Book picks similar to
Built To Last by Elisabeth Grace


contemporary-romance
second-chance
romance
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Hate to Love You


Isabelle Richards - 2015
    Constantly in competition, they fight incessantly, making it nearly impossible for them to be in the same room with each other. Until they slept together. Sex changes everything.In one emotional evening, they go from enemies to lovers. Hate quickly evolves into passionate lust, but old habits die hard. The love growing between them can’t erase a lifetime of animosity. The two quickly fall back into old routines of spite and vengeance, and their relationship crumbles under the weight of their deep-seated distrust.Chase and Arianna spend the next two years on opposite sides of the globe, avoiding each other at all costs. Despite the lies they tell themselves, neither one is ready to let go. Even though they are both engaged to other people, they can’t find it in their hearts to forgive each other or to move forward.A family emergency calls Arianna home, where they have no choice but to face each other again. Will they finally admit the truth, or will they remain forever trapped between love and hate?

Say You'll Stay


Corinne Michaels - 2016
    Instead, he got on that bus and took my heart with him.That was seventeen years ago.I moved on. Marriage. Kids. White picket fence. Everything I ever wanted, but my husband betrayed me and I was left once again.Alone, penniless, and with two boys, I had no choice but to return to Tennessee. He wasn’t supposed to be there. I should’ve been safe. However, fate has a way of stepping in.This time around, the tables are turned. It’s my decision. Second chances do exist, but I don’t know if we can repair what’s already been broken . . .

Love Your Moves


Weston Parker - 2021
    This girl’s going down with a fight.The drunk video that was made with me calling him out for being the villain he is went viral. I’m both impressed and appalled.He’s far too smooth for his own good, and way too hot for mine.All is fair in love and war until one night we both lay down our weapons and concede.For one night. Besides, one night of passion has never hurt anyone, right?From enemy to lover.But it’s all a little too fishy. Maybe I’m being juked too?An extravagant date? Check.Steaming-hot guy who might not be the jerk I thought he was? Check.Gorgeous ex-wife with a shiny new rock from him on her finger? Check and check.And all of that on Valentine’s Day.Like cupid got drunk and stumbled around laughing himself into a tizzy while he jacked up lives.Like mine. But it’s my fault. I never should have dropped the enemy defense.Unfortunately, I gave my heart to a guy who happens to be missing his.

Into the Light


L.B. Simmons - 2014
    Trust me when I say, it's a breathtaking sight to see. You burn as bright as the sun."When Aubrey Miller begins her education at Titan University, she is no longer the beautiful, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl of her youth. In fact, she's no longer even Aubrey Miller. Overcome with guilt and unable to cope with the loss of her beloved family, she has long since buried eight-year old Aubrey along with them and transformed herself into Raven Miller. Now with jet-black hair, multiple sets of eccentric contact lenses, and several facial piercings, she's veiled herself in complete darkness as a form of protection for herself, as well as others. As she enters her first year of college, her goal is simple: Earn a degree with the least amount of social interaction as possible. What she never anticipates is the formation of very unlikely relationships with two people who will change her life in ways she never believed possible: Quinn Matthews, the overtly cheerful pageant queen, and Kaeleb McMadden, a childhood friend who never really let her go. Over the years, as their connections intertwine and strengthen, a seemingly indestructible bond is formed between the three. And eventually, the ties of friendship and discovery of first love begin to coax her from her darkened path as they slowly bring Aubrey back to life. But when faced with the possibility of yet another death, one from which she may never recover, Aubrey finds herself lost again, burying herself deeper than ever before beneath the familiar abyss of her fears. Spanning the course of four years, this is the story of a young woman's plight to finally reemerge, finding strength within unbreakable bonds as she delivers herself from her own manufactured darkness and safely back . . . Into the Light. ****WARNING - Due to the graphic nature of some scenes, this book is not recommended for those who are particularly sensitive to the death of a child and/or suicide and is intended for mature audiences only. Contains adult language and themes.****

