Book picks similar to
An Old Flame by Raquel Belle


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Suddenly Forbidden


Ella Fields - 2018
     We were never meant to let go, but it happened anyway. Too bad I didn’t know someone was waiting to take my place, or I would've held on a lot tighter. Two years later, we were exactly where we'd always planned to be. I'd kept my promise. He'd forgotten all about his. Not only had he moved on, but the person he'd moved on with was my best friend, leaving me to begin college with a broken heart. I guess this is the part where I’m supposed to tell you some other guy stepped in, repaired my shattered pieces, and made me smile again. This isn't that kind of story. My heart might have been broken, but it refused to fall out of love. WARNING: this book contains cheating.Each book in the Gray Springs world can be read as a standalone.

The Day He Came Back


Penelope Ward - 2019
    He knew his mother would disown him if she found out about us; in his eyes, we just had to be careful.He never treated me as his mother did—like hired help.Instead, Gavin put me on a pedestal and loved me harder than I’d ever been loved in my life.What a summer it was. Until it all ended—badly. I was never supposed to see Gavin again.That didn’t stop me from thinking about him every day for ten years.I knew little about his life now, just that he was an entrepreneur living an ocean away.When a twist of fate had me working again in the very place our love affair started a decade earlier, I knew it was only a matter of time before I might see him again. But I wasn’t prepared.What if he hated me?What if he loved someone else now?I wasn’t prepared for all the unknowns.And most of all, I wasn’t prepared for today to be the day he came back.

Hold You Close


Melanie Harlow - 2018
    Every time I see him climbing out of his pool, practically naked and unreasonably sexy, my blood boils.I’ve always loved to loathe him. I never planned to need him.*** London Parish is my little sister’s best friend, not that it stopped me from falling for her.Our history is complicated. The only thing we have in common is being godparents to my sister’s three adorable kids—until our lives are changed in one tragic moment. Now we’re trying to raise the children we love, mourn an unthinkable loss, and fight an undeniable attraction.My life is already upside-down, and the last thing I need is for old feelings to resurface. Because I’ll never be able to keep her, no matter how hard I try to hold her close.

A White Picket Fence


Laura Branchflower - 2017
    Her marriage may have been under extra stress lately, dealing with a rebellious teenager, but Lina's never even looked at another man, well besides her daughter's psychiatrist, Dr. Drayton, but that's more in awe. When a betrayal shakes the foundation of her marriage, Lina begins confiding in the child psychiatrist, blurring the lines between whether she or her daughter is the patient. As a mutual attraction grows, Lina begins to question whether the boy she fell in love with twenty-five years earlier still exists. Laura Branchflower is a compelling new voice in contemporary fiction with believable characters dealing with real life struggles. A White Picket Fence is a family drama.

Conviction


Lesley Jones - 2015
    Our love unquestioned. Our futures planned. But she didn't show. All that we had, all that we meant, and after all that was said, she just didn't show. That one act by her changed everything, but it especially changed me and from that moment on, there was no going back. No words of love, no whispered promises, just sex and drugs and rock and roll. No one gets a piece of Reed, but what they will get is the night of their life, the chance to let go, break their own rules and enjoy the best, the dirtiest, filthiest sex ever... Along with the other four people in my bed.I thought he loved me, I believed everything he said, every promise that he made but then, when I needed him more than I'd needed anyone in my life, when I was at my most vulnerable, he let me down. He chose to take a different path and leave me to pick up the pieces of my now broken life. I was changed forever and chose the easy option, letting others take charge of my destiny, until once again, I'm let down in the cruelest of ways. Dirty filthy sex.Love.Heartbreak. Betrayal. High emotion. And a bit more sex.

Best of my Love


N.D. Jackson - 2017
    But a late night phone call from half way around the world brings her right back to her hometown. And face to face with the man she never thought she’d seen again. Summer in Emerald Creek was everything she remembered—endless festivals, picnics in the park and time with her best friend and her favorite little tykes—and Dre is finding it hard to resist the pull of the chemistry she and Erick still have.ERICK made the biggest mistake of his life all those years ago but the result, his adorable little girl, was the best thing that ever happened to him. He’d done the right thing, or at least he’d tried to but his marriage hadn’t worked despite all that it had cost him. But now that Dre was back in Emerald Creek the universe had given him a second chance this summer, to put back together what he’d broken. To reclaim the only woman he's ever truly loved.Can one summer recall a lifetime of memories and rekindle a love that never really went away?

Coming Home


Julie Sellers - 2011
    Lillie does what any self-respecting woman would do, she turns to Ben and Jerry's and refuses to leave the house. Eventually, she has to venture out to replenish her supply of Phish Food, and runs into her mother-in-law, struggling with the care of her special needs niece.Ashamed by her self-indulgent behavior, Lillie finds strength she didn't know she had to create the family she'd always wanted. Later when Jonathan returns, she knows her best option is to forget the past and put her crumbled marriage behind her, or is it?Sometimes coming home isn't to a place on the map...but a place in your heart.

Meant to be Kept


Amelia Foster - 2019
    One too many drinks. One mistake. That’s all it took to derail my marriage.Now, all I can do is beg for a second chance. To try and redeem myself in a bid not to lose the love of my life.I’m determined to use every second, every moment I have to show my wife how much she means to me—to rebuild the trust I shattered.But the harder I try, the more I start to realize our marriage had fallen into a routine of complacency and misplaced priorities long before my indiscretion.Isabelle is a strong, passionate, beautiful woman—a wife who has sacrificed so much for me. I just hope it’s not too late for us, and that I’ll be able to convince her that our love is meant to be kept.

