Book picks similar to
Edgewise by Jan Stites


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contemporary
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The Pain in Loving You


Kandi Steiner - 2021
    A forbidden touch in the dark. A love that hurts… in the best way.From bestselling author Kandi Steiner comes an angsty collection of three gut-wrenching, heart-stopping romances that will have you on the edge of your seat from the first hitched breath until the very last kiss.For those who like a little pain with their hearts and flowers…Included in the collection:WeightlessYoung Natalie finds self-love and romance with her personal trainer, along with a slew of secrets that tie them together in ways she never thought possible.A Love Letter to WhiskeyAn achingly poignant rollercoaster romance between two lovers fighting the curse of bad timing.Make Me Hate YouJasmine has been avoiding her best friend’s brother for years. But when they’re forced to be in the same house for a wedding, she remembers just how thin the line is between love and hate.

The Accidental Rebel


Joshua Graham - 2010
    Stacey Tanner flees a stalking psychopathic ex-boyfriend and confronts all of her worst fears in one fateful evening.

Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf


Hayley Krischer - 2020
    Ali is sweet, bitingly funny, and just a little naive. Blythe is beautiful, terrifying, and the most popular girl in school. They've never even talked to each other, until a party when Ali decides she'll finally make her move on Sean Nessel, her longtime crush, and the soccer team's superstar. But Sean pushes Ali farther than she wants to go. When she resists--he rapes her.Blythe sees Ali when she runs from the party, everyone sees her. And Blythe knows something happened with Sean, she knows how he treats girls. Even so, she's his best friend, his confidant. When he begs her to help him, she can't resist.So Blythe befriends Ali in her attempt to make things right with Sean, bringing Ali into a circle of ruthless popular girls, and sharing her own dark secrets. Despite the betrayal at the heart of their relationship, they see each other, in a way no one ever has before.In her searing, empowering debut novel, Hayley Krischer tells the story of what happened that night, and how it shaped Ali and Blythe forever. Both girls are survivors in their own ways, and while their experiences are different, and their friendship might not be built to last, it's one that helps each of them find a way forward on their own terms.

Flooded (Beautiful but Strange, #1)


J.J. Sorel - 2020
    I chained myself to his pole.A STEAMY HEA ROMANTIC COMEDY FREE ON KINDLE UNLIMITEDI'm talking about the ancient oak tree his firm was going to chop down. Get your mind out of the gutter.That's how I met Sam Chalmer, the gorgeous only son of tycoon Carrington Chalmer. His company had plans to fell this beautiful old tree on behalf of a silent partner, and I wasn't about to let it happen without a fight.Even though it was tempting to just give in. I was thoroughly enjoying the idea of being at Sam's mercy while he figured out just what to do with me--until the area started to flood and I realized I had lost the key to unlock myself.This may have started as an environmental statement, but it's clear we're both in over our heads...SamThere I was, avoiding my father's typical patriarchal machinations and minding my own business, when I found out that Juniper Berry, an aptly-named daughter of genuine hippies, had chained herself to a tree my company was going to cut down.I had plenty of ideas how to turn Juni's playful taunting to my advantage, seeing as she was literally chained to a tree in front of me, her body on full display. None of them involved nearly drowning or a boat rescue.Now things are even more complicated: I'm falling for a literal tree-hugger when I'm supposed to be heiress hunting and managing a big business deal--and it's all because I made a promise to save that damn oak tree.I'm never underestimating foliage again.AUTHOR'S NOTE: There are a few steamy sex scenes in this enemy-to-lovers romantic comedy. For those who have read Thornhill Trilogy and are curious about the Thornhills four years later, they make an appearance in this story when Sam moves from San Francisco to Malibu and they become neighbors. THIS SERIES ENDS WITH A DEFINITE HEA ENDING.