Royally Crushed


Melanie Summers - 2020
    No twenty-eight-year-old wants to live an endless loop of high teas, state dinners, and the same five conversations. They want freedom and adventure. After a wild night out in Ibiza ends in disaster, the royal handlers have shortened her leash considerably. Desperate for an out, she sneakily signs up to co-host a new nature docu-series, starring Will Banks, the man dubbed McHotty of the Wilderness.Will has ladies all over the globe lining up to meet him until a hot, new adventurer comes on the scene, and his ratings take a nose-dive. Producers decide an emergency change in format is in order. Enter Princess Arabella. The pampered and proper royal is the perfect foil to Will’s rugged outdoorsman.It’s hate at first sight, but their on-screen loathing makes for great television. Surprisingly, when the cameras stop rolling, these two finally see each other’s good sides. Can these opposites find their forever in each other’s arms, or will their differences be their undoing?

I Like Me Better


Susan Renee - 2021
    Stabilize the family bakery business following the death of my father, and then get back to the city. It would have gone flawlessly had I not run smack dab into Hadley Hutton on my first night back. That spit-fire competitive girl was my college nemesis, always one-upping me, until she mysteriously didn’t return for our senior year.So, imagine my surprise when I’m introduced to the bakery’s newest manager and it’s her! Now I have to work closely with her nearly everyday. Words fly and tempers flare between us, just like they did in college, except something is different about her now. There’s more to Hadley Hutton than her sweet looks and salty attitude.Maybe if I can figure her out, she’ll see I’m not the jerk she thinks I am.Or maybe I’m just creating a recipe for disaster.This book is a full-length interconnected standalone! The books in the Bardstown series can be read in any order as each one features a different brother in the Fox family. These books are adult in nature and should only be read by those 18+ years old.

In the Waning Light


Loreth Anne White - 2015
    A bestselling true-crime writer, Meg has money, fame, and a wealthy fiancé. But when a television-show host presses her to tackle the one story everyone claims she cannot write—the story of her own family’s destruction—her perfect life shatters.Determined to finally face her past, Meg returns to her hometown of Shelter Bay. Shrouded in cold, brooding fog, the close-knit coastal town harbors dark secrets and suspicious residents. One of the few people to welcome Meg back is Blake Sutton, her high-school sweetheart and the marina’s new owner. Desperate for clues, Meg digs through her family’s files. As Pacific storms brew outside, her passion for Blake reignites.But someone doesn’t want Meg digging up the past. And that person will go to deadly lengths to prevent the writer from revealing a terrible truth.

Heart's Desire (Unparalleled Love Series)


Delaney Diamond - 2019
    Since then Janice has tried to move on. Unfortunately, they have to work together, and unfortunately, she’s still very attracted to Nathan. Nathan can’t forget his connection with Janice—a connection he hasn’t experienced with any other woman. After an earth-shattering kiss rekindles their flame, will these two finally get it right—or will an outside force get in the way? Read the other books in the series! Soul's Desire by Sharon C. Cooper Everlasting Desire by Stephanie Nicole Norris

One True Loves


Taylor Jenkins Reid - 2016
    They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure.On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness.That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves.Who is her one true love? What does it mean to love truly?Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She’s just not sure what it’s saying.

Torch


Cambria Hebert - 2013
    All she’s ever wanted is a place to call her own—a life that is wholly hers that no one can take away. She thought she finally had it, but with the strike of a single match, everything she worked so hard for is reduced to a pile of smoking ash. And she almost is too.Now she’s being stalked by someone who’s decided it’s her time to die. The only thing standing in the path of her blazing death is sexy firefighter Holt Arkain.Katie’s body might be safe with Holt… but her heart is another story.As the danger heats up, sparks fly and the only thing Katie knows for sure is that her whole life is about to go up in flames.

