Book picks similar to
Simply Complicated by S. Nelson


romance
contemporary
sports-romance
second-chance

More Than the Game


Jenni Bara - 2021
    The last thing Beth needs is Twitter’s favorite bad boy–Marc Demoda–walking into her life to stir things up.Marc lives for the three b’s; baseball, bars, and ball bunnies, until the unthinkable happened. An accident destroys his shoulder and his career, leaving him desperate to get back in the game. Too bad no one hires notorious bad boys to coach. With his reputation on life support, Marc finds his saving grace might be the feisty blonde he can’t get out of his head.When pictures of Beth and Marc’s chance encounter blow up on Twitter, they strike a deal to avoid further scandals and fix their image. But even in the harsh public spotlight, their fake relationship begins to feel real. Beth's growing feelings for Marc have her questioning if she can permanently handle the limelight, just as Marc wonders if Beth might mean more than the game.

Until Kelly


Vera Quinn - 2021
    How long before my past catches up to me and destroys us all?TraskHow much do you really need to know about someone before you fall in love with them?Can there really be love at first sight?I didn’t believe in it and I didn’t believe in love at all.No one was going to convince Trask Stillman that I would fall for a woman without even knowing her name.I know she has secrets she’s running from.I see the shadows in her eyes but none of it matters to me.I want to take the shadows away.I want something I thought I would never have, Until Kelly

Tight Spot


Lisa Suzanne - 2022
    I want nothing to do with the ones who play on the same team as my brothers, and I certainly avoid the ones who spend more time in strip clubs than kids’ clubs.So why do I suddenly find myself faking a relationship with Ben Olson, the bad boy tight end who fits every descriptor on my naughty list?He’s in a tight spot, and I’m intrigued by the illicit under the dinner table action that proved to me he’s nothing but trouble. He’s hot and I’m bored. He doesn’t do relationships, and I’m just looking for some fun.Except fun is taking a quick turn into real feelings, and now I’m in a tight spot of my own.

Morgue to Love


Megan Montgomery - 2021
    Smythe is the youngest, Medical Examiner in Nashville, Tennessee, only I didn't know it last night when she was between my legs and just Soula.This morning, we meet again as our careers cross paths and if I wasn't concentrating on not spilling my guts from the nasty fumes of this D.O.A., it'd be awkward as hell.Our eyes meet over the autopsy table......ahem......cough......the autopsy table absolutely covered in melted, gooey human remains that are long past recognizable...I open my mouth to speak. The name, Soula, is right there on my tongue. Unfortunately, so is the stench (and taste) of putrescine. When I wake up on a scratchy, tweed couch with a pounding headache, Soula's handing me something steamy in a Dolly Parton mug. She's just as beautiful in her light green scrubs as she was naked in my bed last night, but her expression is clear—she wants nothing more to do with me.But I want everything to do with her.

Twisted Bargain


Alexandria Bishop - 2021
    Between his drug and gambling addictions, it seems like whatever I do, we’re always drowning. Until he does the unforgivable.Trading me to the tortured billionaire in our small town. His debts are erased and I have to do whatever Marco Blackstone demands. I should have run screaming when the first task he gave me was to clean the blood stains from his expensive five piece suit.When I overhear a conversation I shouldn’t, our bargain becomes even more twisted when Marco fakes an engagement to save my life. And I become even more trapped in this world I never wanted any part of.I don’t know who I can trust. But I’m running out of time when my fake engagement turns into anything but and I just might have to say “I Do,” for real.

No Strings Attached


Lara Ward Cosio - 2021
    Especially not random guys in my local coffee shop. I mean, I’m a single working mom, completely devoted to my four-year-old daughter. This so isn’t me. It’s just that his backside is … phenomenal.Turns out his name is Tanner and he’s been watching me right back. Not at the coffee shop, but from his construction site across the street from my apartment. After a couple of flirty encounters, our mutual attraction leads to a no strings attached bargain based purely on convenience and pleasure. This arrangement is totally uncharacteristic for me, but it’s also perfect. Or so I tell myself. Before long, we’re spending time with each other that has nothing to do with our agreement and things between us start to feel all too real. When my swoony, completely unreliable, rock star ex comes back into town begging for a chance to reunite our family, things get … complicated. Suddenly, Tanner is jealous and I’m trying to figure out where I stand and what I want, torn between what makes me happy and what’s best for my daughter. No Strings Attached is a steamy stand-alone romance with a guaranteed HEA by the author of Hula Girl.★ Author's Note: No Strings Attached is based on a previously published short story titled One More Try. The main premise is the same, but there's a whole lot more romance and story to be had with No Strings Attached!

