Book picks similar to
The Dark Side of Chemistry by Ryleigh Sloan
love-triangle
arc
military
freebie
Inseparable
Siobhan Davis - 2018
An unbreakable bond. One tragic event that shatters everything. It all started with the boys next door… Devin and Ayden were my best friends. We were practically joined at the hip since age two. When we were kids, we thought we were invincible, inseparable, that nothing or no one could come between us. But we were wrong. Everything turned to crap our senior year of high school. Devin was turning into a clone of his deadbeat lowlife father—fighting, getting wasted, and screwing his way through every girl in town. I’d been hiding a secret crush on him for years. Afraid to tell him how I felt in case I ruined everything. So, I kept quiet and slowly watched him self-destruct with a constant ache in my heart. Where Devin was all brooding darkness, Ayden was the shining light. Our star quarterback with the bright future whom everyone loved. But something wasn’t right. He was so guarded, and he wouldn’t let me in. When Devin publicly shamed me, Ayden took my side, and our awesome-threesome bond was severed. The split was devastating. The heartbreak inevitable. Ayden and I moved on with our lives, but the pain never lessened, and Devin was never far from our thoughts. Until it all came to a head in college, and one eventful night changed everything. Now, I’ve lost the two people who matter more to me than life itself. Nothing will ever be the same again. A standalone new adult contemporary romance with a happy ending. Only suitable for readers aged eighteen and older due to mature content and possible triggers.
Chasing Gunner (Chasing Series)
J.M. Stoneback - 2019
Repeat. I’m an empty vessel. Torn by my demons that haunt me. Until the woman I craved for nine years stumbles back into my life. Working as my Personal Assistant. Gia Gallagher. Wreaking havoc like a tornado. She knows I’m a wolf in a sheep’s clothing. She knows not to fall in love with me. She fell hard. I fell hard. And then, I broke her. I broke me. I broke us. Disclaimer: This book deals with sensitive topics and cause emotional response.
A.C.H.E.
M. Never - 2018
C is for choice. H is for his. E is for Everly. I have always gotten the short end of the stick when it came to my personal life. Drug addicted mother, obsessive step father, shitty upbringing, and one soul shattering, heart-wrenching relationship. But everything changed when I met Alec Prescott. I couldn’t stand the cocky hotshot lawyer at first, but after assisting him on one case, my opinion changed drastically. He became the beginning I so desperately needed, even if romantic relations at work are completely forbidden. Unfortunately, falling in love with a co-worker is the least of my problems. Funny thing about the past, it’s never truly far away. No matter how fast you run from it, or how hard you try to suppress it, it’s there, lingering like a fog, blinding your vision, impacting your decisions, affecting your life. That’s where Tage Andrews comes in. He’s the heartache I can never outrun. The man who saved me from my past all while pillaging my emotions. I want to avoid reliving it—avoid him—but he’s always there, lingering like a fog, blinding my vision, impacting my decisions, affecting my life. This is my paradoxical predicament. Two men. One choice. Inevitable heartbreak. A.C.H.E. is an angsty, fast-paced, romantic suspense with ménage themes. Reader discretion is advised. (less)
Black Swan Affair
K.L. Kreig - 2016
He wears scruff like he invented it and ambles with a swagger that makes panties drop. Killian Shepard. Shep. We grew up together. We played Ghost in the Graveyard. Had our own rock band. It didn’t matter that he was five years older than me. It didn’t matter that he looked at me as a kid sister even as I grew into woman. It didn’t even matter when he left me behind to go to college and start his adult life. He’d be back. He was always meant to be mine.He came back, all right. But instead of smelling of promises, he stunk of betrayal. And he destroyed me—us—the day he married my sister instead of me.So I did the only thing a girl like me in my position could do. I got my revenge. I married his brother, Kael. Now we’re one big happy f*cking family.***mature content appropriate for 18+
Second Time Around: Small Town Second Chance Romance
Alandra Knight - 2019
He’s lived them. Four years earlier, he and his brother lost their wives. Since then, they’ve been left to raise their children all alone.His world is everything mine can never be.It doesn’t matter that our chemistry is off the charts. It doesn’t matter that Jaxson’s arms are the only ones I feel safe in.He and I are like oil and water – and while opposites clearly attract, I can’t believe there’d ever be a place for a girl like me in Jaxson’s world of foam dart battles and bedtime stories.Or, at least, that’s what I thought until we both dared open our hearts – and began wondering if, just maybe, we deserved a shot at love the second time around.Second Time Around is the first in Alandra Knight's Finding Our Forever series - emotionally intense tales of true love, featuring beautifully crafted characters overcoming the darkest odds to earn their happily-ever-after.
