Book picks similar to
Beyond the Pale by Jennifer Millikin
ku
love-triangle
arc
romance
The Way We Fall
Cassia Leo - 2015
Maybe we shouldn’t have fallen so fast and so willingly.Maybe we shouldn’t have moved in together before we went on our first date.Maybe we should have given our wounds time to heal before we tore each other to shreds.Maybe we should have never been together.Houston has kept a devastating secret from Rory since the day he took her into his home. But the tragic circumstances that brought them together left wounds too deep to heal.Five years after the breakup, Houston and Rory are thrust together by forces beyond their control. And all the resentments and passion return with more intensity than ever.Once again, Houston is left with a choice between the truth and the only girl he’s ever loved.The Way We Fall is the first book in The Story of Us series, which follows the tumultuous love story of Rory and Houston. The sequel, The Way We Break, will be released Spring 2015.
Look After You
Elena Matthews - 2014
Well, that’s what twenty-eight-year-old Ava Jacobson thought. Instead, she has to sit back and watch her daughter fight for her life, while her fiancé is fighting a messy war in Afghanistan. As her vulnerability hits an all-time low, she finds comfort in an unexpected pair of intense, green eyes. Eyes that belong to her daughter's doctor, Dr. Ashton Bailey. Although she tries to fight against her new-found feelings for Ashton, the pull between the two is so strong it proves impossible for her to stay away. When Ava is convinced things can’t get any worse, a single call changes everything, with news that will irreversibly shake her world forever.Warning: Recommended for ages 18+ due to heavy subject matters of rape and suicide. Also includes violence, explicit language and sexual situations.
The Tillman Crush
Kelly Gendron - 2021
His hold was firm.The next day, he vanished. After seven years, he’s back with a sexy smile, flirty eyes, and jacked muscles.Not that I care.Let him slather on the charm.I won’t give in to The Tillman Crush. Not this time. BRITT Sadie Holland. Beautiful. Smart.The untouchable girl next door.Growing up, I wanted her.To keep her at a safe distance, I was mean to her.Then, the accident happened.With my mom gone, my father turned to the bottle.So I left town the first chance I got.Now, I’m back and not just for Sadie.The other thing I want.Well, the girl I came back for might not like it.Still, I won’t stop until I get what I want.Not this time.
This Won't End Well
Camille Pagán - 2020
It’s bad enough that her boss sabotaged her chemistry career and her best friend tried to cure her with crystals. But after her fiancé, Jon, asks for space while he’s gallivanting around Paris, Annie decides she needs space too—from everyone.Yet when Harper moves in next door, Annie can’t help but train a watchful eye on the glamorous but fragile young woman. And if keeping Harper safe requires teaming up with Mo, a maddeningly optimistic amateur detective, who is she to mind her own business?Soon Annie has let not one but two new people into her life. Then Jon reappears—and he wants her to join him in France. She’s pretty sure letting anyone get close won’t end well. So she must decide: Is another shot at happiness worth the risk?
Love, Lucy
April Lindner - 2015
After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation." But just because summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse have to be, does it?In this stunning novel, April Lindner perfectly captures the highs and lows of a summer love that might just be meant to last beyond the season.
Until You Set Me Free
D.M. Davis - 2018
Davis’ Until You Set Me Free is a heart-wrenching romance about a millionaire in the making and his best friend's younger sister…Joseph McIntyre is everything I'm afraid to want. I've never been a fairytale-happily-ever-after kinda girl. I'm the nerdy girl with my nose in a book or my laptop. The little sister of the guy who sucks all the air out of the room. You blink twice you'll miss me. And I'm fine with that. Until the day Joseph shows up over Thanksgiving break. I've never wanted to be noticed so badly in my life. Turns out he sees me. He wants me. Just not yet. Samantha Cavanagh shouldn't even be on my radar… and yet she is. I'm the youngest McIntyre brother. Confidence has never been a problem.Yet proving my worth, my standing, getting my degree and taking my rightful place at my family's tech company has always been my focus.There's no room for anything else… anyone else. Until the day I follow my best friend home from college.The day his sister walks in the room, making me want what's not mine to take.A mix of unassuming confidence and beauty, she vibrates with intelligence and sweetness.The caveman in me wants to claim her, mark her, keep her. But I can't.She's not ready… I'm not ready. I'll wait. We have time. Turns out we don't…When a mad-man threatens her life, all bets are off. I'll do anything to keep her safe even when she does everything to push me away.Until You Series Books 1-3 are Joseph and Samantha's epic love story and should be read in order. Intended for mature audiences. Until You Novels: Until You Set Me Free | Until You Are Mine | Until You Say I Do | Until You Believe | Until You Forgive (coming 2021)Until You Set Me Free had a makeover (same book, different cover) as of Aug 18, 2021
Enticed
Lisa Edward - 2013
But I can only choose one.Riley Hammond.Despite his chiseled jaw and military uniform, he was caring and thoughtful. He supported me and made me feel beautiful again. I fell instantly.Riley was everything I needed to heal. He made me feel safe and loved, and yet I couldn’t deny the pull I felt toward another...Cole Michaels. An alpha rock god, he was sex on legs and took pride in having women swoon over him as he strutted around the stage. I knew he was no good—just ask every girl he’s been with. We could never be more than friends…At least that’s what I told myself.His cocky attitude pushed my buttons and challenged everything I thought I knew. But beneath the bravado, I saw glimpses of a man who was as broken as me.Polar opposites, both men have gotten under my skin.Which one do I choose?
