Book picks similar to
TANGLED by Simone Elise


college-young-adult
angsty
b-prime
room-mate-and-neighbour

Love, Ally


Hannah Gray - 2021
    No warm and cozy home to rest my head, no loving parents to cheer at my games or remember my birthday, and certainly no finer things in life. Just a damn good arm to throw a football and a hunger inside of me that I hoped would lead me straight to the NFL.I was twelve years old when the universe finally delivered its first gift. A beautiful angel, though my angel certainly wore no halo. She dressed in the same tattered clothes that I did, and her eyes were as lost and broken as mine were.All it took was one look at her face, and I knew she had been made for me and me alone. From that day forward, my soul was hooked, taken, a slave to hers. Nothing could come between us. I was headed to college and then pro ball, and she would be by my side, where she belonged.Until one day, she disappeared without a word.The love of my life, my best friend, was suddenly gone, vanished, evaporated into thin air. Almost as if she were never even here.Now, over a year later, at Brooks College in Georgia, she’s back. I want vengeance for her leaving me so callously. But one look into her stormy-blue eyes, and I’m enamored yet again.But she’s keeping secrets. Pushing me away so that they remain buried in the past. She’s forgetting one thing though—when it comes to her, I’ll stop at nothing.She can’t keep me at arm’s length forever. After all, she is mine.This is a complete stand alone in the Brooks University series.Second Chance Sports Romance

Nero


Sarah Brianne - 2014
    I just want to be a fu**ing made man.I’m just a fu**ing waitress.

Battling Beckett: A Contemporary Step Brother Romance


T. Christensen - 2019
    Moving from an apartment to a multimillion-dollar mansion should be an easy transition, but her soon to be step-brother makes it hell on earth. Beckett is a football god and arrogant jerk. He makes it clear that Greer is not welcome in his home or his elite private school. And yet, she finds the battle with herself more confusing than the one with Beckett. Why is she drawn to him? Why does she see the good in him? Even with all of the confusing and unexpected obstacles, Greer is determined to find a way to thrive and survive. This book features an alpha hero and an introverted heroine in a high school setting, but it is meant for mature readers.

The Nerd & the Quarterback


M.L. Collins - 2019
    Too bad Jackson High’s star quarterback BLEW. IT. UP.Last year, I was the most hated girl at my old school. This year, my plan was to lay low, keep to myself and graduate. My plan was working. Until the day I ran into Dax DeLeon.It’s impossible to stay invisible when the most popular guy at school claims I’m his girlfriend.Did I mention his ex—the head cheerleader and the most popular girl in school—wants him back? Boom. Now I’ve got a fake boyfriend.And a target on my back. Again. But what’s scaring me the most…If this thing with Dax is fake—why does being with him feel so real?The Nerd & the Quarterback is a *Standalone*clean YA romantic comedy about a nerdy bowler, a hot quarterback, a possible case of mistaken identity, a bunny-napping, ransom notes, a failed ransom drop, thievery, and mean girls being mean. But mostly about a boy and a girl learning to trust. *Warning: this book has a romance so sweet you'll get an urge to call your dentist.*Grab your copy today!Coming next in the Jackson High Series:#2 The Good Girl & the Bad Boy (Lacey & Grady, An Enemies to Lovers Romance)#3 The Tomboy & the Movie Star (Bernie & Kingsly, A Fish Out-of-Water Romance)#4 The Shy Girl & the Jock Next Door (Shay & TJ, A Best Friends to Lovers Romance)*Previously Published as Ali & the Too Hot, Up-to-No Good, Very Beastly Boy

Just Leave


Ren Blakely - 2021
    Maybe they’re right, maybe they’re wrong. But the real question is, how do we know which of the small moments in life is the one leading to something bigger?At just seventeen, I thought I knew exactly what my life would be like. Along with my amazing group of friends and boyfriend, we had our hopes and dreams planned out. They were ready to rock, literally, and I’d be with them every step of the way. We just have to graduate high school first.But we all forgot to plan for something big, something that can’t be overlooked; Life...Life happens whether you’re ready or not.Just Leave is the first book in the Metamorphosis duet, and it will end on a cliffhanger. Please note due to explicit content and strong language, it’s recommended for readers ages 18+ only. This is an MF emotionally dark contemporary romance that contains subjects such as: non-con and death. If you find dark subjects triggering, maybe this isn’t the read for you.