The Secrets of Life
K.L. Humphreys - 2017
For Jessica Hughes, this is her reality.At 21, she’s single-handedly supporting her 2 younger brothers and her 4-year-old daughter while paying off her deadbeat mother's gambling debts.Her life may seem like crap to others, but Jess knows it could be worse.Then, Hunter O'Shea walks back into her life and drops a bombshell - a secret that could destroy everything they once had.Once again, Jess finds herself picking up the pieces of her broken heart.Will Hunter find the courage to claim the family he never knew he needed?Or will Jess move on before he gets the chance?
Sexiest Man Alive
M. Clarke - 2016
MOVIE BOOK TRAILER: https://youtu.be/loLaqma2-kg Nathan Cross is a struggling actor waiting tables at a local restaurant to make ends meet while he attends endless auditions. Though his hopeful career moves at a slow pace, Olivia is the strength and sunshine in his life… until she leaves him. One day, he is offered a contract with a modeling agent, leading him to work for Knight Fashion Magazine—a dream job he never imagined would become a reality. Olivia swore she would always put her career first and that’s precisely what she did when she left Nathan. Having a deadbeat dad and watching her mom work two jobs to make ends meet have been her driving force. When she is offered a modeling career, she drops everything—even the love of her life—and moves to New York. Though Nathan and Olivia try to steer clear of one another, working for the same fashion magazine causes their paths to cross again and old emotions are awakened. Can Nathan forgive Olivia or will he take the next step with the woman he is currently dating? Will Olivia do everything she can to break them apart? Or will she choose her career over her heart… again?
Red Leopard
Tracy Cooper-Posey - 2003
She’s sprung from jail by a commanding civilian the Loyalist military refer to only as leopardo rojo. Calli is inexplicably drawn to him.When Calli formally meets Nicolás Escobedo, the bastard half-brother of Vistaria’s president, she realizes she is in trouble for it is the mysterious leopardo rojo. Their attraction is powerful and mutual, despite everything they do to deny its existence. Vistaria totters on the very brink of revolution and anarchy. It needs only a tiny nudge to tumble the country into the abyss of bloody war. Then the Insurrectos learn that the President’s brother is having an affair with a hated Americano...Red Leopard is Book 1 of The Vistarian Affair series. It was previously published, but has now been re-edited, repackaged with new front and end matter and re-released along with the other two books in the first half of the series.
House Rules
Lyssa Cole - 2017
Follow the House Rules, Emma.Growing up, that's all my mother would say.In order to find love and happiness, follow the rules...I believed those rules. I followed them, lived by them, loved by them.But at the end of the day, I'm still not happy. Alone.Always trying to help everyone else find their happiness as I fall further down into a deep, dark hole.Until, the day Knox broke those rules and set me free.KnoxLove is pure... love is happiness... love is life.That's what I was told.But I've learned the hard way. Love will break your heart.It'll leave you cold and hurt. Scrambling and lost. Shattered.I'll never allow myself to fall again.Until Emma.Emma...in my life without warning.Her entire being calls to me, filling me with hope.I'm lost without her. My mind screams at me to run and never look back.But I can't. A relentless, unyielding force keeps me in place.I spend my life helping others. Isn't it time I help myself?**Steamy, explicit sex. 18+ recommended.Cover Design by Amanda Walker Designs
On the Rocks
Kandi Steiner - 2019
It's what the town said when his father died and the Becker brothers went wild. And it's on repeat in my mind the day I walk into the whiskey distillery where he works to buy a wedding gift for my fiancé.He's trouble. Dirty, sweaty, rude trouble. No matter how many times I repeat it, I can't escape Noah in our small Tennessee town. And the more I run into him, the more he infuriates me. Because he sees what no one else does.He sees me—the real me. The me I'm not sure I'm allowed to be.I'm Ruby Grace Barnett, the mayor's daughter. Soon to be a politician's wife, just like Mama and Daddy always wanted. Soon to fulfill my family's legacy, just like I always knew I would.Until the boy everyone warned me about makes me question everything, like whether the wedding I'm planning is one I even want. Everyone says Noah Becker is nothing but trouble.If only I had listened.