Miss Match
Lindzee Armstrong - 2015
Luke is her billionaire best friend determined to break them all...Welcome to Toujour Matchmaking Inc., where your happily ever after is guaranteed!Luke has loved Brooke for eight long years. Now that she’s engaged to someone else, he’s given up hope that she’ll ever see him as anything but a best friend. When Brooke begs him for a favor, Luke is leery to accept—until he finds out that if he doesn’t, she’s moving to Italy with her fiancé. And Luke isn’t about to lose his best friend and soul mate in one swoop.Brooke has finally achieved her lifelong dream of becoming a professional matchmaker, and now the company is crumbling around her. But she knows who can help—her billionaire best friend, Luke Ryder. If she can convince him to sign up as her next client, he'll find love and she'll keep her job. It’s a match made in heaven.Everything is going as planned until Brooke realizes that finding Luke love means losing him forever. Suddenly, her rules to keep them in the friend zone seem ridiculous. Maybe she’s picked the wrong man for her happily ever after. Now the only match she’s worried about is the one she can’t have.This is a full-length sweet/clean contemporary romantic comedy that will delight readers who love Hallmark movies. Each book in this series by USA Today bestselling author Lindzee Armstrong can be read as a stand-alone.
Hold My Breath
Ginger Scott - 2016
One decision can ruin lives. A blink can be tragic. And loving a Hollister…can hurt like hell.I would know.They say the average person can hold their breath under water for two full minutes when pushed to the extremes. Will Hollister has been holding his for years. The oldest of two elite swimming brothers, Will was always a dominant force in the water. But in life, he preferred to let his younger brother Evan be the one to shine.Evan got the girl, and Will…he got to bury all of the secrets. A brother’s burden, the weight of it all nearly left him to drown.The daughter of two Olympians, my path was set the day my fingertips first touched water. My future was as crystal clear as the lane I dominated in the pool—swim hard, win big, love a Hollister.My life with Evan burned bright. He gave me arms to come home to, and a smile that fooled the world into believing everything was perfect. But it was Will who pushed me. Will…who really knew me.And when all of the pieces fell, it was Will who started to pick them up.In the end, the only thing that matters are those few precious seconds—and what we decide to do while we still have them in our grasp.
