriously. 3) She's sexy as hell...And a virgin. At least, those were her strikes before our study sessions started lasting longer than they were supposed to. Until one innocent kiss became a hundred dirty ones, and until she became the first woman I ever fell hard for. Our future together after graduation was supposed to be set: Professional football for me. Law school for her. But she left me at the end of the semester with no explanation, and then she completely disappeared from my life. Until tonight.We met on a Tuesday. Became everything, then nothing, on a Tuesday. And now it's seven years later, on a Tuesday... **This is a full length second chance romance, inspired by Adele's "When We Were Young"**

Turbulent Intentions


Melody Anne - 2013
    The only thing better than the adrenaline rush of flying is his one-night stand with a stunning stranger. At first he doesn’t recognize the fiery barista he clashes with years later at an airport coffee shop. But when Stormy Halifax turns up as his new house sitter, Cooper knows she’s his Cinderella. And he doesn’t just want her in his mansion. He wants her back in his bed.Stormy can’t believe she’s living under Cooper’s roof. Gorgeous and arrogant, he’s convinced she’ll surrender again—and he’s right. But just as Stormy is succumbing to a world of pleasure, her trust is shattered. And the biggest challenge Cooper has ever faced will be proving he wants Stormy, now and forever, for all the right reasons. Turbulent Intentions was originally published as Below the Radar - The Billionaire Aviators. This edition has been completely edited and revised, including significant plot changes.

Even the Score


Beth Ehemann - 2016
    No parent likes being sidelined, so Andy decides to hire someone to share the workload. But when one of the hottest agents in the industry applies, Andy knows that this deal is definitely trouble.Danicka Douglas works her butt off, but being an attractive woman in a testosterone-heavy industry isn’t exactly a cakewalk. She guards her professional reputation fiercely, which means no crushing on her gorgeous boss. But the more they ignore that sexy little spark, the more it sizzles…Just when it looks like romance might be in the game plan, Dani is threatened by a stalker with dark intentions. To keep her safe, Andy must cross the line between professional and very personal…because this time, he’s playing for keeps.

On the Come Up


Angie Thomas - 2019
    Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be; and of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families.

American Dreamer


Adriana Herrera - 2019
    If it works? He’ll be a big fish in a little pond. If it doesn’t? He’ll have to give up the hustle and return to the day job he hates. He’s got six months to make it happen—the last thing he needs is a distraction.Jude Fuller is proud of the life he’s built on the banks of Cayuga Lake. He has a job he loves and good friends. It’s safe. It’s quiet. And it’s damn lonely. Until he tries Ithaca’s most-talked-about new lunch spot and works up the courage to flirt with the handsome owner. Soon he can’t get enough—of Nesto’s food or of Nesto. For the first time in his life, Jude can finally taste the kind of happiness that’s always been just out of reach.An opportunity too good to pass up could mean a way to stay together and an incredible future for them both…if Nesto can remember happiness isn’t always measured by business success. And if Jude can overcome his past and trust his man will never let him down.One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise : all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!This book is approximately 94,000 words

I Wanna Be Where You Are


Kristina Forest - 2019
    But Chloe hits her first speed bump when her annoying neighbor Eli insists upon hitching a ride, threatening to tell Chloe’s mom if she leaves him and his smelly dog, Geezer, behind. So now Chloe’s chasing her ballet dreams down the east coast—two unwanted (but kinda cute) passengers in her car, butterflies in her stomach, and a really dope playlist on repeat.Filled with roadside hijinks, heart-stirring romance, and a few broken rules, Kristina Forest's I Wanna Be Where You Are is a YA debut perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sandhya Menon.

