Book picks similar to
Raine by J.C. Valentine
new-adult
romance
contemporary-romance
arc
Hooked on the Game
C.M. Owens - 2014
a bulldozer. Sterling Shore was supposed to be a new start for eighteen-year-old Raya Capperton. Everything was working out perfectly until her two roommates were expelled for a prank, leaving Raya with the house she couldn't afford on her own. Fate intervenes before she has the chance to find a new home, but she struggles to decide if it's divine luck or the devil's cruel sense of humour. Twenty-one-year-old Kade Colton has his life planned out, and everything he does is an elaborate game to aid him with his future endeavors. Coming from money has made Kade's life easy, but he wants to build his own name - his own future. The thing he doesn't realize... when you only put forth superficial effort, you only acquire superficial friends. Raya is torn between being amused or disturbed by Kade and his philosophy, but the drive behind his determination isn't what Raya expected. Little by little, her hatred fades and is replaced by emotions she never would have believed she could have for the rich jerk she desperately doesn't want to care about. Too bad you can't force yourself not to care. The problem is... Kade's shiny name can't be tarnished, and Raya has a jaded tie she can't cut loose. Nothing about them can work, nothing about them makes sense, but nothing can seem to stop them from trying.
Legacy
Laura Pavlov - 2020
A father to grieve.A legacy to fulfill.Harley DeLuca is not my type.She’s snarky.She's stubborn.And she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen—even in her ridiculous grungy tennis shoes.I can’t get enough of her. HarleyI was a mistake from the moment of conception. The sins of my mother have followed me like a nightmare in a horror flick.I’m determined to make a life for myself, free of my past.I have three goals.Open a bakery.Keep Gramps safe.And forget that I’m Valentina DeLuca’s daughter.There’s no room in my life for a man.Especially an arrogant, condescending jerk like Ford Montgomery. But now he's my business partner.My friend.And if I'm not careful, he just might be—everything.
Falling for Autumn
Heather Topham Wood - 2014
Everyone thought they knew what happened the spring night Autumn’s world fell apart. Vicious rumors about the incident circulated, and she had to be homeschooled the last year of high school to escape her tormentors. All she wants now is to get away from it all and start over at Cook University. She leaves everything but the memory behind—something she swore she’d never forget—and sets off to rebuild what was broken.Blake Preston is precisely the type of guy Autumn wants to avoid. He’s gorgeous, arrogant and the college’s beloved football star. As much as she believes he’s someone she should steer clear of, avoiding him proves to be impossible. He shows up everywhere around campus, offering her a no-strings attached friendship. Autumn can’t deny Blake stirs up emotions she thought fled years ago. But things he’s been hiding begin to emerge and collide with her past, leaving her heart ravaged in their wake.Standalone New Adult Romance-Ages 17+ Due to Strong Language and Sexual Situations
After Tuesday
Renee Ericson - 2013
For the last two years, high school senior Ruby has been her own rock and solace. She has learned to depend only on herself and hides her family's issues by keeping herself somewhat unnoticeable. Despite her isolation, Ruby has intrigued the affections of someone unexpected. Finding herself loving life once again as his persistence sparks a romance awakening a well-protected heart. While Ruby’s relationship with her father is constantly teetering, her new-found affection continues to blossom into something more than she ever thought possible. Soon, Ruby comes to realize that opening up your heart means being susceptible to love and disappointment.YA-M: This book contains mature content including profanity, drug/alcohol use, and sexual situations/language.
Fixing Fate
Anna Brooks - 2017
My brother’s friend and ex-partner is everything I’ll never be. Sexy, confident, and perfect. He calls me sunshine and tells me I’m beautiful. He asks me to stay. When my past come back with a vengeance, he proves just how much he’d risk to shield me from the demons that were never supposed to resurface.
Take Care, Sara
Lindy Zart - 2013
Sara Walker knows firsthand what it feels like to have your reality ripped away, scrambled, and shoved back at you in an undone puzzle where pieces are missing and nothing fits. She's lost so much and is struggling to live and to find the strength to forgive herself for being human. With the help of Lincoln, her husband's brother, Sara realizes it's not about finding who she used to be, but about finding who she is now.You breathe in, you breathe out, and everything you know isn't gone, but reborn.
That Girl
H.J. Bellus - 2014
My looks, personality, even my style is…simple. I’m the kind of a girl who easily disappears into the background becoming nothing but a nameless face. But that’s okay. I prefer it that way. It makes it easier to shed the skin of every identity I use to hide who I really am. While I drift from one town to the other, constantly looking over my shoulder I never allow anyone to get close…because I’m that girl. The girl with a tainted past. The girl who left everything behind, including her name so the devil won’t find her. The girl who never falls in love because she’s too busy running from an identity she vowed would never claim her again. See, I’m that girl. Hopeless. Ruined. Lost. Until one man manages to give me a name. Why? Because he wants to keep me.
Playing Patience
Tabatha Vargo - 2013
Being a punching bag for his alcoholic father has turned him into stone. Not even the dodgy trailer park he lives in can scare him. Fighting is his release and sex, drugs, and his guitar bring him peace, but deep down Zeke isn't quite as hard as he makes himself out to be. When he meets Patience, she finds all his broken pieces and puts him back together. She's a ray of light in his shadowed life and the last thing he wants to do is bring her into his dark world. Playing careless is easy, playing the bad guy can be fun, but playing Patience is impossible, especially when she can see right through him. Zeke isn't the only one who's broken, and for the first time in a long time, Patience feels alive. Her black and white world gets a shot of color when she meets Zeke. With his tattoos, piercings, and blunt honesty, he's unlike anyone she's ever met. She wants nothing more than to let go and ride the wild side with him, but some wounds never heal and the broken pieces of Patience aren't so easy to find.