These Girls


Sarah Pekkanen - 2012
    It’s a professional coup, but her new job comes with more complications than Cate ever anticipated.Cate’s roommate Renee will do anything to nab the plum job of beauty editor at Gloss. But snide comments about Renee’s weight send her into an emotional tailspin. Soon she is taking black market diet pills—despite the racing heartbeat and trembling hands that signal she's heading for real danger.Then there’s Abby, whom they take in as a third roommate. Once a joyful graduate student working as a nanny part time, she abruptly fled a seemingly happy life in the D.C. suburbs. No one knows what shattered Abby—or why she left everything she once loved behind.Pekkanen’s most compelling, true-to-life novel yet tells the story of three very different women as they navigate the complications of careers and love—and find the lifeline they need in each other.

The Boy Who Steals Houses


C.G. Drews - 2019
    Now Sam's trying to build a new life for them. He survives by breaking into empty houses when their owners are away, until one day he's caught out when a family returns home. To his amazement this large, chaotic family takes him under their wing - each teenager assuming Sam is a friend of another sibling. Sam finds himself inextricably caught up in their life, and falling for the beautiful Moxie. But Sam has a secret, and his past is about to catch up with him.

Dear Life, You Suck


Scott Blagden - 2013
    Ain’t playing with a full deck. Whacked-out wiring. Missing marbles.” Irreverent, foulmouthed seventeen-year-old Cricket is the oldest ward in a Catholic boys’ home in Maine—and his life sucks. With prospects for the future that range from professional fighter to professional drug dealer, he seems doomed to a life of “criminal rapscallinity.” In fact, things look so bleak that Cricket can’t help but wonder if his best option is one final cliff dive into the great unknown. But then Wynona Bidaban steps into his world, and Cricket slowly realizes that maybe, just maybe, life doesn’t totally suck.

Rosie Colored Glasses


Brianna Wolfson - 2018
    The friction inside herself as she tries to navigate two worlds since their divorce.But life has not always been like this.When Rosie and Rex first met, theirs was an attraction of opposites. Rosie lived life for those heightened moments when love reveals its true secrets. Rex lived life safely, by the rules. Common sense would say theirs was a union not meant to last, but it was genuine love.Now Willow just wants to be with Rosie, to bask in her mother’s outsize glow and, she thinks, protection. Because Rosie is the only person who can make Willow feel totally alive and completely loved.But as Willow and Rosie and Rex try harder and harder to stay connected as a family, Rosie’s manic tornado of love continues to sweep up everyone in sight, ultimately to heartbreaking results.

Best Friends and Bastards


Jaci Byrne - 2011
    Living on Sydney's sublime northern beaches, she's a well-respected Nurse Unit Manager of a busy obstetrics unit and married to a successful realtor. She should have ‘no worries mate’, as the Aussie saying goes.However, for Angie, this is far from the truth. Although she suspects her husband George of having had past dalliances, she chooses to live in complete denial, believing that a baby will solve this dilemma. Only problem: her biological clock is ticking, and there's no baby in sight. And her interfering mother constantly adds fuel to the proverbial marital fire.Booking a romantic holiday to Bali for her and George in order to reinvigorate their marriage, Angie soon finds herself in a situation far out of her comfort zone when her husband backs out of the holiday and her best friend Charlotte takes his place. After arguing with Charlotte, Angie calls 'time out' and travels to the Ubud Writers' Festival where she fortuitously meets the loveable larrikin Jack Ambrose. Consumed with guilt towards her feelings for Jack, Angie flees Bali.On her return to Australia, she desperately attempts to bury her feelings and concentrate on her marriage, but when she begins to suspect her husband of being a right bastard, her world is turned upside down. And her best friend is no help at all - indeed, Angie discovers that Charlotte is part of the problem.Written with splashes of compassion, streams of humour, rivers of emotion and oceans of passion, ‘Best Friends and Bastards,’ by Jaci Byrne is a waterfall of brilliant reading and a real page turner packed with action and intrigue.

