Book picks similar to
Oceans of Us by Vanessa Luisa
age-gap
romance
forbidden
contemporary
Empire of Desire
Rina Kent - 2021
It just happened.Nathaniel Weaver is the most attractive man I’ve ever seen with enough charisma to blind the sun.He’s bigger than the world, owns half of it and conquered the other half.He was forbidden. Wrong.So I totally got over him. Or so I told myself.Until we’re forced to get married.Now I’m trapped.But maybe he’s trapped too.Because we’re both reaching for that forbidden fruit dangling between us.Empire of Desire is a complete STANDALONE. No book should be read prior to this.Note: This is NOT a dark romance.
North of the Stars
Monica James - 2021
Without this union, Northumbria will fall, which is why I must submit. I must do this for my people.However, it is not in my nature to surrender. So when my father captures the most savage Viking known in our land, I do what no good, God-fearing Christian would do—I help him.His name…Skarth the Godless.People fear what they don’t understand, but I will not allow that to control me. Fear makes us blind to the truth, and I refuse to cower because Skarth soon becomes my teacher—in all things. And when his rival, Ulf the Bloody, shatters my world, it becomes clear the lessons have only just begun.My soul is tarnished.I am a sinner.Lord, hear my prayer…
The Newspaper Nanny
Maren Moore - 2021
Oh, and he happened to be my new boss.I should have signed my resignation with a giant kiss my ass the moment he opened his mouth, but I couldn’t.I fell for his little girls before I realized it was happening, and my resolve began to weaken.Our roles were clearly drawn out.He was the boss, and I was the nanny.But then we crossed a line.I wouldn’t lose my job over a chiseled jawline and a few stolen kisses.I couldn’t. Not when so much was at stake.But Liam was the one who made the rule book, and I had no choice but to play by his rules.
Wanting Mr. Cane
Shanora Williams - 2018
Cane.He was handsome, broody, tattooed, and rich. For years, he’s been mine. He just didn’t know it. I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with him, or for him to want me in the ways that he did.None of it was ever supposed to happen, but after all we’ve done together, it’s too late to turn back now. A once harmless crush had blossomed into so much more. CANEWhen we first met, she was just a kid - my best friend’s daughter. A sweet, young girl with a big heart. But now, she’s a young woman who knows what she wants, and all she wants is me. I’ve tried holding back, pretending the connection meant nothing, but my sweet candy cane made it impossible. If anyone finds out, I’ll be ruined. I’ve worked too hard to lose everything I’ve built. But there’s just something about her that tempts me, making me want to sacrifice just about anything to have her.
The Crush
Penelope Ward - 2021
And for as long as I could remember, I’d secretly wanted my brother’s best friend, Jace.He was six years older and always treated me like the sister he never had.Fast forward a decade.We were all in our twenties now. Jace had moved in with my brother, Nathan, and me to help us make ends meet after our parents died. It was just the three of us—an odd family dynamic. Living under our roof, Jace was as bossy and protective as ever. But he certainly didn’t look at me like a sister anymore. That was what made things so complicated. I was pretty much hot and bothered twenty-four-seven. And he was torn.The signs were subtle, at first. Like on movie night, I’d casually rest my leg against his, and he wouldn’t exactly shift away.Still, I assumed he would never…go there.Nathan would kill us.The knowledge of that wasn’t enough to stop the inevitable, though.Eventually our slow burn exploded. But more than the physical attraction, we’d developed a strong connection. We just couldn’t get caught, right?That sounded simple.Until it wasn’t.This is a story of forbidden love, broken trust, and an unexpected second chance.
Lessons in Sin
Pam Godwin - 2021
As the headteacher of a Catholic boarding school, I’m never tempted by a student.Until Tinsley Constantine.The bratty princess challenges my rules and awakens my dark nature. With each punishment I lash upon her, I want more. In my classroom, private rectory, and bent over my altar, I want all of her.One touch risks everything I stand for. My faith. My redemption. And even my life.As if that could stop me. I need her pain, and her heart, and she needs my lessons in sin.
My Darling Arrow
Saffron A. Kent - 2020
It’s not as if I’m ever going to send you this letter and there are a million reasons why.First of all, I was sent to St. Mary’s School for Troubled Teenagers – an all-girls reform school – as a punishment for a petty, totally inconsequential crime. Not to ogle the principal’s hot son around the campus.Second of all, you’re a giant jerk. You’re arrogant and moody and so cold. Sometimes I think I shouldn’t even like you.But strangely your coldness sets me on fire. The way your athletic body moves on the soccer field and the way your powerful thighs sprawl across that bike of yours, make me go inappropriately breathless. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that you, Arrow Carlisle, are not only the principal’s hot son. You also happen to be the love of my sister’s life. And I really shouldn’t be thinking about my sister’s boyfriend or rather fiancé (I overheard a conversation about the ring that I shouldn’t have.)Now if I can only stop writing you these meaningless letters that I’ll never send and you’ll never read…Never yours,SalemNOTE: This book is a standalone and DOES NOT contain cheating.
