Book picks similar to
Dreams of Fate by Skylar Shoar


romance
strong-emotions
adore-secondary-character
different

Bright Side


Kim Holden - 2014
    Everyone has one. Some are bigger than others. And when secrets are revealed, Some will heal you ... And some will end you. Kate Sedgwick’s life has been anything but typical. She’s endured hardship and tragedy, but throughout it all she remains happy and optimistic (there’s a reason her best friend Gus calls her Bright Side). Kate is strong-willed, funny, smart, and musically gifted. She’s also never believed in love. So when Kate leaves San Diego to attend college in the small town of Grant, Minnesota, the last thing she expects is to fall in love with Keller Banks. They both feel it. But they each have a reason to fight it. They each have a secret. And when secrets are revealed, Some will heal you … And some will end you.

The Best Friend Hookup


Kylie King - 2019
    She wants me to do things with her…in the bedroom. The things she wants to do, wouldn’t be a part of our usual hangout, where we play video games, or stuff our mouths with extra cheesy pizza. This is different. She wants me to teach her how to be on top, so she can hook up with a guy she’s always wanted to date. Of course, I’m going to help my adorable, nerdy best friend Julia. I’m the best man for the job, and she trusts me with her life. Not only that, but I’ve been with plenty of women—enough to know how to show her the ropes. Showing her what to do shouldn’t change anything between us…at least that’s what I think, until I realize that once she gets the hang of this, she’ll be on top of another guy.

Win Some, Lose Some


Shay Savage - 2016
    Each task others complete without thinking is a challenge for him. Recently orphaned, he has to finish the last few months of high school and take care of his disabled sister on his own.When Mayra comes into his life, his comfortable routines implode. Matthew can’t handle change, but Mayra is unrelenting in her quest to understand him, to show him acceptance and maybe even love. When she breaks through his shell, Matthew’s world will never be the same again.An awkward boy with Asperger’s Syndrome, a persistent girl who pulls him out of his isolated existence, and a lottery ticket that will change their lives forever.

The Air He Breathes


Brittainy C. Cherry - 2015
    To look at Tristan and see a monster.But I couldn’t do that. I had to accept the wreckage that lived inside of him because it also lived inside of me.We were both empty.We were both looking for something else. Something more.We both wanted to put together the shattered pieces of our yesterdays.Then perhaps we could finally remember how to breathe.

47 Things


Lilliana Anderson - 2015
    I wasn't his sweetheart, and he should have already known my name. But, that was the moment I became caught in Tyler Lohan's sight. He was wonderful and complicated, and I'd spent my life trying to hate him for being the golden boy who had everything so easy. However, as with all things, Tyler wasn’t the person he appeared to be from the outside, and once I saw him – the real him – I fell, and I don’t think I ever got back up.There would be a total of forty-seven things that sucked me into Tyler's life then forced me away. Forty-seven things that ruined me forever.Forty-seven was never going to be enough.There was no number great enough...47 Things. A standalone new adult romance that follows a couple as they come to terms with falling love in a world they can't control, and the certainty of the inevitable.

Kiss and Tell


Athena Wright - 2019
    My lips beg for his kiss. My body hungers for his.He says no one has to know. He says he can keep us a secret.I’ve worked too hard to jeopardize my reputation, but I want to believe him. Can I trust no one will find out?After all, a gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell…

Fearless


Abby Brooks - 2021
    File that under great advice—not taken.Especially if he’s hot. And witty. And successful. Did I mention hot? Never mind. The point’s the same.I moved to Wildrose Landing because my life was a structure fire burning down around me.They say a phoenix rises from the ashes, new. I crossed my fingers and took a leap of faith, hoping that proved true. After a certain ex who shall not be named, did something so…unspeakable, the absolute last thing I'm looking for is love.I don't have the energy for complications. I need time to heal. To rebuild.Alexander Prescott stumbles into my life and doesn't care about any of that. He offers me a dream job without so much as asking for my resume...which I take without thinking. (Hey, a girl’s gotta eat.)Besides, saying yes to new experiences is the kind of thing you do when you’re rising from the ashes and redefining yourself as fearless.And Alexander Prescott is the walking definition of new experience.From his dark curls and whiskey eyes to the spark of chemistry I fight like hell to ignore. He’s a bestselling author. An icon in his own time. But he says he’s in over his head and swears I’m the only one who can help.I know there’s something he isn’t telling me but that’s okay, there’s something I’m not telling him.

I Love You to Death


Natalie Ward - 2012
    Refusing to let anyone in for fear of losing them too, she becomes withdrawn, spending her days reliving the nightmares from her past. Until she meets Luke. Initially scared by his intensity and interest in her, Ash tries to push him away. But as Luke slowly starts to chip away at the walls she’s built, Ash finds herself doing the one thing she swore she’d never do again — falling in love. When the familiar feelings Ash had hoped were long buried with her past begin to resurface, she is forced to ask herself if falling in love again is really worth the risk.

