Book picks similar to
The Sweet Spot by Laura Drake


romance
contemporary-romance
contemporary
western

Wicked Beautiful


J.T. Geissinger - 2015
    What she doesn’t have—and doesn’t want—is a husband. Fifteen years ago her high school flame broke her heart so badly she swore she’d never love again. Drop-dead sexy restauranteur and infamous playboy Parker Maxwell has only three rules for the women he dates: no questions about his past, no expectations for the future, and no spending the night. When he meets Victoria, however, he’s willing to break his own rules if it means sating the explosive desire she arouses in him. What he doesn’t know is that the alluring Victoria Price used to be the mousy Isabel Diaz, the girl he deflowered and dumped long ago. Presented with a perfect opportunity for revenge, Victoria decides the game is on. But when her connection with Parker proves more than just skin deep, she has to make a choice: continue with her plan for payback, or risk her career, her reputation, and her heart by taking a second chance on love?

Covered in Coal


Silla Webb - 2014
    Just like any little girl would, she assumed her daddy would always be by her side. Unbelievably, he turned his back on her when she needed him most, leaving her with no one in her life to turn to for support. Without options, Carly runs away from the only home she's ever known, leaving behind her heartache and the betrayal of the two men she loved most.Seven years later, Carly reluctantly returns to Kentucky. Her daddy is dying of cancer and Colton is nothing like the boy she once loved and left. After her daddy passes, Carly must uproot her life in South Carolina and take control of Simon Coal Company, where she has no choice but face the pain of her past.Can Carly keep her secrets buried deep beneath the black Kentucky coal and her heart safe from the fiery Colton Weston?

What Once Was Perfect


Zoe York - 2013
     Heading home always stirs up mixed emotions for Laney Calhoun. Twelve years ago she left for graduate school, broken-hearted. She's found professional success, but positive personal relationships have proved elusive. Running into her ex-boyfriend fans flames she thought long extinguished, and causes a renewed interest in love. Not with Kyle, of course. Never again. But as sparks fly and items of clothing disappear, she scrambles to keep her emotions in check. ...Now he has a second chance to get it right. Kyle Nixon let Laney slip away once. Their chemistry together is undeniable, but steamy sex is not enough to convince her to let him back into her heart. Even if she did trust him again, her career as a paediatric surgeon is five hundred kilometers away from the hometown that he loves, and the life he once chose over her. Come home to Wardham. Come home to love.

Coming Home


Wendy Smith - 2016
    His mother has cancer, but for some reason doesn’t want him there. One of his brothers welcomes him home with open arms, another treats him like dirt. Then there’s Lily, the girl who left Adam at the altar twelve years ago. The girl who broke his heart. Adam left and didn’t look back after that happened, but being home stirs up all those old feelings. Secrets will be revealed, including the horrifying truth about why Lily stood him up, and that she didn’t abandon Adam. Adam abandoned her.  Coming Home is the first book in the Copper Creek series. Set in the fictional small New Zealand town of Copper Creek, the series will explore the dark secrets the town holds, including the secrets held tight by members of the Campbell family.

Secret Maneuvers


Jessie Lane - 2013
    One ‘Dear John’ letter haunted Bobby Baker’s every living moment. It was the letter he’d stupidly written to his high school sweetheart, Belle, right after he had left to join the Army. The letter in which he’d told her that he wasn’t so sure they were ready for forever yet. Before he could let her know that the letter, and his second thoughts, were nothing more than a mistake, she disappeared from the small Georgia town they had both been raised in. Fifteen years after the letter, Belle unknowingly walked back into Bobby’s life when her job as an ATF Agent forced her to work with a group of men secretly headed by the CIA to help her track down whoever was involved in funneling black market weapons to a drug cartel in Mexico. Bobby planned to use this mission to try to soothe Belle’s hurt feelings while proving to her that their love was meant to be forever. He would use every dirty trick he’d learned since he had joined the Army to maneuver her back into his life for the long haul. Belle was not making it easy, though, as she continued to keep him at arm’s length in the hopes that mistakes of her own would never come to light. Warning: Mature themes and a secret baby! <- You've been warned.