How to Say Goodbye
Amber Lin - 2014
She doesn’t even know how to hug. Everyone thinks she’s smart, but straight A's are way easier than making friends. Then she meets Dane, a golden-haired surfer whose easy charm and hot touch teach her what she longs to know.Dane lives for the salty breeze and a sweet wave, because that’s all he has. He’s been on the streets since he was fourteen. A drifter. Homeless. Then he meets Amy. Smart and accomplished, she’s everything he’s not. He wants to be the sort of man who deserves her.Except that means facing down his past—and that past might very well swallow them both.
Perfectly Flawed
Nessa Morgan - 2013
I had friends that loved me, an aunt who adored me, and everything was just okay.But what I thought was okay and fine, all of that changed.The nightmares, well, they started again, throwing me into a pit I couldn't climb out of, the people at school were spreading and starting rumors faster than I could hear them myself, and I was remembering...I was remembering everything.Well, almost everything. Some things wouldn't come to mind, like why he did it. Why my father killed them, why he tried to kill me? It's not there. Nowhere near my memory.But I'm determined to find out.My name is Joey and this is my story.Joey Archembault is the typical sixteen-year old Junior. She's an overachiever by nature, in her school orchestra, and spends most of her time either doing homework or hanging with the boy next door.Well, typical wouldn't be the word most would use with her. Freak, psycho, that's more what's heard around the school. She can't help it - it's not her fault her father killed her mother, brother, and sister nine years ago. Oh, and he tried to kill her as well, she has the scars to prove it. Joey tries to move on as best she can. It's easy when she can't remember anything about that night or her life before.One day, the self-proclaimed heartthrob asks her out. She knows she should tell him no, but when that doesn't work, and he tricks her into a date by serenading her - twice - things go south, she calls her best friend Zephyr to pick her up, and she once again tries to move on. But it triggers something inside her. It unlocks a vault she never knew existed within her and she can't stop the memories or the feelings, nor can she even begin to decipher what happened to her years ago. Soon, the puzzle begins to piece together and she begins to understand what really happened that night and why she's alone. Couple that with a blooming relationship with the boy next door and it's all a recipe for destruction.
Teach Me Love
S. Moose - 2013
Losing Katherine, the love of his life, makes a once gentle and kindhearted man into someone dark and miserable. Abigail Anderson, single mother, second grade teacher, is tired of living her life alone. But the only man she's ever loved betrayed her and left her in the dark. Now, three years later, their paths cross. A rocky beginning soon turns into something more. Real. The feeling is mutual and their feelings grow. But secrets always have a way of coming out. Will Jacob and Abigail be able to learn how to love again or will they suffer alone for the rest of their lives?This will be a stand alone.
Heartbreaker
Kat Bastion - 2016
Simple.Only instead of Darren Cole becoming her one-night stand, he taunts her with a challenge. Then while she’s trying to best him at his own game, he turns out to be the last thing she’s prepared for: someone she wants to keep.Which means all he can ever be…is a friend.Darren Cole never allows a girl to get close—not close enough to matter.Then storms in Kiki Michaelson, a beautiful, fearless temptation that rocks his world off-balance. But he fights their attraction, unwilling to gamble something physical with their close ties. Until the passionate sculptor exposes her heart and breaks his wide open.In that moment it becomes clear: she could never be just a friend.Sometimes what you run from…is exactly what you need.***HEARTBREAKER is a standalone, full-length new adult romance told in dual POV. Due to mature themes and adult language, this book is for those 18 and older.***
Falling into You
Jasinda Wilder - 2013
Kyle was my first one true love, my first in every way.Then, one stormy August night, he died, and the person I was died with him. Colton didn't teach me how to live. He didn't heal the pain. He didn't make it okay. He taught me how to hurt, how to not be okay, and, eventually, how to let go.
Be the Girl
K.A. Tucker - 2019
New postal code, new last name, new rules. But she doesn’t mind, because it means she can leave her painful regrets behind. In the bustling town of Eastmonte, she can become someone else. Someone better.With the Hartford family living next door, it seems she will succeed. Sure, Cassie Hartford may be the epitome of social awkwardness thanks to her autism, but she also offers an innocent and sincere friendship that Aria learns to appreciate. And Cassie’s older brother, Emmett—a popular Junior A hockey player with a bright future—well … Aria wishes that friendship could lead to something more. If he didn’t already have a girlfriend, maybe it would.But Aria soon finds herself in a dicey moral predicament that could derail her attempt at a fresh start. It is her loyalty to Cassie and her growing crush on Emmett that leads her to make a risky move, one that earns her a vindictive enemy who is determined to splinter her happy new world.
Thin Love
Eden Butler - 2014
It isn't supposed to leave you bleeding. Kona pushed, Keira pulled, and in their wake, they left behind destruction. She sacrificed everything for him. It wasn't enough. But the wounds of the past can never be completely forgotten and still the flame remains, slumbers between the pleasure of yesterday and the thought of what might have been. Now, sixteen years later, Keira returns home to bury the mother who betrayed her, just as Kona tries to hold onto what remains of his NFL career with the New Orleans Steamers. Across the crowded bustle of a busy French Market, their paths collide, conjuring forgotten memories of a consuming touch, skin on skin, and the still smoldering fire that begs to be rekindled. When Kona realizes the trifecta of betrayal—his, Keira's and those lies told to keep them apart—his life is irrevocably changed and he once again takes Keira down with him into the fire that threatens to ignite them both.