When Ashes Fall


Marni Mann - 2019
    You can’t split your heart, soul, and body in half. But I’m here to tell you, you can.Dylan Cole is like ice, sharp and unpredictable, the thunder inside a tumultuous storm. Smith Reid is warmth, soft and gentle, perfect like a sunny day.Both are mine. But I can have only one. There are two sides to this tale. I'm here to tell you mine. If you think this story is about a cheater, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Withering Hope


Layla Hagen - 2015
    Her dress, her fiancé and the location—the idyllic holiday ranch in Brazil—are perfect. But all Aimee’s plans come crashing down when the private jet that’s taking her from the U.S. to the ranch—where her fiancé awaits her—defects mid-flight and the pilot is forced to perform an emergency landing in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. With no way to reach civilisation, being rescued is Aimee and Tristan’s—the pilot—only hope. A slim one that slowly withers away, desperation taking its place. Because death wanders in the jungle under many forms: starvation, diseases. Beasts. As Aimee and Tristan fight to find ways to survive, they grow closer. Together they discover that facing old, inner agonies carved by painful pasts takes just as much courage, if not even more, than facing the rainforest. Despite her devotion to her fiancé, Aimee can’t hide her feelings for Tristan—the man for whom she’s slowly becoming everything. You can hide many things in the rainforest. But not lies. Or love.Withering Hope is the story of a man who desperately needs forgiveness and the woman who brings him hope. It is a story in which hope births wings and blooms into a love that is as beautiful and intense as it is forbidden.

Love Always, Kate


D. Nichole King - 2014
    Now, six years later, I want my life back. Only I’m not sure what that is. The test results came back today. 22,000. Which means I’m officially out of remission—again. I have three options: 1) Another round of chemo. 2) A super-new experimental drug. 3) Dump it all— forget the meds and treatments and enjoy the time I have left. I think I know what I want. Then, in walks Damian, changing everything. I mean, everything… He’s got his own set of issues. It binds us together, you know? We understand what it’s like to lose what matters most in seconds. Still, the last thing I need is to have someone else to crush if I can’t fight hard enough. And the last thing he needs is someone else to grieve. Never mind. I’m down to two options now. Somehow I know that whichever one I choose, the result will be the same. With the sand in my hourglass seeping to the bottom, I hope there’s enough left to show Damian that life’s worth living. Worth fighting for. Worth dying for. Love Always, Kate

Watch Me Drown


C.E. Johnson - 2020
    Keep my heart closed and my head down. But that’s kind of hard to do when the only way to keep Danielle safe is to move her into my house.I was doing fine all by myself until I witnessed her harassed in the park.The look of terror on her face was something I couldn’t ignore.There was something about her-all I wanted to do was protect her.But I had no idea saving her that afternoon would lead to my rules against falling in love to be picked off one by one. Dani’s soft touch and stubborn kindness is everything I never knew I wanted.The only thing is, saving her could drag me back underwater.I pulled myself out of the undertow once.I’m not sure I’d survive another round behind bars.But for her, I’d risk drowning.

Nothing Bundt Love


Samantha Lind - 2021
    He's no longer the boy next door.He's all man now; tall, dark, and handsome.Nathan Bailey was the one that got away…After leaving our hometown for college, he never looked back…Ten years later, he walked into my bakery.His sweet-talking is impossible to ignore, but so are the miles between Tennessee and California.The now billionaire tech-mogul always has his eyes set on the next big project, but now they're set on me.

In This Iron Ground


Marina Vivancos - 2018
    What should have been the worst moment of his life begins a journey shadowed by loneliness and pain. The night of a full moon, four years and seven foster homes later, Damien flees to the forest, desperate to escape everything. Instead, he finds the Salgado pack, and the earth beneath his feet shifts. Damien has seen the Salgado children in his school: Koko, who is in his class, and Hakan, two years older and infinitely unreachable. Damien is suddenly introduced into a world that had only ever existed in his imagination, where there is magic in the forest and the moon. He meets creatures that look like monsters, but Damien knows that monsters have the same face as anybody else. Over the years, Damien and Hakan grow closer. First, just as friends and foster brothers in the Salgado house, and then into something heated and breathless when Damien joins Hakan at college. Despite what he may yearn for in the darkest part of the night, Damien knows, deep down in that bruised and mealy part of his core, that he’s not good enough to be part of the Salgado family, their pack. He’s not worthy of calling Hakan his home. Even though he knows in the end it’ll hurt him, he’ll hold onto this for as long as he can. CONTENT WARNING: This book contains themes of emotional and (nonsexual) physical child abuse and the subsequent emotional, cognitive, and behavioural impacts. This story contains sexually explicit scenes between consenting adults and is meant for an adult audience.

A Moment Too Late


Rachael Brownell - 2021
    Was drawn to him in a way I’d never been drawn to a man before. He was everything I wanted. The man I dreamed about at night and looked for everywhere I turned just for a glimpse of his perfection.But I couldn’t have him.It was against the rules. Forbidden.He was my best friend’s boyfriend. I would never do that to her.Then she died.Looking at him became painful, bringing back memories of the reason we couldn’t be together. The reason I never pursued him.I had to move on and vowed never to look back in an attempt to escape him and the devastation in my heart.Yet here I stand, five years later, staring into the eyes of the man I still want. In the place I swore I’d never return to. With memories assaulting me from every angle.He’s still the picture of perfection in my eyes, making our attraction even more dangerous than it once was.The only difference... No one is standing in our way this time.