Book picks similar to
Cruel Venus by Susan Lewis


fiction
susan-lewis
chick-lit
romance

Please Forgive Me


Melissa Hill - 2009
    She’s moved to another country and got a new job, a new home, a brand new life. . .But when she discovers a box of unread love letters in the bottom of her wardrobe, all ending with the words ‘please forgive me’, she finds herself drawn to the mystery behind them.Can the unravelling of another person’s story help Leonie deal with her own past and her own secrets? All she knows is that she has to try. Because if the couple behind the love letters had a happy ending, then perhaps she just might too.

Pretty Young Things (Spinful Classics Book 1)


Ace Gray - 2019
    Jealousy. Lust.  It all started with a bloody palm and a promise. Words beneath the moonlight that I thought would keep us together. Forever.  Deceit. Betrayal. Vengeance.  I didn’t see it coming. I didn’t think you had it in you. But what was supposed to bury me—break me—simply remade me as something new. Something hellbent on ruining you, my love. *This book is a complete stand-alone based on the classic The Count of Monte Christo*

An Unforgivable Love Story


B.L. Berry - 2016
    Love is kind. Love is UNFORGIVABLE. She wanted to forget her past. He wanted to change the course of his future. She was everything he never knew he needed. He became her unexpected. Everything was perfect. Until ...

Promise Me


Barbie Bohrman - 2013
    Drawing strength from him, she left everything behind and sought a new life for herself, far away from the pain and shame.Fast forward ten years: Sabrina is settled in Miami, happy at last—until her best friend urges her to attend her high school reunion and face her painful past once and for all.And…maybe meet the mysterious Tyler once again.Can Sabrina find the courage to face the demons in her past, let go of the pain, and move forward into happiness? Or will insecurity and self-doubt ruin her one chance to get the love she’s not sure she even deserves?

Tight Knit


Allie Brennan - 2012
    But Nan gets sick, and it couldn’t be worse timing. Talia’s panic attacks are getting worse, her boyfriend is a jerk, her best friend is distant, her parents are more absent than usual and she’s stuck planning the Cozy Christmas Charity Drive for her knitting group in place of Nan. If that’s not panic inducing enough, enter Lachlan.Lachlan McCreedy doesn’t rely on anyone. Not after what he’s been through. It’s him and Gram, nothing else matters but keeping his past buried, and his secrets hidden. So when Gram forces him to help with her Christmas sale, Talia is the last thing he expected, and trusting her with his secrets comes as a shock to both of them. But when he unexpectedly falls for her, the question becomes can he trust her with his heart?~Mature YA~>

Snowfall


Sharon Sala - 2001
    As an heiress to a broadcasting fortune, successful mystery author Caitlin Bennett is used to people saying she bought her way into fame. But the taunts become terrifying when she starts receiving menacing letters from a deranged fan. Meanwhile, the news that a woman has been found murdered—her body lightly covered by the New York snowfall—only adds to the chill Caitlin feels in her elegant Manhattan apartment. Though she’s not thrilled by the idea, Caitlin agrees to hire her good friend’s stepbrother, ex-cop Connor “Mac” McKee, for protection. When two more women bearing a striking resemblance to Caitlin show up dead under the snow, Mac realizes the stalker is making his way to her, his final victim. Now Caitlin and Mac will have to get very close if Caitlin wants to stay alive.

Nobody's Girl


Sarra Manning - 2010
    She's not pretty or popular or funny, unlike her mother who had Bea when she was 17. The only glamorous thing about Bea is the French father who left before she was born and lives in Paris. She yearns for la vie Parisienne every moment of her dull existence. So when Ruby Davies, the leader of her school's most elite clique picks Bea as her new best friend and asks her to go on holiday with them, she's wary but delighted. If nothing else it's two weeks away from her over-protective mother . But when the gang arrive in Spain, Bea is crushed to realise that Ruby and her posse have simply been using her. Bea wreaks vengeance on her so-called friends, and plans to decamp to Paris to find her father. But when she falls asleep on the train and wakes up in Bilbao, she meets a group of American students who are backpacking around Europe and bonds with them straight away, especially the gorgeous Toph, who helps heal Bea's hurting heart. And though Bea has a shock in store when they finally get to Paris, the 'City of Lovers ' really works it magic on Bea and Toph, who spend a week wandering the sun-dappled streets of Paris, talking, holding hands and falling in love. When it comes time to go home to confront her Mum about her mysterious father, the new version of Bea is determined that she 'll never go back to her old, boring way of life - she's no longer Nobody's Girl; she belongs to herself and to Toph...But with an ocean between them, will he wait for her?

Unseen Messages


Pepper Winters - 2016
    From handwritten to verbal, seen and unseen. Messages exist all around us." But what if you don't see?What if you don't understand?What if, by ignoring the message, your life is never the same again?Estelle Evermore morphed from nobody to somebody overnight.Galloway Oak put his past behind him and endeavoured to make his fortune using his trade. Two strangers.One plane.Multiple unseen messages. From sky to island, they find neither fame nor skills can save them. Stripped from society and left alone to survive the elements, the very task of staying alive outweighs all other needs. Until survival turns to desire.And desire turns to danger.From New York Times Bestseller Pepper Winters comes a timeless love story answering the question of what happens when everything is stripped away.Standalone.