Fighting for Everything


Laura Kaye - 2018
    It kills him to push her away, especially when he’s noticing just how sexy and confident she’s become in his absence. But, angry and full of fight, he’s not the same man anymore either. Which is why Warrior Fight Club sounds so good.Kristina loves teaching, but she wants more out of life. She wants Noah—the boy she’s crushed on and waited for. Except Noah is all man now—in ways both oh so good and troubling, too. Still, she wants who he’s become—every war-hardened inch. And when they finally stop fighting their attraction, it’s everything Kristina never dared hope for.But Noah is secretly spiraling, and when he lashes out, it threatens what he and Kristina have found. The brotherhood of the fight club helps him confront his demons, but only Noah can convince the woman he loves that he’s finally ready to fight for everything.

Crimson Footprints


Shewanda Pugh - 2011
    On the night of her brother’s murder, Deena Hammond stumbles upon Takumi Tanaka, lost and on the wrong end of a .32. After rescuing him from the certain fate driving through the hood in a Ferrari will bring, a sweet kind of friendship begins. A balm for her grief. Maybe, Deena likes to think, it happened the day her white mother killed her black father. Or maybe, it was always a part of them, like DNA gone bad. Whatever the case, Deena knows that her family would never approve, hell, never acknowledge her fast-growing love for Takumi. And had he never made love to her that way, in that unraveling, soul-searching sort of way she could’ve done the same. But love’s a devil that way. So, their game begins. One where they hide what they are from everyone. From anyone. And Tak understands this—for now. After all, Deena’s career hinges on the favor of her mentor and boss, his hard-ass of a father. And the Hammond family is already stretched thin with grief. Yet, each step Deena takes toward family and career brings her closer to an acceptance she’s never had. And away from him.

Fighting Destiny


Shelly Morgan - 2015
    He lives and breathes his club and fighting - in or outside of the cage. But that all means nothing when Sara walks into his gym for a self-defense class he's teaching. Wither her, he feels at peace, which isn't something he's ever felt before.Sara was always a doormat and a pushover. But after years of being abused, both physically and emotionally, she decides to leave her boyfriend. In order to do that though, she has to leave what few friends she still has, her job and her apartment behind. She flees from New York to California, hoping that it is far enough away he won't find her.They meet when they never expected it. But when they are together, they feel things they have never felt before. Can they survive when Sara's past clouds their present? Can Sara get over Toby's hard exterior? Or will they only hurt each other beyond repair?It's time to decide if they will follow what fate has set out for them or if they will both be in for the fight of their lives; Fighting Destiny.

Gabriel's Rule


Sloane Kennedy - 2015
    Riley is your normal." After nearly ten years of moonlighting as a professional escort, Gabriel Maddox is good at giving women the forbidden pleasures they crave. They don’t need to know that something inside of him dies a little each time he does it or that his desperate need for cash is the only reason he can’t walk away. They just need to know that to get what they want, they have to play by his rules. Riley Sinclair is starting over. She’s left dry, dusty Texas and her ultra conservative, fanatically religious parents and cheating, mean-spirited fiancé behind for a new life in Seattle. But one look at her stunningly gorgeous new neighbor Gabe brings back all the insecurities she’s trying to escape. Gabe can only offer Riley pleasure but when she discovers that his perfect outside hides something terribly broken on the inside, will she risk her heart to give him what he needs?

Midnight Lily


Mia Sheridan - 2016
    At least he was before he lost it all... or more to the point, before he threw it all away. Now he's out of a job, out of the public's good graces, and perhaps just a little out of his mind. So when a friend offers up his remote lodge in the wilds of Colorado, giving Holden some time away to get his life back on track, he can hardly say no. The last thing he expects is to see a beautiful girl in the woods—one wearing a white, lace dress who appears in the moonlight, and leaves no footprints behind. Is she a dream? A ghost? A product of his muddled imagination? Or something entirely different? Midnight Lily is the haunting love story of two lost souls reaching for each other in the dark. A tale of healing, acceptance, and the worlds we create to protect our own hearts. It is a story of being lost, of being found, and of being in the place between. This is a stand-alone Sign of Love novel, inspired by Virgo Due to strong language and sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.