Book picks similar to
Simply Complicated by S. Nelson


contemporary
romance
sports-romance
second-chance

Halstead House


Aspen Hadley - 2021
    Growing up under an iron thumb, she's never gone off script, yet as she stares at the candles on her twenty-fifth birthday, she determines to reach for more.Terrified but hopeful, Grace buys a one-way airline ticket to Lavender Island in order to visit Halstead House, the once upon a time home of the only person Grace had ever been safe with, her honorary grandmother Mary. When Grace arrives on the island she's immediately caught up in the warmth-filled life she'd always imagined.What she hadn't imagined, however, was John Lucas Halstead or the feelings he would stir in her – especially when he’ll do anything to keep her at arms length. Just as Grace is finding her feet, her mother arrives on the island uninvited, forcing Grace to decide where she’ll stand once and for all. Is it finally time to rip up the script? Or will she accept her role and return?Only Grace can decide.

False Start


Leigh Lennon - 2020
    As the lead reporter, assigned to this puff piece, he hasn't made it easy with all the drunken brawls and arrests. I'm told to do my job—to be objective, but how can I achieve this when we have a past he doesn't seem to remember.KierShe's sexy, mouthy, and judgmental. I'm in her domain now, and way out of my league. If anyone can portray the changed man I've become, it's her. But, there's something almost too familiar about her as our chemistry with one another continues to grow. I'm the best on the field, and in my game, now it's time to prove I'm the best for her too.

Perfect Match


Alexis Alvarez - 2017
    She’s the matchmaker…he’s her sexy client. What could go wrong? L.A.-based matchmaker Fia Martin has a tough competition: Find the perfect woman for arrogant, handsome TV-host Dylan Chambers, before her rival, Connie Birnbaum, can do it––on national television. If Dylan declares her the winner, Fia’s business will skyrocket.Dylan is picky. He’s smug. He reminds Fia that he’s only doing this competition at all because he lost a bet to his TV co-host, and he doesn’t believe in true love. He’s polite on dates picked out by Connie, but the ones Fia sets up? Those seem to end in complete disaster. And every time she tells him to behave, he flirts with her shamelessly.A stolen kiss turns to a night of unbelievable passion, but Fia knows that Dylan’s not interested in anything more than a fling. How could it mean anything when he’s still going on dates for the TV challenge like nothing happened?When Dylan chooses Connie’s company for his final dream date in Hawaii, to a woman who looks perfect on paper, Fia figures she can pretty much kiss the trophy goodbye. The problem is, she won’t just be losing the competition. She’s about to lose her heart, too…to the one guy who’s completely unavailable.Perfect Match is a full length 75K word romance novel with a very high heat level, poetic prose, and some laugh out loud moments. Like all of my books, it has a wonderful HEA. This one has some mild kink...not a lot of pain, but a whole lot of pleasure!First published Sept 26th, 2017 inside the box set Hot and Sinful Nights - a box set which hit the USA Today Best Sellers List. It will come to Amazon and KU on Nov 6, 2017.

I Like Me Better


Susan Renee - 2021
    Stabilize the family bakery business following the death of my father, and then get back to the city. It would have gone flawlessly had I not run smack dab into Hadley Hutton on my first night back. That spit-fire competitive girl was my college nemesis, always one-upping me, until she mysteriously didn’t return for our senior year.So, imagine my surprise when I’m introduced to the bakery’s newest manager and it’s her! Now I have to work closely with her nearly everyday. Words fly and tempers flare between us, just like they did in college, except something is different about her now. There’s more to Hadley Hutton than her sweet looks and salty attitude.Maybe if I can figure her out, she’ll see I’m not the jerk she thinks I am.Or maybe I’m just creating a recipe for disaster.This book is a full-length interconnected standalone! The books in the Bardstown series can be read in any order as each one features a different brother in the Fox family. These books are adult in nature and should only be read by those 18+ years old.