Quiet Acts of Violence


Cath Staincliffe - 2020
    But detectives Donna Bell and Jade Bradshaw find lies and obstruction at every turn, in a community living on the edge, ground down by austerity and no hope. A place of broken dreams. Of desperation. And murder.When a stranger crashes into Jade's life, her past comes hurtling back, threatening to destroy her and the world she has carved out for herself. Donna struggles to juggle everything: work, marriage, kids. It's a precarious balancing act, and the rug is about to be pulled from under her.

Second Chance Contract


M. Robinson - 2021
    Robinson comes a best friend’s baby sister, second chance billionaire romance.She was my best friends little sister which meant she was off limits, but I couldn’t help myself. I never could when it came to her and in the end, I just left town and made something of my myself.Ten years later and I was one of the richest men in the world. I had everything I ever wanted except for her. Little did I know, life would give me a second chance to make things right by her.She was suddenly my publicist, treating me as if I was nothing more than another client when I stole all her firsts. Including her heart.I needed to take matters into my own hands, making her an offer she couldn’t refuse.For the next time days, she signed a contract stating…She was mine.

Plan B


S.J.D. Peterson - 2013
    One night at a frat party, Danny meets Lance Lenard, football jock and apparent straight guy. Lance is shocked when he's immediately attracted to Danny's feminine side. Danny is happy to be the subject of Lance's first man-on-man experiment—until Lance begins to struggle with the fact that despite his appearance, Danny is indeed a man.Lance's whole life has been focused on his goal of playing in the NFL, and he knows those dreams will be smashed if anyone finds out about his little secret. Although Lance has come to hunger for Danny's touch, he's not willing to give Danny what he's grown to crave: a boyfriend who's proud to love him for every flamboyant and snarky cell in his body.Life sends Danny and Lance in different directions, each of them focused on his respective Plan A. But the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

A Step Two Close


Jaimie Roberts - 2015
    To help me numb the pain. Because for those few minutes of pleasure, I could shut it all off. The reminders of all that I had lost. All that I had endured. Of all that I saw die before my eyes.I slept with a man I can’t get out of my head. It was supposed to be a one-time thing with no attachments and no commitments. No names were exchanged, no phone numbers swapped. And that was fine by me... until I lay awake at night, dreaming about that man’s caress. Wanting and yearning to feel his touch once more.But one day, my fantasies of seeing this man become an all-too-consuming, nightmarish reality. Suddenly, he is in my house, that cocky grin of his silently promising more to come. And the reason being? His father is getting married to my mother. We are going to be family.I am in the seven circles of hell. His look alone consumes my soul and makes me beg for more. He wants me and is determined to get me. I’m his obsession, and I’ve just become a slave to his infatuation... to the games he likes to play. The games he knows will have me surrendering to his will.But that’s not the only problem. That’s not the only reason I am living in my own personal hell.The year before I met my soon-to-be step-brother, Hunter... The year I made a decision that will ultimately end up destroying my very soul...I lost my virginity to Hunter’s dad.Warning: Contains scenes of emotional and physical abuse. Readers with sensitivity to such subjects are advised to proceed with caution.

The Princess and the Bully


Tiffany Ransier - 2021
    I was fine with the way my life was – partying all day and night. But my parents weren't.Now I'm a student at Southern Goldsworthy University. The best for the rich and elite.Heath Goldsworthy, campus heartthrob and oldest son of the Dean, came into my life as the first true friend I've ever had.He gave me a new start. Something that I was very grateful for.Now he's missing...And I'm the top suspect responsible for his disappearance.His sister hates me, but his brother hates me more.He wants to make my life a living hell until I confess what happened that night.But I can't confess what I don't remember.And why does he keep messing with my emotions? I hate playing his games.The Dean's son doesn't just go missing.Someone is responsible and they don't want me to remember.I have to find out who before it's too late.Please be advised, this is a dark romance with possibly triggering content, including dub/noncon and a suicide attempt.