If You Must Know


Jamie Beck - 2020
    Amanda follows the rules—at the school where she works; in her community; and as a picture-perfect daughter, wife, and mother-to-be. Erin follows her heart—in love and otherwise—living a bohemian lifestyle on a shoestring budget and honoring her late father’s memory with a passion for music and her fledgling bath-products business.The sisters are content leading separate but happy lives in their hometown of Potomac Point until everything is upended by lies that force them to confront unsettling truths about their family, themselves, and each other. For sisters as different as these two, building trust doesn’t come easily—especially with one secret still between them—but it may be the only way to save their family.

Where I Belong


Jody Morse - 2013
    It’s what caused her to leave her hometown of Madison, North Carolina, and it’s what’s kept her away ever since. But when she needs to return home for her sister, Savannah knows that she must face the painful memories that Madison holds for her and the person she ran away from to begin with: Wade Devereaux, the first and only guy she’s ever loved. As soon as she sees him again, all of the feelings she used to have for him rise to the surface, but she knows that she must fight them. Wade has spent the past few years wondering why Savannah left so abruptly, ending their relationship without even telling him it was over. He wants her back, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to prove it to her. But he wants answers, too, because all he has left are questions. He quickly realizes that getting an answer out of Savannah isn’t going to be easy, though. But what he can’t figure is what she could be hiding from him. Even more importantly, is it as bad as what he’s keeping from her? Disclaimer: This New Adult novel is best-suited for readers ages 18+ due to strong language, sexual situations, and other mature topics.

I Don't


Ella Fox - 2017
    After all, the sexy and charming Mateo is everything she's ever wanted—and more. But she needs to protect herself—and her heart—before it’s shattered once and for all. Mateo has no choice but to let her go. His woman needs space, and he loves her enough to give it to her—no matter how much he hates it. The only thing keeping him sane is the certainty that their separation will be short-lived.Ava thinks it’s over, but she’s about to find out that Mateo will stop at nothing to turn her “I Don’t” into an “I Do.”

Picture Perfect Lie


Marquita Valentine - 2018
    All Knight King wanted was to leave his hometown behind. I never expected to end up in Castle Beach, surrounded by a family who believes that I’m not only their brother’s wife, but the mother of his infant daughter. I can’t tell them the truth—Knight and I met only three days earlier, during a layover in Atlanta. He was headed out to fight in a war that hardly anyone talked about anymore, and I was headed back home to a family who pretended that I didn’t exist. He helped me with my baby. He kept us safe while we slept. We shared lunch and dinner… and I spilled all my secrets to him. Then he gave me an address, along with an offer I couldn’t refuse. *** Six months later he’s back to bury his brother, and my lie is about to be exposed. Only Knight doesn’t say a word. He goes along with the charade, and each day we spend together, pretending to be husband and wife, it’s getting harder and harder not to believe in our lie. Could our picture perfect lie turn into a picture perfect forever? Kings of Castle Beach Series: Picture Perfect Lie Big Talking Man (May 2018) What Lovers Do ( Summer 2018) Dirty Little secrets (Summer/Fall 2018) Hide Your Crazy (Fall 2018)

Broken Miles


Claire Kingsley - 2018
    I could feel it happening. Like she was gently unbuttoning the collar of a shirt that fit too tight.”Single-minded drive earned Roland Miles success—and cost him his first love. When his marriage to Zoe ended, he did the only thing he knew. He dove into work to put his heartbreak behind him.Zoe Sutton’s life hasn’t exactly gone to plan. She certainly didn’t plan on losing Roland or moving home to work for his family’s winery. Four years after their divorce, she wonders if her chance at happily ever after is behind her.After discovering his family might lose their land, Roland comes home to help sort out the mess. But between his brothers’ antics, a baby sister who’s all grown up, and a father keeping secrets, complicated isn’t even the half of it.And then there’s Zoe.He didn’t come home looking for a second chance with her. But the more time they spend together, the more he realizes what they lost. What they could have again.Because the truth is, they broke each other’s hearts. And maybe they’re the only ones who can put them back together.Author’s note: A stoic hero who’s soft on the inside. A sassy heroine who doesn’t take any sh*t. Messy family. Lots of shenanigans. Mattress burning bonfires. And a second chance at love with a big HEA.The Miles Family series are best enjoyed in order.