Coached


Hunter Rose - 2021
    Rugged. Playmaker. Casanova…All those names apply to Darren Walters. Yes, he’s cocky too.How can you not be when you look and play like him?The beginning of college should be the start of something new.Yet, here I am still stuck crushing on the star quarterback of the college team,and my older brother’s best friend - Darren.I’m sure he’s always seen me as the nerdy younger sister type.Oh, and did I forget to mention that I’m still a virgin and have no idea about guys?I know… I'm hopeless.Darren promised my brother that he’d look out for me and protect me.The best thing I can come up with is to have him coach me how to date.Coach me to say all the right things,kiss the right way,and when we’re alone…Sigh, if only our love story was that simple.

Lessons from a One-Night Stand


Piper Rayne - 2019
    Get details. Details are crucial.Lesson Four: don't alter her bio in front of an auditorium of high school students unless you know she has a sense of humor for that sort of thing.Lesson Five: if you ignore Lesson Four, apologize instead of flirt when you're sent to the principal's office.Lesson Six: NEVER sleep with her again.Lesson Seven: pay attention to this one, it's the most important of them all.Don't fall for your one-night stand.Class dismissed.

Clutch Player


Nikki Ash - 2020
    Landon was my entire world, and I thought he would be my forever. But I was young and dumb, and with one error in judgement, I destroyed any chance of a future we could've had together, along with our hearts.Twelve years later and I'm going through the motions of life but not actually living. Which is why I let my friends, Bridget and Simon, set me up on a blind date. Turns out, it's not so blind after all. Because the man sitting in front of me is the same man who's held onto my heart all these years.LandonThey call me a clutch player because I'm good under pressure and quick on my feet. I was also quick to fall in love. The first time it was with baseball, the second was with Harper. And for a short time I had them both.Until I lost Harper and all I had left was baseball.For years, I focused on my career. I had accepted that baseball was my one true love.Until I saw her again. I never imagined we'd ever get a second chance, but now that she's sitting right across from me, I know there's no way in hell I'm going to let her go again.

Southern Seducer


Jessica Peterson - 2020
    But sleeping with my best friend tops the list. Annabel and I have been close since college. When I left school to play pro football, she was there. While I collected Super Bowl rings and cars worth more than the house I grew up in—she was there. I always assumed we’d end up together. Everyone did. But by the time I retired from football, Bel was married. I thought I’d missed my shot at love. So I buried myself in my new job as CEO of Blue Mountain Farm, a five-star resort my family and I built in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. It seems like a good place to be alone with the secret I have to keep from her. Now Bel is a divorced single mom, struggling to raise her daughter on her own—and it’s my turn to be there for her. So I invite her and the baby up to the resort for some much needed R&R. Then, in a moment of bonfire-and-bourbon induced weakness, I kiss her. And the fallout could ruin everything.SOUTHERN SEDUCER is a full length, standalone novel. It is the first book in the all new North Carolina Highland series.

Hate to Love You


Isabelle Richards - 2015
    Constantly in competition, they fight incessantly, making it nearly impossible for them to be in the same room with each other. Until they slept together. Sex changes everything.In one emotional evening, they go from enemies to lovers. Hate quickly evolves into passionate lust, but old habits die hard. The love growing between them can’t erase a lifetime of animosity. The two quickly fall back into old routines of spite and vengeance, and their relationship crumbles under the weight of their deep-seated distrust.Chase and Arianna spend the next two years on opposite sides of the globe, avoiding each other at all costs. Despite the lies they tell themselves, neither one is ready to let go. Even though they are both engaged to other people, they can’t find it in their hearts to forgive each other or to move forward.A family emergency calls Arianna home, where they have no choice but to face each other again. Will they finally admit the truth, or will they remain forever trapped between love and hate?

