Book picks similar to
The Dirt by Lori Culwell


young-adult
contemporary
fiction
chick-lit

All of Me


Leeanna Morgan - 2015
    Twenty-two bridesmaids' dresses. One random act of kindness that will change their lives forever.Tess has given up looking for Mr. Right, but that doesn’t mean she’s given up on love. When she reads a newspaper article about a young couple who've had everything stolen from their home, including four bridesmaids dresses, she knows she has to help. But by helping the bride, Tess risks exposing a past she doesn't want anyone to know about. She does everything she can to minimize the danger she's in, but she does the one thing guaranteed to destroy everything - she falls in love with the wrong man.Logan Allen has spent most of his career reporting on the news from around the world. When a letter arrives from Afghanistan, the trauma he's been living with is about to explode back into his life. He betrayed a small Afghan village and Tess thinks he’s betrayed her.From their first random act of kindness comes an experience Logan and Tess will never forget. And maybe, if they work together, they can create a future that’s better than anything they've left behind.All Of Me is the first book in The Bridesmaids Club series and can easily be read as a standalone. Each of Leeanna's series are linked so you can find out what happens to your favorite characters in other books.Other Contemporary Romances by Leeanna MorganThe Montana Brides:Book 1: Forever Dreams (Gracie and Trent)Book 2: Forever in Love (Amy and Nathan)Book 3: Forever After (Nicky and Sam)Book 4: Forever Wishes (Erin and Jake)Book 5: Forever Santa: a Montana Brides Christmas novellaBook 6: Forever Cowboy (Emily and Alex)Book 7: Forever Together (Kate and Dan)Book 8: Forever and a Day (Sarah and Jordan)The Bridesmaids Club:Book 1: All of Me (Tess and Logan)Book 2: Loving You (Annie and Dylan)Book 3: Head Over Heels (Sally and Todd)Book 4: Sweet on You (Molly and Jacob)Emerald Lake Billionaires:Book 1: Sealed with a Kiss (Rachel and John)Book 2: Playing for Keeps (Sophie and Ryan)Book 3: Crazy Love (Holly and Daniel)Book 4: One And Only (Elizabeth and Blake)The Protectors:Book 1: Safe Haven (Hayley and Tank)Book 2: Just Breathe: (Kelly and Tanner)Book 3: Always (Mallory and Grant)Book 4: The Promise (Ashley and Matthew)Book 5: Coming Home (Mia and Stan)Book 6: The Gift (Hannah and Brett)Book 7: The Wish (Claire and Jason)Sapphire Bay:Book 1: Falling For You (Natalie and Gabe)Book 2: Once In A Lifetime (Sam and Caleb)Book 3: A Christmas Wish (Megan and William)Book 4: Before Today (Brooke and Levi)Book 5: The Sweetest Thing (Cassie and Noah)Book 6: Sweet Surrender (Willow and Zac)Santa's Secret Helpers:Book 1: Christmas On Main Street (Emma and Jack)Book 2: Mistletoe Madness (Kylie and Ben)Book 3: Silver Bells (Bailey and Steven)Book 4: The Santa Express (Shelley and John)

Take Me There


Carolee Dean - 2010
    He knows that rich, beautiful Jess is way too good for him but she has always been the one person who sees through his tough exterior and straight to his heart, and he has been hopelessly in love with her from the first time they met. He would change his life for a chance with her. But trouble follows Dylan wherever he goes, and a deadly mistake soon forces him to hit the road and leave his dreams behind. He's on the run and in search of answers; answers to questions he wishes he'd never asked.

Prom


Laurie Halse Anderson - 2005
    It's pretty much the only good thing that happens there, and everyone plans to make the most of it--especially Ash's best friend, Natalia, who's the head of the committee and has prom stars in her eyes. Then the faculty advisor is busted for taking the prom money and Ash finds herself roped into putting together a gala dance. But she has plenty of help--from her large and loving (if exasperating!) family, from Nat's eccentric grandmother, from the principal, from her fellow classmates. And in making the prom happen, Ash learns some surprising things about making her life happen, too.

We Are All Made of Molecules


Susin Nielsen - 2015
    Fourteen-year-old Ashley is the undisputed “It” girl in her class, but her grades stink. Their worlds are about to collide when Stewart and his dad move in with Ashley and her mom. Stewart is trying to be 89.9 percent happy about it, but Ashley is 110 percent horrified. She already has to hide the real reason her dad moved out; “Spewart” could further threaten her position at the top of the social ladder. They are complete opposites. And yet, they have one thing in common: they—like everyone else—are made of molecules.

Don't Call Me Baby


Gwendolyn Heasley - 2014
    Hundreds of thousands of perfect strangers knew when Imogene had her first period. Imogene's crush saw her "before and after" orthodontia photos. But Imogene is fifteen now, and her mother is still blogging about her, in gruesome detail, against her will.When a mandatory school project compels Imogene to start her own blog, Imogene is reluctant to expose even more of her life online...until she realizes that the project is the opportunity she's been waiting for to tell the truth about her life under the virtual microscope and to define herself for the first time.Don't Call Me Baby is a sharply observed and irrepressibly charming story about mothers and daughters, best friends and first crushes, and the surface-level identities we show the world online and the truth you can see only in real life.

Underwater


Marisa Reichardt - 2016
    Actually, she meant to do something right. But her kind act inadvertently played a role in a deadly tragedy. In order to move on, Morgan must learn to forgive—first someone who did something that might be unforgivable, and then herself. But Morgan can’t move on. She can’t even move beyond the front door of the apartment she shares with her mother and little brother. Morgan feels like she’s underwater, unable to surface. Unable to see her friends. Unable to go to school. When it seems Morgan can’t hold her breath any longer, a new boy moves in next door. Evan reminds her of the salty ocean air and the rush she used to get from swimming. He might be just what she needs to help her reconnect with the world outside.