Emerge
S.E. Hall - 2013
And though change is an inevitable, scary part of life, just lying in wait around the corners and milestones you thought you had a lock on, there's no way I could've known just how much change, that would never change back, I was driving right toward. But... by shutting the door to my old life, the door to my new one opened- and in strolled Dane Kendrick, awakening the wildest of dreams, delights, and desires, that I never even knew slept inside me. And now, it's time to let the real Laney Jo Walker emerge.Evolve & Full Circle Series suggested reading order:*Emerge*Embrace*Entangled*Entice*Sawyer Beckett's Baby Mama Drama Guide for Dummies*Endure*Sawyer Beckett's Guide for Tools Looking to Date My Daughter*Entwined*Embody (Full Circle Series/Spinoff from Evolve Series Book One)*A Crew Christmas*Elusive (Full Circle Series/Princess Presley Duet Book One)*Exclusive (Full Circle Series/Princess Presley Duet Book Two)
More of You
A.L. Jackson - 2018
. . The second I saw him walk through the door, I knew he was trouble. A gorgeous rebel with a bad attitude and a huge chip on his shoulder.My heart warned me. I didn’t listen. I fell hard and fast. He promised we’d be together forever, and then left me with a broken heart. Now, ten years later, Jace Jacobs is standing at my door.Sexier than he’s ever been. Provocative and commanding.Successful and powerful. The man I always knew he would become. But I promised myself I’d never lose my heart to him again.Even time couldn’t dim our chemistry. One glance of his intense eyes, and I become weak. One brush of his hand, and he brings me to my knees. Little do I know, Jace holds the key to everything I’ve lost and everything that threatens my future.Now he will either save me, or he will break me all over again . . . More of You – a Confessions of the Heart second-chance, stand-alone romance
Gentleman Nine
Penelope Ward - 2018
I kept it inside because Rory and I made a pact that our friend, Amber, was off-limits.He lied.I went off to college, and he got the girl.Amber never knew how I felt.They were together for years—before he broke her heart.Through it all and across the miles, she and I casually stayed in touch.When my job sent me to Boston for a three-month contract position, Amber let me stay in her spare room.Still reeling from her breakup, she’d sworn off men.One night, I opened her computer to find the shock of my life. She’d hesitantly contacted a male escort company. Afraid to date and get her heart broken again, she was looking for sex with no strings.Every emotion imaginable ran through me: protectiveness, jealousy—curiosity.Amber had chosen Gentleman Number Nine and sent him a message.She opened up to him, confessing, among other things, her physical attraction to her friend—me. But she considered me off-limits—and she thought I was a manwhore. (Ironic, considering the circumstances.)Eventually, she set up a date to meet Gentleman Nine at a hotel.When she showed up several nights later to meet him, she was stunned to see me standing there—with an offer I hoped she wouldn’t refuse.
Starting Over
Evan Grace - 2014
And if it weren’t for her brother’s imminent deployment, she wouldn’t even have considered coming back home. But she did. And now she needs to do everything she can to avoid the reason she left in the first place. Luke Carter. The man who turned his back on her when she needed him most. There’s just one problem…Luke seems to have other plans. He’s determined to set things right, making it impossible for Bellamy to ignore the connection they still share after all these years. But Bellamy has a secret. And it’s the kind of secret that has the potential to destroy every last bit of hope she has for a second chance at happiness. The question is, will the truth bring them closer together…or will it tear them apart for good?
The Weight of Life
Whitney Barbetti - 2017
The words I would soon say again, in a moment that didn’t involve bridges, but something much more fragile: my heart.He held onto me for three weeks, in a time when I needed to be held. Needed to connect to someone who understood how loss tunneled unrepentantly through the fabric of your soul.Although he said he'd stay, we both knew he wouldn't. I had already survived one loss—I didn't know if I'd survive another.-Ames-She spun into my life like a tornado of smiles and chatter and everything else I'd long avoided, with a persistence that I admired, albeit begrudgingly. She broke down each neat wall I’d constructed without even trying. Her presence alone caused me to remember what it felt like to smile, to look forward to what the day would bring.But it was only supposed to last three weeks.“Don’t let go,” she’d pleaded.I’d promised her I wouldn’t—but I would. I didn't have a choice.
Crazy for the Boss
Ashlee Mallory
Black sheep. Aimless playboy.For most of his life, James Thornhill accepted that his family would never see him as anything but a failure. But as the new CEO of Thornhill Management, he’s been given another chance to set things right. First order of business? Settling a nuisance lawsuit and bringing the pesky but dedicated employment attorney on board as part of his team. Second order of business? Resisting the prim but fiery new employee who has somehow become utterly indispensable in his life.Ice Queen. Good girl. Uptight do-gooder. Quinn Taylor has grown up always doing what was right and, since graduating from law school, likens herself to a modern-day David taking on the Goliaths of the world. Goliaths such as the CEO of Thornhill Management. Playing babysitter and muse to the overindulged CEO was not what she had in mind, but with mounting debt making even a cup of coffee a luxury, Quinn’s ready to swallow her pride and get in bed with the devil. Something that, the more time she spends with the man, becomes increasingly enticing.But the stakes are too high for either of them to risk an interoffice fling…until an unexpected trip to Quinn’s hometown brings a long-denied simmering attraction to a boil. They’ll have to decide what they’re willing to risk and how far they’re willing to fall if love doesn’t conquer all.