Maintenance Required


Giulia Lagomarsino - 2020
    There are right and wrong ways to do things, and I always make sure that I'm on the right side. My brothers call me a wet blanket. They say I'm buttoned-up, boring, and that I don't know how to let loose. There's a reason I'm that way, and she just walked through my door. With one wild night, I've thrown all my moral guidelines out the window. Now I'm stuck with her and there's no possible way this could work between us. We're complete opposites in every way, but damn she's sexy. Not that it matters. There will never be more between us. One of us will end up killing the other first.KatAfter a long shift in the cancer ward at the children's hospital, I just want to let loose. My friend set me up on a date, and I gladly took it to let off some steam. I've got a fun outfit and I'm ready to let loose. But my one night of fun was spoiled the minute he walked through that door. I was just looking for a good time, and I got him instead. He's good-looking, but that's about all that he has going for him. He's not at all my type, and now he seems to think that I'm some loose whore. It was one night! But I'm stuck with him, so I have to find a way to make this work. If I don't figure out a way to make the man loosen up, I'll go insane.

Someone You Love


Kristen Granata - 2021
    They didn’t make it all the way through the list before she died, but she made Charly promise to finish it and live her life to the fullest.Spending the summer in a coastal mountain city in Maine is next on her list. The scenic town is perfect for finding adventure, and the quirky inn owner makes her feel right at home in the guest house.Except for the fact that her new living quarters belong to the owner’s grump of a grandson.Bryce Holden was an NFL player before sustaining a career-ending spinal injury. The people he thought would stand by his side left him when he was no longer a football star. Now, he prefers to live his life as a recluse, keeping outsiders at arm’s length where his heart is safe.The last thing Bryce needs is to fall for a beautiful woman who will leave him like everyone else. But when he sees Charly’s incomplete bucket list, and the bruised heart she wears on her sleeve, he resolves to help her on her journey.Even if it means losing her at the end of it.

Rewind (ROCK HARD Book 3)


Kat Mizera - 2021
    and fall hard. The sultry drummer isn’t looking for love, he’s looking for a second chance at dominating the charts. Until a clumsy redhead stumbles into his elevator, and life, providing a distraction he didn’t know he needed.Growing up in a family full of addicts wasn’t easy for Brianna Franklin— and living life on the straight and narrow is the only future she can see for herself. The one that’s stable and leads to culinary school. A path that never included someone like Declan and his rocker lifestyle.The more Bri tries to convince herself Declan is Mr. Wrong, the more he keeps saying and doing all the right things. When tragedy strikes, will she learn to trust or is she destined to rock on alone?

Wild Rebel


Laurelin Paige - 2021
    Years passed. I traveled, settled halfway around the world, made enough money that I didn’t have to look back.But I never got over her. Then, out of the blue, she calls. And, what she asks for, the favor that she wants?I never thought I'd be willing to take a life.But the truth is, and always has been: I'd do anything for her. Book one of three in the final trilogy in the Dirty Universe.

Defenseless


Amy Jarecki - 2021
    Help his team win a bowl game, 2. Ace his exams and, most importantly, 3. Women are completely, utterly, and irrevocably off-limits.Strait-laced accounting major, Vivian Ellis, hasn't watched a complete game of football in her life. And when she receives her tutoring assignment, the last student she expects is Cade. Not only has the football star earned a reputation as the best looking heart-breaker on campus, his recent trial has made him notorious.But Cade is done with his past and he wants to prove it. When his teammates invite him to a celebration in his honor, he asks Vi to come along to keep the party-girls at bay. Except when Vi shows up without her glasses, she's as sexy-hot as a runway model. Worse, his tutor is as off-limits as any woman can get. As the season continues, sparks fly while their chemistry darts from simmering to scorching. Until everything is blown to hell. Challenged by hateful rumors and a devastating injury, will these star-crossed lovers find the mettle to get back in the game?

SEAL Baby Daddy (The Baby Daddy - Book #2)


Claire Adams - 2018
    I didn’t know he was back from Kuwait. When I came home from my position as an overseas correspondent, I’d expected I’d never see him again. And that was the way I’d wanted things to be. After all, I couldn’t let him know about my daughter. Our daughter. I couldn’t help my feelings for him, though. I’d always been drawn to him. But he had never wanted children. I had to respect that. But he wasn’t the same man I’d met in Kuwait, and I wasn’t the same woman either. I knew sooner or later he would find out my secret and sh*t would hit the fan.