A Hero for Hailey
D.E. Haggerty - 2020
When I run into a teensy weensy bit of trouble, who should show up but Aiden – my high school nemesis. Unfortunately, Aiden doesn’t realize he’s my high school nemesis. Nope. He doesn’t even remember who I am. Gee, thanks. Suddenly Aiden is everywhere, claiming he’ll protect me. Do I look like I need protecting? But when Aiden speaks to me in that deep, sultry savior voice, my knees wobble and I forget my name. I better get to solving this trouble I’m in, so Aiden will move right on out of my life. Only he says he doesn’t want to move on. He wants to stick by my side forever. Not happening. But like my pops always says Love will OUT. A Hero for Hailey is book 1 of the romantic comedy series Love will OUT but can be read as a standalone.
Till I Found You
Michelle Fernandez - 2019
With the overload of work, there’s no time for romance, nor does he want it. His rule—don’t mix business with pleasure. Until one assignment puts that rule to the test. Chloe Channing is not to discover his undercover role as her protective detail from an unknown psychopath. But as their days pass together in tropical paradise, it becomes difficult to keep his desire from compromising everything. Including her safety.All Chloe wants is to remember, but so much of her memory was lost after her assailant left her unconscious. On a summer trip with friends at her family’s estate in the Bahamas, she yearns for the quiet respite from a previous heartbreak and her tortured nightmares. She never expects a man like Julian to help her find emotional peace and physical healing. But as she falls deeper, her flashbacks slowly come together, and they include glimpses of one handsome, mysterious, yet all-too-familiar face: Julian’s.Is Chloe’s mind playing tricks on her again… or has she met this man before?Even if Julian could let go and risk it all, could he ever forgive himself enough to fall in love again?
Good Guy
Kate Meader - 2019
She's a dogged sports reporter determined to get a scoop. She's also his best friend's widow...Fans can’t get enough of Levi Hunt, the Special Forces veteran who put his NHL career on hold to serve his country and fight the bad guys. So when his new Chicago Rebels bosses tell him to cooperate with the press on a profile, he’s ready to do his duty. Until he finds out who he has to work with: flame-haired, freckle-splashed, impossibly perky Jordan Cooke.The woman he should not have kissed the night she buried her husband, Levi’s best friend in the service.Hockey-stick-up-his-butt-serious Levi Hunt might despise Jordan for reasons she can’t fathom—okay, it’s to do with kissing—but her future in the cutthroat world of sports reporting hangs on delivering the goods on the league’s hottest, grumpiest rookie. So what if he’s not interested in having his life plated up for public consumption. Too bad. Jordan will have to play dirty to get her scoop and even dirtier to get her man. Only in winning the story, she might just lose her heart...
Keeping Her
Alexis Noelle - 2015
I loved her and would have done anything for her. But the night she walked out of my life, after deciding I wasn't good enough for her, I got out of town as fast as I could.After six years, I'm coming home.Now I am going to make it my mission to rub everything she gave up in her face. No matter how much I still love her, I need to bury it deep inside me because she chose him. Brian Evans broke my heart—shattered every piece of my soul when he left. He decided that I wasn't worth the wait.Now he's back in town.He is a constant reminder of the pain that I endured at his hands. I won’t let him break me again. A lot can happen in six years. People move on, fall in love again, and forget about the pain from the past. Seeing his face, hearing his voice, brings me back to a time when things were simple and love was enough for us.I can't let him know that a part of me still loves him. Now that they are brought face to face again, will they destroy each once more or will they discover that things aren't always what they seem? Are some bonds unbreakable? Are some people worth losing everything you have?
Secure Desire
R.L. Dunn - 2020
At a charity function, Ian has a chance meeting with art historian Cassiopeia Ellis and is surprised to learn she's undercover with the FBI. He's even more drawn to this enigmatic redhead than the first time he met her.An FBI agent specializing in uncovering stolen art, Cassie is plagued by nightmares and fear surrounding an unfathomable trauma she sustained six years earlier--the same night she originally met Ian Chase. Seeing him again stirs up the feelings she once had for him, along with ghosts from her past. The problem? She's repressed her memories of the crisis she endured that night.Cassie's enemies need to snuff her out before she can remember what happened that fateful night. Can Ian keep Cassie safe from harm, or will her desire to shield him from her past obliterate any chance of a happily ever after together?The Chase Security Series follows the Chase brothers, Ian and Kieran, and their team of former Navy SEALS and other military officers and is intended for readers 18+ due to adult themes and content. The books can be read as standalones, or you may prefer a chronological reading order as follows:Book 1: Secure Desire (Ian and Cassie’s story)Book 2: Secure Again (Martin and Elizabeth’s story)Book 3: Secure Heart (Julian and Holly’s story)Book 4: Secure Her (Zach’s story—coming soon!)