Ignited By Him


Kylie Kent - 2021
    The one I’ve both loved and lusted after from the sidelines.For years, I’ve kept myself distracted with work, turning my family’s company into an empire. And, more importantly, I’ve kept my distance. It’s best for everyone.But when she walks into my club and tries to cheat me out of money, all bets are off.One way or another, she’s going to pay back what she’s stolen.Although, it won’t be in the form of cash.BreannaI love winning, even if I have to cheat to get to the finish line. I knew better than to come to this club to play.I knew he’d more than likely find out I was here.What I didn’t expect was to see him up-close. I’ve hardly seen him over the last few years.I wanted him to notice me. To see that I wasn’t a little girl anymore.And that was my mistake, because he did more than notice.There is no going back now.That flame we’ve both been dousing in denial has just been ignited.Can I really play with fire without getting burned? Or will everything around me turn to ash?

The Savage Gentleman


Christopher Harlan - 2019
    I’m the best MMA fighter in the world that you’ve never heard of, but if I have my way, I’ll be a household name soon enough. My life’s been nothing but hard training, crazy partying, and fast women, and that’s just how I liked it. No man had ever gotten the better of me inside the cage, and no woman had ever been able to slow down my lifestyle outside of it. And then it all came crashing down. When I tasted defeat for the first time in the biggest fight of my life, I was a broken man—my pride destroyed and my dreams of greatness deferred. That’s when Mila walked into my gym. When my trainer told me I had to giver her self defense lessons because she was a ‘special case’, I had no idea what he meant. All I knew was that she had a body to die for, and a face that made me forget my own name. I’d been with my share of women, but she was easily the sexiest I’d ever laid eyes on.There was only one problem—we hated each other with a passion!I thought she was whiny with a bad attitude.. She thought I was full of myself. But then something happened that changed everything between us. She gave me the confidence to pursue my dreams once again—to be a champion, to make it into the UFC, to be the savage gentleman that I was born to be.

Penalty Kiss


Annie Dyer - 2021
    Problems that could score her an own goal.She’s meant to be my penalty, but will she let me be her kiss instead?Penalty Kiss is the first standalone in the Manchester Athletic series. Meet the team in this grumpy/sunshine, enemies-to-lovers, bad boy athlete romance.

Detour


A. Marie - 2020
    Angela Head down, eyes peeled for any opportunity to get off the dead-end course my mother carelessly paved for me years ago.My plan takes a sharp turn landing me directly across the hall from Creekwood’s resident bad boys. The three streetbike riding misfits are as stubborn as they are sexy. And they. Are. Sexy. Especially the one with the mocha swirl eyes watching my every move.But even the six-foot hallway separating us can’t keep the overbearing trio from constantly getting in my way.When my past threatens to catch up with me, I quickly learn not every detour promises an easier route, no matter how tempting my new neighbors might make it look. Coty Head up, eyes locked on anything threatening to throw me off the carefully constructed path I have mapped out.I live my life the same way I ride my bike, never once regretting the roads I’ve chosen.Lately though, after years of the same scenery, everything’s starting to blur together. It’s only when our elusive neighbor girl comes out of nowhere that I realize what’s been missing.And now that I have, I don’t think I can let her pass by so quickly. At least not without proving the lengths I’ll go for her first.

My Blue


Emery Jacobs - 2019
    My best friend. My whole world. Then she vanished. Without a trace. I didn’t know how to move on without her, but I knew in my heart I’d never let her go—I’d wait for her forever.Ella Blue For me, no time has passed. I have no clue what happened to the last eight years of my life. I have no memories of a life without Leo. He’s always been my one constant. And now I’m stuck in the past, trying to figure out if we can find our way back to each other. How can I move forward when I don’t know what I’m leaving behind?Ella and Leo must rediscover their love—a once-in-a-lifetime love…for the second time.

