Book picks similar to
Abel by L.B. Dunbar
sports
new-adult
romance
dnf
Secret Puck
Rebecca Jenshak - 2020
In my defense, the first time I saw her I didn't know who she was.Kind, gorgeous, a little naïve. Ginny brightened my world from day one.I knew I was no good for her. She was just out of a relationship and I had a reputation for having a new girl in my bed every weekend. I tried to do the right thing. Honest.I'm the one who insisted we should be just friends. That lasted about as long as you'd expect.But Ginny? She's the best - best friend, best everything. So yeah, hooking up with the team captain's sister wasn't a great idea.Would I do it again?In a heartbeat.The first book in a new college hockey romance series.
After Math
Denise Grover Swank - 2013
A mathematics major, she goes to her classes, to her job in the tutoring lab, and then hides in the apartment she shares with her friend, Caroline.After junior Tucker Price, Southern University’s star soccer player enters the equation, her carefully plotted life is thrown off its axis. Tucker’s failing his required College Algebra class. With his eligibility is at risk, the university chancellor dangles an expensive piece of computer software for the math department if Scarlett agrees to privately tutor him.Tucker’s bad boy, womanizer reputation makes Scarlett wary of any contact, let alone spending several hours a week in close proximity.But from her first encounter, she realizes Tucker isn’t the person everyone else sees. He carries a mountain of secrets which she suspects hold the reason to his self-destructive behavior. But the deeper she delves into the cause of his pain, the deeper she gets sucked into his chaos. Will Scarlett find the happiness she’s looking for, or will she be caught in Tucker’s aftermath?
Tapping Out
Nikki Ash - 2018
My grandfather was a fighter, my father was a fighter, and I'm a fighter. I live for the rush of adrenaline and sensation of victory. When I fight, I give it my all. I step into the octagon and I fight until there's nothing left to fight for. He's been my best friend for most of my life. I've fought with him, fought against him, and for the longest time, I fought for him, for us. Until he pushed me away, leaving me no choice but to tap out. MarcoFighting is what saved me. It shed the old me, and I became a newer shinier version of myself. Until it took away everything I loved. I gave up and tapped out. Then one day, she came back into my life and reminded me that some things in life are worth fighting for. Now I'm fighting for us, day by day, proving to her that our happily ever after is worth fighting for.
Jock Row
Sara Ney - 2018
The planner. The one holding your hair back while you're worshiping the porcelain gods. Week-after-week, she visits Jock Row with her friends — the university's hottest party scene and breeding ground for student athletes. And if keeping her friends out of trouble, and guys out of their pants, was a sport, she'd be the star athlete.Being a well known jock-blocker gets her noticed for all the wrong reasons; just like that, she's banned from Jock Row. NO GUY WANTS A GIRL AROUND WHO KEEPS THEIR JOCK FRIENDS FROM GETTING LAID."Rowdy" Wade is the hot shot short-stop for the university's baseball team — and the unlucky bastard who drew the short straw: keep little Miss Goody Two-Shoes out of the Baseball House. But week-after-week Scarlett returns, determined to get inside.
Noah
Elizabeth Reyes - 2012
After disconnecting with the world two years ago to be at the side of her dying mother, she’s left alone, unemployed, overweight, and feeling a decade older than her twenty-eight years. When her best friend coaxes her into joining the local gym to ditch her depression and rejuvenate her life, she meets Noah. Assigned to help Veronica lose weight, Noah is everything she expected a young trainer to be—perfectly chiseled, supportive and motivating. Add to that, he’s incredibly sexy. He’s everything she’s ever looked for in a man. What she least expected was for him to fall for her, but he has. There's just one glaring problem: Noah is eight years younger.Noah Quintanilla has his eye on a boxing title—someday. Down for a few months with an injury, his maintenance-boy pay at 5th Street Gym won't cut it. He’s finally given the opportunity to train. The catch? His trainee is an out-of-shape woman with a free week pass. Taking on the challenge, Noah stumbles into one of the closest friendships he’s ever known, and before he knows it, he’s in love. But Veronica’s not having it—the age difference is too much. Their platonic relationship means having to watch her date other men—something that would make him crazy. Believing he's the man for her, Noah sets out to prove that age is but an illusion, and there's more to him than just a number.