Mad About Matt


Theresa Paolo - 2017
    Life is good until someone breaks into her shop,making her question if the life she left behind in New York followed her.As the local sheriff, Matt is keeping a close eye on the place and an even closer eye on the beautiful owner who refuses to take the break in seriously. Two conflicting personalities that burn bright on their own become down right explosive when thrown together. But in order to move toward a future together, they will have to let go of their past and accept the mistakes they made.***Welcome to Red Maple Falls, a small town filled with big personalities. Nestled in the White Mountains of New Hampshire it is home to the Hayes siblings, three brothers and three sisters, all awaiting their happily ever after.Book 1: Mad About Matt (Matt and Shay) Book 2: Crushing on Kate (Kate and Caleb) Book 3: Moments with Mason (Mason and Cassie)Book 4: Catching Cooper (Cooper and Sarah) Book 5: Hung Up on Hadley (Hadley and Sam)Book 5.5 A Bride for Sam (Hadley and Sam) Book 6: Dreaming of Daisy (Daisy and Nick) (Coming 2/19/18)

Torn Hearts


Claire Contreras - 2015
     He made my heart go into a frenzy every time he looked at me, and my knees go weak whenever he touched me. Our love was so beautiful, that even its demise was bittersweet. I met a girl once. Her world, full of possibilities, made me feel like even I had a chance at being someone. She believed in me. She loved me. We were so secure, that even our breaking point seemed hazy. Until we reached it.

On a Tuesday


Whitney G. - 2017
    Became best friends, then lovers, on a Tuesday. And everything fell apart on a Tuesday... Charlotte Taylor has three automatic strikes in my book: 1) She hates me. She also claims that I'm a "domineering jerk with a huge, overbearing ego." (I do have something huge. It's not my ego, though.) 2) She takes our mandatory tutoring sessions way too seriously. 3) She's sexy as hell...And a virgin. At least, those were her strikes before our study sessions started lasting longer than they were supposed to. Until one innocent kiss became a hundred dirty ones, and until she became the first woman I ever fell hard for. Our future together after graduation was supposed to be set: Professional football for me. Law school for her. But she left me at the end of the semester with no explanation, and then she completely disappeared from my life. Until tonight.We met on a Tuesday. Became everything, then nothing, on a Tuesday. And now it's seven years later, on a Tuesday... **This is a full length second chance romance, inspired by Adele's "When We Were Young"**

A Place to Call Home


Deborah Smith - 1997
    No one in Dunderry, Georgia--least of all Claire's family--could understand the bond between these two mavericks. But Roan and Claire belonged together...until the dark afternoon when violence and terror overtook them, and Roan disappeared from Claire's life. Now, two decades later, Claire is adrift, and the Maloneys are still hoping the past can be buried under the rich Southern soil. But Roan Sullivan is about to walk back into their lives....By turns tender and sexy and heartbreaking and exuberant, A Place to Call Home is an enthralling journey between two hearts--and a deliciously original novel from one of the most imaginative and appealing new voices in Southern fiction.

The Fable of Us


Nicole Williams - 2016
    At least that’s what Clara Abbot finds herself hoping when she runs into Boone Cavanaugh less than an hour after returning to Charleston.As kids, Clara and Boone had been each other’s firsts, and no one or nothing could stand in the way of their forever. But all kids have to grow up sometime. The troubled son of the town drunk winding up with the firstborn daughter of the local royalty was a happy ending even the most imaginative of fairy tales couldn’t make believable.Their fable came to an end as most do: tragically. Boone might have done the leaving, but it was Clara who got away and made a new life for herself in California. But after seven years of dodging her hometown, she’s only back in Charleston for seven days to celebrate her sister’s wedding. She won’t let her overbearing family or her run-in with Boone rattle her—though rattling her is obviously Boone’s primary objective.Boone is her past and her past is behind her, a mere speck in the rearview. So why does she feel it coming back every time she looks at him? Why does she see it every time he looks back?Just when Clara’s life can’t possibly get more complicated, the ground shifts, and she discovers just how far her family was willing to go to keep the wrong boy out of her life. Was it really Boone who left her? Or was it Clara who left him?The truth will be hard to face. Especially when she discovers most of her life has been built on lies.