That Girl: The Montgomerys


Jennilynn Wyer - 2021
    He was that guy; NFL football quarterback and Mr. Popular. He told me he would never leave. He lied. Now he’s back. But I’m not that girl anymore.Aurora St. Claire is that girl. The one who excels at academics. The one from a broken home who lives on the bad side of town. The one with an alcoholic mother who couldn’t care less if she existed. The one with an abusive older sister who would give her bruises instead of hugs. The one who keeps to the shadows, trying not to be seen.Sometimes the best families are the ones you create, not the ones you are born into. Aurora never knows what a true family is like until she has one suddenly thrust upon her at the age of eighteen. It takes a single revelation from a stranger to change her life forever.Then, JD Hallstead comes barreling into her life. He is everything she never thought she wanted, but everything she craves. That is, until the day he destroys her and leaves her heart to burn to ashes in his wake. What is the adage? The flip side of love is hate. Well, her hate burns bright, and it has a name: Jackson Dillon Hallstead.JD Hallstead is that guy. The one who is Mr. Popular and Quarterback King of Highland High. The one voted class president and most likely to succeed. The one who girls go crazy over and guys want to be. The one with a controlling, abusive father who will go to any lengths to keep his son in check. The one with the secrets.Aurora is the girl JD has secretly crushed on for years. It takes a friend’s tragic death to bring Aurora and JD together. It takes JD’s secrets to tear them apart. Aurora tells JD everybody leaves. He promises her he never will.He lied.Now, JD will do anything, fight anyone, give up everything, to get Aurora back. Aurora said JD broke her heart. Who better than him to put it back together?But the thing about secrets is that they always come back to haunt you. The question is: How far will JD go to protect the woman he loves before those secrets destroy them all?Reader’s Warning: That Girl is an enemies-to-lovers, second chance romance with scorching heat that will melt your Kindle and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing what will happen next. It takes place after the conclusion of Broken Butterfly, Fallen Brook Series, Book 3. Even though the book can be read on its own, fans of the Fallen Brook Series will love seeing some of their favorite characters return! That Girl touches upon topics that may be triggering to some readers such as flashbacks to an attempted sexual assault, child neglect and abuse, and violence. The story also contains foul language and sex. Any sexual intimacy between the main characters is consensual. For these reasons, the book is recommended for readers aged 17+.

The Essence of You


J.A. Owenby - 2020
    But the darkness never stays neatly tucked away when I learn the reasons that dumped me in foster care.Will I lose the only man I’ve ever loved, or will my past ruin my future as well?An enemies-to-lovers standalone with an HEA and no cliffhanger.

Heartbreak Hitter


Kimberly Readnour - 2021
    I’m tasked with winning over the scorned fans.I thought my batting average would speak for itself.I was wrong.When my off-the-field actions collide with my on-the-field goals, I have no choice but to devise the persona of being a committed man.The task is impossible until I meet my neighbor, Hailey LaCroix. Goal-driven and refined, she’s the perfect woman to help pull off this ruse.I need a fake relationship. She needs an exclusive interview.The very ones I refuse to do.I didn’t earn the Heartbreak Hitter title by being a saint. There are reasons I keep my past a secret and stay single.But there’s more to Hailey LaCroix than her good looks and smoking hot curves. She’s pure and real. She makes me believe I have more to offer than swinging a bat.And the longer we stay together, the more I want to confess all of my secrets.The very ones that will destroy me.Heartbreak Hitter features Rick Bosley from the Cessna U Wildcat series and Hailey LaCroix from Park Avenue Player.

To Catch a Thief


Nana Malone - 2021
    you have to think like a thief. And Rian Beaumont was my mark. I’d start by stealing her kisses. But I already knew that wouldn’t be punishment enough. The only crime I committed was almost stealing her from my brother, and for that, I served my time. She thought she knew me, but she had it all wrong— I was nothing like my brother. To prove her wrong, I was going to steal her heart and make her mine. RianOliver Wexler might not have been the one that ruined my life five years ago, but he basically drove the getaway car. The only thing more dangerous than kissing the enemy... sleeping with the enemy. Good thing I had no intentions of doing either. But Ollie had a pesky habit of sticking his nose— and his lips--where they didn’t belong. Even though I’ve already learned my lessons about falling for a man like him. Because with a Wexler brother, it was never only your future on the line . . . but your heart too.