Ground & Pound
Emily Minton - 2016
His name is known worldwide. Men want to be him, and women just want him. All Kane wants is the heavy weight title, nothing else matters to him. Not until, he see Emmy twirling around a poleKane has one rule, never give anyone else control. He doesn’t let anyone in, especially woman. The night he meets Emmy, he knows she is more dangerous than any opponent he has ever fought.Emmy Sanders will do anything to care for her younger brother, even taking her clothes off at a seedy strip club. Ever since their parent’s death, she has been the sole provider for them both. All Emmy wants is to get her brother through college, nothing else matters to her, until she sees Kane sitting at the end of the stage. Emmy has to have control over every aspect of her life. There is a time and place for everything, she never wavers from her plan. The night she meets Kane, she knows he is more dangerous than anyone she has ever met.
Once Perfect
Cecy Robson - 2014
Hers wasn’t supposed to be this hard. They come from different worlds, but fate lures them together in a way neither expected in Cecy Robson’s raw, steamy New Adult debut—perfect for fans of Monica Murphy and J. Lynn. Evelyn Preston’s future once looked perfect—until her wealthy father was caught in an embezzlement scandal and took his own life. Alone and struggling to pay her college tuition and bills, Evelyn finds a job as a waitress at the ultra-hip nightclub Excess, where she used to have more in common with the privileged private-school clientele than her fellow staff members. But something attracts her to the sexy six-foot-four bouncer and underground MMA fighter Mateo Tres Santos. Although they’ve led different lives, their troubled pasts bonds them in both survival and love. Mateo is ex-army who wound up in prison for assaulting the man who harmed his sister. Now he’s feeling the same protective impulse for this petite blond waitress. When Evelyn experiences a panic attack at the club, Mateo comes to her rescue. And when Mateo is wounded shielding her from a brawl, Evelyn returns the favor and comes to his aid. As their attraction intensifies, Mateo is determined to find out what nightmares are lurking in Evelyn’s past—even if that means tackling his own to save her.
Wide Awake
Shelly Crane - 2013
A coma. A life she can't remember. When Emma Walker wakes up in the hospital with no knowledge of how she got there, she learns that she's been in a coma for six months. Strangers show up and claim to be her parents, but she can't remember them. She can't remember anyone. Not her friends, not even her boyfriend. Even though she can't remember, everyone wants her to just pick up where she left off, but what she learns about the 'old her' makes her start to wish she'd never woken up. Her boyfriend breaks up with the new girl he's dating to be with her, her parents want her to start planning for college, her friends want their leader back, and her physical therapist with the hazel eyes keeps his distance to save his position at the hospital. Will she ever feel like she recognizes the girl in the mirror?
Sacrifice
Adriana Locke - 2015
I was left with a shattered heart, a heap of bills, and our daughter, EVERLEIGH. I don’t want to rely on anyone, least of all CREW GENTRY. He’s my first love and the man who almost destroyed me, the man who has let me down every time I’ve needed him. But when tragedy strikes a second time, Crew just might be my only hope. My life changed forever the night my brother died.I was left with a guilty conscience, a pile of mistakes, and little else. I take care of JULIA GENTRY, my brother’s widow and the love of my life, and their daughter. I know she doesn’t want my help, but she gets it anyway. I owe her that.When another disaster hits, I’m given the opportunity to make things right. I’m taking it. I'm willing to sacrifice it all.
Visibly Broken
Chelsea Camaron - 2016
. . and to love. Jason “Cobra” Stanley was born to fight. With a father like his, he had to toughen up just to survive. Now Cobra tries to take out all of his frustration, all of his anger, and all of his pain in the MMA cage. But after he receives one too many hits to the head during a match with Jagger Caldwell, the cycle of violence comes to a screeching halt. Cobra wakes up in the hospital, under the care of a nurse whose blond hair shines like a halo—and whose pure heart touches him on the deepest level. Lorraine Bosch is a fighter too. Having escaped from her own controlling father, she prides herself on remaining professional, despite the chaos of the ER. But Cobra is the ultimate distraction. Lorraine knows she should run away screaming from his rippling muscles and shattered psyche. And yet how can she deny this broken man a second chance—especially since she knows exactly what he’s been through? Lorraine’s used to playing guardian angel. Now it’s her turn to find heaven in Cobra’s arms.