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.
Don't Kiss the Bride
Carian Cole - 2021
He was my own personal hero who seemed to be in all the right places at the right times. Like when my car broke down and I needed a ride home, and when I face planted on the sidewalk right in front of him and had to be taken to the emergency room.Those weren’t exactly my best moments, but they were his. We became friends, and it didn’t matter that he was sixteen years older than me. We had a lot in common—like our love of old rock music and vintage fast cars, and our aversion to relationships.When he approached me with a crazy idea to help me out, I couldn’t say no.The arrangement was supposed to be temporary. A marriage on paper and nothing else.It should’ve been easy, but it wasn’t.Because here I am, eighteen years-old, still in high school, and married to a man I was never supposed to fall in love with.We had just one rule—no kissing the bride.But we broke that rule, and it sealed our fate forever.
Master of Salt & Bones
Keri Lake - 2020
He'd ride up on his white steed and break the curse I've been fated to carry since the day I was born.Funny how things changed over time. How the fairy tale twisted into something far more crooked, darker than I ever imagined.In reality, my knight is scarred and broken, living alone in a castle of bones that overlooks the sea. He isn’t searching for me. He never was.Lucian Blackthorne is as cursed as I am, and equally shunned by the locals, the fishers of men, who believe him to be the devil in the flesh.Perhaps he is, with the way his amber eyes draw me in, ignite me like an infernal blaze. And the sins he whispers in my ear are as wickedly intoxicating as the man himself.Yet, his touch is heaven and his will is my weakness.He calls us forbidden, an unsalvageable tragedy, with no happy end. Maybe we are. But in this story, he’s the one who needs saving.
Color Me Pretty
B. Celeste - 2020
He offered me shoes to dance on, a shoulder to absorb my tears, and the harsh reality of where my life was leading when I was at my lowest point. And when the future my parents planned derailed after a statewide scandal, I had no choice but to fantasize about one for myself that didn't involve them. But Theo? He was always in it. My father's best friend. The man who would undoubtedly end me if I didn't end him first.
The Best Man
Winter Renshaw - 2020
Together we watched our young children playing in the sand, the warm ocean lapping at the shore behind them as the setting sun painted the sky. She was my soulmate and this was our life, our beautiful forever … Then I woke up—alone in a hospital room, connected to wires and machines. There was no wife. No kids. Not a single soul waiting for me. That life I dreamt of—never existed. The woman I loved, the woman I knew better than I knew myself—wasn’t real. Until she walked into my life six months later …And it was both the best and worst day of my life because the woman of my dreams—was about to marry my best friend.AUTHOR'S NOTE: This angsty contemporary romance contains NO cheating or love triangles.
Want You
Jen Frederick - 2018
It’s Leka Moore. I don’t care that he took me in when he was barely more than a kid himself. I don’t care that he raised me. I don’t care everyone thinks being with him is wrong. I know we belong together, and the only person I need to convince is him. Leka I found her in the corner of a dark alley. If I hadn’t taken her with me, she would’ve died that night—or maybe worse. Before I knew it, she became the light in my dark life, the haven from the madness. I watched her grow up. I tried to teach her right from wrong. Now that she’s an adult, I’m feeling things that no good man should ever feel. But then…I’ve never been a good man. I have a chance at redemption by saving her from the greatest danger of all—me. A stand alone novel.
Enzo
K. Webster - 2019
Forced to be tough, wary, and hard. She’s only been able to count on herself. Until Enzo. He’s much older and responsible for looking after her. What should be a job to him, evolves into much more. Late night phone calls. Lingering touches. A forbidden fire that burns brighter each day. Everything about him exudes strength. His will to protect her is more than she could ever ask for. Sadly, though, even heroes have their limitations. But she doesn’t need a hero. She just needs him.
A Bridge Between Us
K.K. Allen - 2020
As the seasons changed, the corn stalks grew strong, and the grapevines flourished with hope. But none of it mattered, not when the soil at our feet bound us in a century-old rivalry. We’d never even had a chance. They said life flashed before your eyes on the way to death, but on that night, after my final scream burst from my throat and my world started to fade to black, I only thought of him. Of his sweet chocolate eyes, his desperately cautious stare, and his silence that carried more weight than gold. I should have died that night. Instead, I crossed the moonlit bridge and never returned. I let rivalry win. If only that had been enough to keep us all safe. If only we didn’t have a bridge between us.