Pirate Cinema


Cory Doctorow - 2012
    In near-future Britain, this is more illegal than ever. The punishment for being caught three times is to cut off your entire household from the internet for a year - no work, school, health or money benefits.Trent thinks he is too clever for that to happen, but it does, and nearly destroys his family. Shamed and shattered, Trent runs away to London, where slowly he learns the ways of staying alive on the streets. He joins artists and activists fighting a new bill that will jail too many, especially minors, at one stroke. Jem introduces him to the Jammie Dodgers, beautiful brilliant "26" to love and cemetery parties.Things look bad. Parliament is in power of a few wealthy media conglomerates. But the powers-that-be haven’t entirely reckoned with the power of a gripping movie to change people’s minds ...

Going Vintage


Lindsey Leavitt - 2013
    Inspired by a list of goals her grandmother made in 1962, Mallory swears off technology and returns to a simpler time (when boyfriends couldn’t cheat with computer avatars). The List:1. Run for pep club secretary2. Host a fancy dinner party/soiree3. Sew a dress for Homecoming4. Find a steady5. Do something dangerousBut simple proves to be crazy-complicated, and the details of the past begin to change Mallory’s present. Add in a too-busy grandmother, a sassy sister, and the cute pep-club president–who just happens to be her ex’s cousin–and soon Mallory begins to wonder if going vintage is going too far.

Another Little Piece of My Heart


Tracey Martin - 2013
    Left with a broken family and a broken heart, Claire is furious when she discovers that her biggest regret became Jared’s big break. While Jared is catapulted into rock-star status, another piece of Claire’s heart crumbles every time his song plays on the radio.The summer after her senior year, it’s been months since the big break-up, and Claire is just trying to keep her head down and make it through a tense trip to the beach with her family. But when Jared shows up, and old feelings reignite, can Claire and Jared let go of the past? Or will they be stuck singing the same old refrain?

What I Didn't Say


Keary Taylor - 2012
    He's been in love with her for years and never had the guts to tell her. Now it's too late. Because after that night, Jake will never be able to talk again.When Jake returns to his small island home, population 5,000, he'll have to learn how to deal with being mute. He also finds that his family isn't limited to his six brothers and sisters, that sometimes an entire island is watching out for you. And when he gets the chance to spend more time with Samantha, she'll help him learn that not being able to talk isn’t the worst thing that could ever happen to you. Maybe, if she'll let him, Jake will finally tell her what he didn't say before, even if he can't actually say it.

Flirty Dancing


Jenny McLachlan - 2014
    When national dance competition Starwars comes to her school looking for talent, she wants to sign up. It's just a shame her best friend agreed to enter with school super-cow Pearl Harris. Bea will fight back! But when school hottie, Ollie Matthews, who also happens to be Pearl’s boyfriend, decides to enter the competition with Bea, she will have more than a fight on her hands.This warm, nuanced, hilarious story about friendship, fortitude . . . and dancing is impossible not to fall in love with. Jenny’s voice is fresh and convincing, and she handles both darker and lighter elements of the story with equal panache.

I Know It's Over


C.K. Kelly Martin - 2008
    UNPLANNED. PERFECT. Those were Nick’s summer plans before Sasha stepped into the picture. With the collateral damage from his parents’ divorce still settling and Dani (his girl of the moment) up for nearly anything, complications are the last thing he needs. All that changes, though, when Nick runs into Sasha at the beach in July. Suddenly he’s neck-deep in a relationship and surprised to find he doesn’t mind in the least. But Nick’s world shifts again when Sasha breaks up with him. Then, weeks later, while Nick’s still reeling from the breakup, she turns up at his doorstep and tells him she’s pregnant. Nick finds himself struggling once more to understand the girl he can’t stop caring for, the girl who insists that it’s still over.

I Will Never Leave You


S.M. Thayer - 2018
     Banking heiress Trish and her husband, James, seem to have it all, from a lavish lifestyle to a historic mansion in the nation’s capital. All that’s missing from their privileged life is a baby.So when Trish sees Anne Elise for the first time, it’s no surprise that she falls deeply in love. There’s just one problem: Trish isn’t the mother. The baby belongs to Laurel, James’s young mistress. And James and Laurel want the wife out of the picture.When Trish becomes perversely obsessed with making Laurel’s baby her own, the lovers come up with a wicked plan to end James’s marriage that quickly goes awry. As the love triangle becomes more and more dangerous, how far is each of them willing to go to get what they want?

Thicker Than Water


Kelly Fiore Stultz - 2016
    At least, that’s what the police and the district attorney are saying. And although Cecelia is now locked up and forced into treatment, she knows the real story is much more complicated.Cyrus wasn’t always the drug-addled monster he’d become. He was a successful athlete, but when an injury forced him off the soccer field and onto pain medication, his life became a blur of anger, addiction, and violence. All CeCe could do was stand by and watch, until she realized one effective way to take away her brother’s drugs while earning the money she needed for college: selling the pills.Soon, CeCe becomes part drug dealer, part honor student. But even when all she wants is to make things right, she learns that sometimes the best intentions lead to the worst possible outcome.

Love Story


Jennifer Echols - 2011
    He's writing about her. And everybody is reading between the lines.. For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions--it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter. . . . except this story could come true.