Heart of Glass


Christy Hayes - 2011
    Nothing about Danny Flannery’s life is what Kate thought it would be, and as the truth is revealed she longs for a big fat do-over. Danny’s made a success of his building firm but is hesitant to participate in a flashy magazine spread. He’s dead-set against it when he realizes the journalist sent to interview him is the only woman he’s ever loved and lost. Under pressure from his business partner, Danny agrees to sit down for an interview with the girl he once knew as Kat Fordham and realizes her name isn’t the only thing that’s changed. Everything he thought was true about the past is a lie. When Danny discovers Kate still wears the heart shaped sea glass necklace he made for her years ago, they clear the air and their passion reignites. But Kate’s still keeping secrets to protect their fragile new relationship. With her family estranged and her career on the line, will she come clean before Danny finds out the truth, and can Danny risk his heart again for the only woman he’s ever loved?

Stealing the Bride


Nadia Lee - 2019
    But I'm not most men. This woman has left her mark and I have to track her down.Imagine my surprise when I discover that she's getting married...So I do what's most logical: steal the bride. Except...am I even at the right wedding?Stealing the Bride is a standalone full-length romance novel with a sexy AF billionaire, smart geeky heroine, identical twins and mistaken identity. No cheating, no cliffhanger. Just lots of heat, heart and humor.

The Language of Spells


Sarah Painter - 2013
    It is your gift. Gwen Harper left Pendleford thirteen years ago and hasn’t looked back. Until an inheritance throws her into the mystical world she thought she’d escaped. Confronted with her great-aunt’s legacy Gwen must finally face up to her past.The magic she has long tried to suppress is back with a vengeance but gift or burden, for Gwen, it always spells trouble. She has to stay – she has nowhere else to go – but how can she find her place in the town that drove her out after branding her a witch…?

Bound


Stephie Walls - 2014
    I may be flawed; we all are.But I'm smart, driven, and ready to take on the world. No one needs to know the rest.I wasn't counting on him, couldn't imagine someone like him coming into my life.The blue eyes, the chiseled body, the man I can't resist.Truthfully, I have no plans of ever resisting him. He has the carefree, playboy life he wants, The one he created and refuses to give up.But he didn't count on me waltzing in and changing everything.Gray can't deny his passion for me—all parts of me, Even the truth I try to bury—the flaws he knows I'm hiding.And trust me, he's imperfect too.But sometimes, we need more than love—more than we can give.

Pointe of Breaking


Amy Daws - 2015
    Pepper POINTEGetting screwed over backstage by my married-ex tears my heart into a million tiny pieces.[Sitting in the audience at the ballet with my former fling wasn’t my idea of fun.]I live in my pointe shoes, not even my ex can taint my love for ballet. [I hate the ballet. This on again/off again crap was getting old.]And then my whole world changes when I notice the smoldering gaze…[Then I look to the stage, and I can’t take my eyes off…]OF...Leo Richards. [Adeline Parker.]Concentrating on anything except his sexy…everything, is impossible.[Her presence commands my attention…I’ve never experienced this before.]He makes me second-guess everything I’ve ever dreamed about.[She makes me question everything I’ve ever known.]Fighting him is a strategic sport—no clothes allowed. [All I can think about are her sexy ballerina legs wrapped around me—tutu definitely on.]BREAKINGOur scandalous rendezvous is plastered all over NYC’s tabloids.[Because of my status in Manhattan, now I’ve dragged her into the limelight.] My ex will stop at nothing to tear us apart. [Seriously powerful people forbid me to be with her.]Rumors about his past keep building. [I can’t tell her this secret.]When it came to Leo, I only knew the big things.[When it came to Adeline, I knew nothing about the little things.]But uncovering those things about him [her] may push us past our breaking point.

The Girl In Times Square


Paullina Simons - 2004
    Lily's life is turned upside down with the disappearance of her flat mate, incredible revelations about her family and a personal discovery, all of which will affect her forever. What if everything you believed about your life was a lie? Meet Lily Quinn. She is broke, struggling to finish college, pay her rent, find love. Adrift in bustling New York City, the most interesting things in Lily's life happen to the people around her. But Lily loves her aimless life until her best friend and roommate Amy disappears. That's when Spencer Patrick O'Malley, a cynical, past his prime NYPD detective with demons of his own, enters Lily's world. And a sudden financial windfall which should bring Lily joy instead becomes an ominous portent of the dark forces gathering around her. But fate isn't finished with Lily. She finds herself fighting for her life as Spencer's search for the missing Amy intensifies, leading Lily to question everything she knew about her friend and family. Startling revelations about the people she loves force her to confront truths that will leave her changed forever. From a master storyteller comes a new heart-wrenching, magnificent and un-putdownable novel. This is the odyssey of two young women, Lily and Amy, roommates and friends on the verge of the rest of their lives.

Caged


Shanna Ehrlich - 2016
    She knows he's dangerous, but his secrets and power allure her; she's not so innocent herself. They fall hard and fast for each other, but at the end of the week she knows it's time to go home. The fantasy can't last forever. If he felt the same, maybe things would have turned out different. Maybe he wouldn't have had to break her. Maybe love isn't patient, or kind. **Disclaimer: Due to graphic sexual and violent situations, this book is intended for mature audiences only. Full length standalone novel.