All the Lies


Rina Kent - 2020
    I'll break. I'll pay for what I’ve done.Problem is, I don’t remember what I’ve done, but I have a clue.There was a fire.A dead girl.And I was there.All The Lies is a dark new adult book that contains dubious situations some readers might find offensive and/or triggering. If you're looking for a hero, you won't find him in Asher Carson. Please don't read if any of that bothers you.All The Lies is part of a duet and is not standalone.

Reckless Hate


Thandiwe Mpofu - 2019
    The results? Reckless Hate & Catastrophe."Westbrook had four boys that ruled my life once.They were hell raisers.Cunning Athletes.Skilled Manipulators.Hateful Assholes.Gorgeous gods.Heartbreakers. . .Only I never counted on them breaking my heart as savagely as they did, sending me away when I needed them the most. Making me spiral into a vicious abyss of darkness where I'm haunted by a pair of frosty blue eyes filled with hate.But now I'm back and this time around, for a reason that makes breathing almost completely impossible.And if they think I won't get revenge for my brother--one of the Blue Boys--then they have another kind of hell to face.Because I'm no longer their little Blue girl from four years ago. . .

The Quarterback


Mackenzie Blair - 2017
    Matt is also very much in the closet, and he thinks he’s kept his secret well hidden. Until his best friends take him to a happy endings massage parlor and request a male masseuse for him. In walks Trevor Kim, a gorgeous, pierced, tattooed fellow Bodine student who does massages—without happy endings—to pay for school after his family kicked him out for being gay. Trevor takes one look at Matt and breaks all his own rules about mixing business with pleasure.Matt needs to keep his scholarship, win the National Championship, and survive his asshole father. Instead, he falls in love. Trevor needs to accept that the football god is meant to end up with him rather than a perky cheerleader. It’s time for a happy ever after for both of them.

You Keep Breaking Us


Carrie Aarons - 2022
    We were the golden couple of our high school. The king and queen of prom, the sweethearts voted most likely to get married and have babies, and the absolute idiots who decided to attend the same college.Because that’s when it all fell apart. The naïve, puppy love versions of ourselves couldn’t see the obvious cracks we’d had back in our hometown. But they sure revealed themselves when we started living in an off-campus house together with four of our other friends.Within a semester, blow-out fights, jealousy, every-other-week breakups, and my abandonment issues had him bowing out. Not just on me, but on the house, too. Until our senior year, when his parents refuse to keep paying rent on two places.So he moves back in, and I’m forced to live with my ex. The one who has ruined all other men for me. The one I still cry myself to sleep at night thinking about. The one who confesses, during a run-in in a dark hallway, that he hates how much he still loves me.And when he starts dating again, he might as well plunge a knife straight through my heart. Despite our breakup, I’m on the verge of losing him for real this time, and possibly forever. The only option is to seek help for my deep-seated trauma, the thing that Callum always encouraged me to see someone about. The thing that eventually pushed him away.Put two of the most driven, headstrong, and passionate people in any relationship and it’s bound to combust. We’ve always had that twin flame kind of love.So, together we might burn. But we also might heal.

You're My Home


Katie Moore - 2021
    He’s so much bigger than me and makes me feel safe. We are opposites in so many ways, but when I’m cuddled up against him and he reads to me, all those differences fade away. Brady promises to be friends forever, but what will he say when he finds out my secret? Will I lose my best friend and the boy I love more than life itself?BradyZach is so tiny and tenderhearted. All I want to do is protect him from the world. He’s my sweet bookworm and never wants to hurt anyone. I love my best friend, but how do I give him all of me when I don’t understand myself yet? If nothing else, I can shower him with all the acceptance and love he deserves.Zach and Brady come from completely different social and religious backgrounds, but they don’t let that weaken their friendship. Both teens have to go through a journey of self-discovery, including all the heartaches and joys that come with growing up. As they get older, will they find themselves and how they fit together? You’re my Home is a sweet and emotional coming of age story. It’s a slow-burn, hurt/comfort, teen best friends to adult lovers romance. There will be tears, laughter, new friends, and steamy lovemaking as Zach and Brady learn the meaning of true acceptance of oneself and others. **Trigger warnings: domestic violence, trauma, PTSD, and religious homophobia.