A Constellation of Roses


Miranda Asebedo - 2019
    And with her near-magical gift for pulling valuables off unsuspecting strangers, Trix is confident she has what it takes to survive. Until she’s caught and given a choice: jail time, or go live with her long-lost family in the tiny town of Rocksaw, Kansas.Trix doesn’t plan to stick around Rocksaw long, but there’s something special about her McCabe relatives that she is drawn to. Her aunt, Mia, bakes pies that seem to cure all ills. Her cousin, Ember, can tell a person’s deepest secret with the touch of a hand. And Trix’s great-aunt takes one look at Trix’s palm and tells her that if she doesn’t put down roots somewhere, she won’t have a future anywhere.Before long, Trix feels like she might finally belong with this special group of women in this tiny town in Kansas. But when her past comes back to haunt her, she’ll have to decide whether to take a chance on this new life . . . or keep running from the one she’s always known.With lovable and flawed characters, an evocative setting, and friendships to treasure, A Constellation of Roses is the perfect companion to Miranda Asebedo’s debut novel The Deepest Roots.

Celia's Journey


Heather Muzik - 2010
    They have a life they love in a world they have created for themselves that is filled with harmony and happiness and a touch of chaos too. Then a tragic accident stops their world on a dime. Peace is shattered. Everything is torn asunder as a child is lost—a son and brother—and those left behind are thrust into the darkness of grief and guilt. Celia’s Journey takes the Stranes from the pit of despair through the tentative steps toward healing—testing the strength of their love, searching the depths of their pain, and finding the triumph of their spirit.

The Better Man


Taylor Hart - 2016
    Thank goodness he did, otherwise he might have missed meeting the intriguing Autumn Lane. Looking for another opportunity to make her smile, he decides to visit her at the flower shop where she works, only to find some idiot trying to manhandle her into his car. Chase takes matters into his own hands by kicking said idiot onto his rear, ticking off Autumn who insisted she had the situation handled. Autumn Lane has a plan in life and it doesn't include her ex fiance or some ex bronc rider thinking he has to protect her. Unfortunately, her life plan is blown up at the moment. After being left no other option then to help Chase Moon rally investors to start his his business, she ends up flying to LA to pitch his company to investors. Along the way, they end up as contestants on The Price is Right, on a moonlit beach, and at a dance club on top of a hotel roof in each other’s arms. Too bad just when things are starting to come together with the business and between she and Chase…the ex fiance threatens Chase with assault charges. The idiot offers to drop it all if Autumn will accompany him to the Governor's ball. Chase hates the idea of Autumn with her ex, but he has a choice to make--trust his instincts or only wish he was the better man. This book also includes excerpts of: The Christmas Groom, Bachelor Billionaire Romances. Starlight Kisses: A Snow Valley Romance, by Jeanette Lewis Light in your Eyes: A Snow Valley Romance, by Cami Checketts All the Snow Valley Books are stand alone books, however--if you want to read my characters in order it would go like this. The Christmas Eve Kiss First Love The Bet The Better Man

One of the Boys


Daniel Magariel - 2017
    They leave their Kansas home and drive through the night to Albuquerque, eager to begin again, united by the thrilling possibility of carving out a new life together. The boys go to school, join basketball teams, make friends. Meanwhile their father works from home, smoking cheap cigars to hide another smell. But soon the little missteps—the dead-eyed absentmindedness, the late night noises, the comings and goings of increasingly odd characters—become worrisome, and the boys find themselves watching their father change, grow erratic, then dangerous.Set in the sublimely stark landscape of suburban New Mexico and a cramped apartment shut tight to the world, One of the Boys conveys with propulsive prose and extraordinary compassion a young boy’s struggle to hold onto the pieces of his shattered family. Tender, moving and beautiful, Daniel Magariel’s masterful debut is a story of resilience and survival: two foxhole-weary brothers banding together to protect each other from the father they once trusted, but no longer recognize. With the emotional core of A Little Life and the speed of We the Animals, One of the Boys is among the most remarkable debut novels you’ll ever read.