Against All Odds


Angie McKeon - 2014
    Our hearts broken... Our souls torn to pieces...He was my world, my whole life. My reason for breathing. I had a perfect marriage, a baby on the way, and I felt fulfilled—almost invincible. Until the day life hit, leaving me broken, vulnerable, and alone.She was my life. My ray of hope on the cloudiest day. With her, I thought I had the ultimate safety. A love that would never hurt or betray me. I gave her my heart, my body, and my soul. Until she broke me, destroying every dream and illusion I had about life, love, and marriage.In our grief, we made a mistake. A mistake I'm not sure we can come back from.

Calico


Callie Hart - 2016
     Port Royal, South Carolina, was my home. I was born there. I fell in love there. And I nearly died there. I never thought I’d go back. Now, after so many years, I have to return to bury the man who made my life a living hell. Some nights, I used to cry myself to sleep, praying my father would die. Other nights were different. Other nights, there was him. Callan Cross. My first confidante. My first kiss. My first love. My first everything: Callan was the glue that held me together when everything else was falling apart. He was my savior. He was there for me whenever I needed him… Until he wasn’t. Every night, I’ve seen the love of my life in my sleep. I just never thought I’d have to face him again. Callan Twelve years ago, I f*#@ed up big time. Living life through a camera lens is sometimes easier than dealing with it head on. Scratch that. It’s always easier. For over a decade, I’ve been a master of my art, taking photographs all over the world. Yet despite all of the countries I’ve visited, the amazing things I’ve seen, the beautiful women I’ve screwed, my heart has remained in pieces. Coralie’s the only woman I’ve ever loved, will ever love. And I’m determined to show her that we’re meant to be together. Even if it means unearthing the bones of the past in the process. A lifetime and a thousand miles have stood between us. Now, there’s no length of time I won’t wait, no distance I won’t travel, in order to make her mine.

All In


Brook Greene - 2013
    When he pushes his way into her life and turns it upside down, she has no choice but to go with him on the wild ride. He pulls her out of her comfort zone testing her ability to be patient. The more time she spends with him, the more she sees that under the bad ass biker facade is a kind and caring person, she could fall in love with. It all depends on his ability to keep her safe from the skeletons, resurfacing from his past, hell bent on using her to get to him.

I Want You Back


Lorelei James - 2019
    Despite the signs she'd like to leave him in the penalty box, the attraction burning between them reinforces his determination to prove that he deserves a second chance...Lucy Quade is in a good place with a steady job, a nice apartment, and a well-adjusted daughter, which is why she's hesitant when Jax insists on co-parenting. It's not that Lucy doesn't trust Jax...she's just unconvinced he can handle multiple responsibilities when he's been singularly focused on playing hockey. But when issues arise with Mimi, Lucy's shocked at how levelheaded and paternal he acts, giving her a glimpse of the Jax she used to know, the sexy, sweet man she fell for years ago.Once Lucy lets her guard down, Jax goes all in to show her how good they are together, but will their past remain too large an obstacle to ever overcome?

The Baby Pact


Lexi Whitlow - 2017
    Eliza Lane was the good girl in town, until I got a hold of her.
I ruined her, and she gave it right back. Now she’s back in town, on the run from her abusive ex-husband. She needs help — and she’s ready to start a family. She just doesn’t want the whole marriage thing that goes along with it. Fine by me. I’m a billion dollar playboy, and after I split with Eliza, I never wanted to settle down. Her luscious curves are making me want to sign up for the job of Baby Daddy anyway. Once I get a taste of her, the old addiction returns. This good girl turns bad just for me. Now it's my mission to make her and our future baby all mine — and I’ll move heaven and earth to protect her if anyone stands in our way.

A Hero Lies Within


Patrice Wilton - 2013
    Her boss has axed her special runaway series, and wants “feel good stories” instead. She has only two weeks to come up with something big, or the special series will be taken over by the new anchorman who seems determined to ruin her career.Jake Harrington has returned from two tours in Iraq, and this wounded warrior is searching for peace—and a family friend who’s gone missing. He turns to his former love Kari for help. Though Jake hurt Kari badly once before, she agrees to help him under one condition: he must provide her with “feel good stories” about the everyday heroes he served with. But his memory is sketchy at best, and the only stories he remembers are the ones she doesn’t want to hear.Fate, it seems, has brought them back together—but can Kari ever forget Jake’s bitter betrayal, and will he forgive hers when to save her career she must betray his trust…?

Step Beast


Selena Kitt - 2015
    Because he’s built like the tanks he rode in Afghanistan. Beneath Conrad "Beast" Beeston III’s fierce, intense gaze, his brooding temperament, his knuckles scarred from fighting, lurks a wild man, his strong, broad back darkly inked with his own hard truths.He only has one mode, and “Beast” is it. He ripped through Tilly's life, tearing it to shreds, and then he was gone, giving a stiff middle finger to a life of entitlement. He left her like he leaves them all—with little more than a broken heart. But for Tilly, there was one more thing. He left her with an unbearable secret she’s been forced to keep for years. Tilly’s privileged life, after her recent graduation from Mt. Holyoke, has come to a screeching halt under tragic circumstances. Had she really believed she’d never see her Devil Dog stepbrother again? Now he’s coming home—and she’s forced to face his cocky smirk and arrogant swagger, to look once again into the eyes of the monster who left her. Forced to confront him, what she sees is a raw, broken, tortured man who just might be the only person she knows keeping even bigger secrets than she is.