Come
Becca Jameson - 2014
Unfortunately, one of the firm’s partners has been pressuring her for a date. She has no interest in sleeping her way up the corporate ladder, but he won’t take no for an answer, and he’s following her. His Lexus is in the parking lot of her uncle’s gym when she steps outside. In a split-second decision, she plasters herself to the sexy man leaning casually against the wall outside the gym. Rafe Wesson is stunned by one look at the woman so totally out of place at the gym. His plan is to casually run into her outside and ask her out. And then she catches him off-guard with a kiss that rocks his world. Katy isn’t Rafe’s type. She’s far too innocent. But two dates don’t dampen his desire. Rafe has personal rules against sleeping with a woman before she is fully informed about his preferences. However, Katy is persistent. She wants him, but he fears he’ll lose her when she finds out about his lifestyle. Rafe tries to step away from her, but he can’t ignore the unknown threat that haunts her, and time is running out. Someone wants Katy dead. And Rafe wants Katy...very much alive.
Black Box
Cassia Leo - 2014
Their first encounter changes Mikki's life forever, but their second meeting leaves them both buried beneath the emotional wreckage of a violent attack. Mikki is left with more questions and grief than she can handle, while Crush is forced to forget the girl who saved his life.Now nineteen years old, Mikki Gladstone has decided she's tired of the mind-numbing meds. She books a flight to Los Angeles to end her life far away from her loving, though often distant, family.Twenty-one-year-old Crush has always channeled his blackest thoughts into his music, but he's never had great aspirations. He decides to fly to Los Angeles to record a demo of the only song he's never performed in public; a song he wrote for a girl he doesn't even know: Black Box. He has no expectations of fame and he's never felt like his life had any purpose... until he meets Mikki in Terminal B.When Mikki and Crush cross paths for the third time in Terminal B, neither has any idea who the other person is; until they slowly piece together their history and realize that fate has more in store for them than just another love story.
Win by Submission
Melynda Price - 2015
They say it’s a miracle he can walk, if that’s what you call his crutch-dragging limp. Unwilling to give up on him, Cole’s manager sends the injured fighter to the best physical therapist he knows: his niece, Katie Miller. When Cole arrives in the small town of Somerset, Wisconsin, he quickly discovers his sly manager may have had reasons other than rehab for sending him to this frozen tundra.After a year of running from an abusive ex-boyfriend, Katie has returned to her hometown to care for her father, who’s recovering from a stroke. When Uncle Marcus calls in a favor, she reluctantly finds herself taking on a rancorous MMA fighter, broken at the height of his career. He’s insanely sex-on-a-stick hot—and everything she loathes in a man.If Cole thinks his fighting days are over, he’s dead wrong. To save Katie from her past and to win her heart, he’ll be in for the fight of his life.
Raven
Ashley Suzanne - 2014
Lynn—two sparring partners put their hearts on the line and push their bodies to the edge. Rian Fields is done being a punching bag. When Rian was thirteen, her only friend walked out on her, leaving Rian alone to mourn when she lost her mother three years later. Then he came back into her life senior year, igniting new desires—and breaking her trust permanently when he enlisted in the army. Now Rian has finally found an outlet for her rage against the world: mixed martial arts. But just as she’s learning the ropes, Garrett Rhodes turns her life inside-out one more time. As much they hurt each other, Garrett never got over Rian. So when he gets the call that she’s in jail, he bails her out, no questions asked. The years have toughened her. Made her harder. Sexier. All she needs to make it as an MMA fighter is the right coach, and Garrett’s man enough to train her. He just has to go toe-to-toe with “Raven,” the fearless woman who takes control in the ring . . . without falling for Rian, the vulnerable girl who still drives him crazy. Includes a special message from the editor, as well as an excerpt from another Loveswept title.
Dominic
L.A. Casey - 2014
If she doesn't befriend people, talk to them or acknowledge them in any way they leave her alone just like she wants. When Dominic Slater enters her life, ignoring him is all she has to do to get his attention. Dominic is used to attention, and when he and his brothers move to Dublin, Ireland for family business, he gets nothing but attention. Attention from everyone except the beautiful brunette with a sharp tongue. Dominic wants Bronagh and the only way he can get to her, is by dragging her from the boxed off corner she has herself trapped in the only way he knows how... by force. Dominic wants her, and what Dominic wants, Dominic gets.