Close Enough to Touch


Victoria Dahl - 2012
    It's the land of difficult divas, cheating boyfriends and unemployment. So when her great-aunt offers her a free place to stay in Jackson Hole, Grace thinks she'll spend a little time in the sticks to figure out her life, and then move somewhere exciting to live out her dreams. But it turns out that there are a few more thrills in this small town than Grace was expecting….Cole Rawlins is a rugged Wyoming cowboy born and bred. Yet he can't help but be drawn to the fascinating big-city girl who moves in across from him. He wants to get close enough to Grace to see past her tough facade, but if he does, she might see the real Cole. The one with a Hollywood history gone bad. As they discover a sizzling attraction, it becomes harder for him to keep his demons at bay—and those fires from long ago may burn them both.They'll need more than scorching-hot passion to make this opposites-attract affair work. But if they can learn to trust one another enough to reveal their secrets, they just might have a chance at forever.

The Girl He Used to Know


Tracey Garvis Graves - 2019
    She feels lost in social situations, saying the wrong thing or acting the wrong way. She just can't read people. She prefers the quiet solitude of books or playing chess to being around others. Apart from Jonathan. She liked being around him, but she hasn't seen him for ten years. Until now that is. And she's not sure he'll want to see her again after what happened all those years ago. Annika Rose likes being alone.Except that, actually, she doesn't like being alone at all.The Girl He Used to Know is an uplifting novel full of surprising revelations that keep you turning the page. Perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes, Gail Honeyman, Jill Santopolo and Sliding Doors.

When You Got a Good Thing


Kait Nolan - 2017
    It  has everything I love in a small-town romance!  ~USA Today Best-Selling Author Tawna FenskeA moment. A mistake. That's all it took for Kennedy Reynolds to lose her first love and her family. She's spent a decade traveling the world, building a life, hiding the truth, never looking back at the past--until her adopted mother's unexpected death pulls her back to the small town--and the secret--she left behind.A chance to apologize. That's all Xander Kincaid wants from the woman who ran away with his heart all those years ago. At least that's what he tells himself until he sees her again and that old flame flares bright. As she struggles to mend fences with her sisters and find a way to save the legacy and the foster child her mother left behind, Kennedy finds an expected ally in Xander. Falling back into his arms is beyond tempting,  but accepting his support is dangerous. He can never know the truth about why she really left. Will Kennedy be able to bury the past or will secrets revealed destroy her second chance?

Easy Fortune


Kristen Proby - 2017
    Intriguing. Easy. Sometimes the past is better left behind you…Lena Turner has spent her life as the outsider. Thanks to her extraordinary gifts, she’s learned to be independent—especially when it comes to men. She’s content to live her life in New Orleans as a schoolteacher, dating casually and dedicated to her small family. Long term is not part of her plan.Sometimes the past catches up with you…Leaving Lena behind to pursue his career was the most difficult thing Mason Coulter ever did. He told himself that it was for the best, had even convinced himself that he had only Lena’s best interests in mind. But now, after six long years, he’s back in New Orleans to settle his late eccentric aunt’s estate. All he has to do is get in and out of the city without submitting to the need to see Lena. But to Mason’s dismay, his aunt made other plans.And sometimes the future and the past collide…Having Mason walk back into her life is something Lena never saw coming. She could refuse to help him, but she’s never been good at telling Mason no. So she’ll do what she can to get the estate settled and Mason out of her life for good.At least, that’s the plan. But Mason has plans of his own…

Mack Daddy


Penelope Ward - 2017
     They called him Mack Daddy. No, seriously, his name was Mack. Short for Mackenzie. Thus, the nickname. Perfect, right? So was he: perfect. The perfect physical male specimen. At the private school where I taught, Mack Morrison was the only man around in a sea of women. Everyone wanted a piece of the hot single father of the sweet little boy. I was riddled with jealousy, because they didn’t know that—to me—he was much more. They didn’t know about our past. He’d chosen my school for his son on purpose, because Mack and I, we had unfinished business. As my friend, Lorelai, so eloquently put it: “Unfinished business between two people who are clearly attracted to each other is like an eternal case of blue balls.” And I was suffering in pain from my case. I was still intensely attracted to Mack. I tried to resist him, immersing myself further into a relationship with another man just to protect my heart. Not to mention, getting involved with a parent was strictly against school rules. But seeing Mack day in and day out was breaking me down. And soon I might be breaking all the rules. Author's note – Told in alternating points of view, Mack Daddy is a full-length standalone novel.