Book picks similar to
The Unlucky Ones by Stacey Marie Brown


new-adult
romance
contemporary-romance
contemporary

Date Me Like You Mean It


R.S. Grey - 2020
    That’s child’s play. Here’s how I do it: I avert my eyes when he walks out of his room, shirtless in all his toned glory. I squash the butterflies that fill my stomach every time he slowly unfurls a dimpled smile. And, most importantly, I keep an arsenal of “personal massagers” in my bedside drawer. Wink. Not to brag, but Aiden Smith isn’t hard to resist if you’ve been doing it for as long as I have. In fact, we might have continued as best friends forever if not for the fact that I needed him to play the part of my fake boyfriend.Date me like you mean it, I told him. Nudge nudge. C’mon, just go along with a little lie, help a girl out, and then we can all return to life as we know it.Except he veered from the plan.He crossed the line.Flirting with me when no one else was around? Pinning me down and kissing me like that? Okay, how exactly is taking off my bra part of the ruse, Aiden?!I’d ask him about it if I could, but well…things got ugly and we’re not best friends anymore.In fact, we’re the exact opposite. Now, I have to play nice even though I want to crush his heart in the palm of my hand. Pretending not to love Aiden was the easy part.Pretending not to hate him?Well…I might need a little more practice.

Destroyed


Pepper Winters - 2014
    Not broken or ruined or running from a past I can’t face. Just complicated. I thought my life couldn’t get any more tangled in deceit and confusion. But I hadn’t met him. I hadn't realized how far I could fall or what I'd do to get free. He has a secret.I’ve never pretended to be good or deserving. I chase who I want, do what I want, act how I want.I didn’t have time to lust after a woman I had no right to lust after. I told myself to shut up and stay hidden. But then she tried to run. I’d tasted what she could offer me and damned if I would let her go.One secret destroys them.

Lead Me Not


A. Meredith Walters - 2014
    She knows what rock bottom looks like, and she is determined to crawl back up to the top after the sudden death of her younger sister. She blames herself for her part in the tragedy, convinced that she could have done something, anything, to help her.In her effort to gain redemption, Aubrey starts fresh at Longwood University and facilitates an addiction support group, hoping she can support someone else in the way she failed her sister. But what she doesn’t count on is an all-consuming fascination with group member Maxx Demelo, a gorgeous, blond, blue-eyed enigma who hides dark secrets behind a carefully constructed mask. He only reveals what he wants others to see. But Aubrey glimpses another Maxx hidden below the surface—a Maxx who is drowning in his own personal hell.As Aubrey and Maxx develop an attraction too intense to ignore, he pulls her into the dark underbelly of the city club scene, where she is torn by her desire to save him and an inexplicable urge to join him in his downward spiral. Worst of all, she is beginning to love everything she should run away from—a man who threatens to ignite in her a fire that could burn her alive…

The Hate Vow


Nicole French - 2019
    Looks like millions. Worth billions. A body like the David with a mind to match. Unfortunately for this wayward heir, to keep his money, he needs a wife. And of all the women in the world, he chooses me. Too bad I’ve hated him for five years, since he took all my tears and tossed me away. The guy slept his way through half of New England and discarded women like hotel toiletries. Been there. Done that. Still...what would you do for twenty million dollars? Would you wear the dress? Fake a smile for the man who broke your heart? Or would you run far, far away? Yeah, that’s what I thought. I’ll see you at the church.

A Really Bad Idea


Jeannine Colette - 2019
    Mine just happens to be Dr. Christian Gallagher— the gorgeous, green-eyed heart surgeon who wants to have a baby with me. Yes, you read that correctly. When my mother approached me on my thirty-third birthday with a brochure for egg freezing, it was a glaring reminder that my biological clock is ticking toward its expiration date. I’ve always dreamed of being a mom and had a plan — one that was destroyed when I caught my professional hockey player husband in bed with another woman. Despite my broken heart I still believe in love. I want the happily ever after, but I also want a child desperately and won't settle in order to make it happen. That’s why when I decided to take my mother’s advice, Christian came up with his own plan: Let’s have a baby together. It’s a bad idea. A really, really bad idea. And yet...I can’t stop thinking about how great it could be. There’s just one condition. Before we have sex (oh, yes, we’re doing this the old fashioned way!) Christian is adamant we go on three dates. Sounds easy, but it's not.I thought sex would be the hard part, but the dates are only making me fall for the man I’ve known almost my entire life. Whoever said sex doesn't change things never went to bed with their best friend.

The Way We Fall


Cassia Leo - 2015
    Maybe we shouldn’t have fallen so fast and so willingly.Maybe we shouldn’t have moved in together before we went on our first date.Maybe we should have given our wounds time to heal before we tore each other to shreds.Maybe we should have never been together.Houston has kept a devastating secret from Rory since the day he took her into his home. But the tragic circumstances that brought them together left wounds too deep to heal.Five years after the breakup, Houston and Rory are thrust together by forces beyond their control. And all the resentments and passion return with more intensity than ever.Once again, Houston is left with a choice between the truth and the only girl he’s ever loved.The Way We Fall is the first book in The Story of Us series, which follows the tumultuous love story of Rory and Houston. The sequel, The Way We Break, will be released Spring 2015.

Dare Me


Rebecca Shea - 2016
    Behind his crystal blue eyes is a secret, one that screams danger but calls to me anyway.My name is Saige Phillips.I never walk away from a dare.

Filthy Little Pretties


Trilina Pucci - 2020
    Liam Brooks is a charmer with puppy dog eyes you can’t say “no” to.They’re the kind of guys that make time stand still when they walk by. And when their childhood best friend, Donovan Kennedy, comes back to New York, friendships get tested. Choices are made they can’t take back. And one boy gets a taste of what it’s like to want someone so bad that you’d burn down the city to have her. “Trilina delivers an addictive high school romance high on angst and drama and a book that is total sexy perfection. Prepare to be twisted into delicious knots! I loved it!”--Siobhan Davis, USA Today bestselling authorDonovan Kennedy is the girl dreams are made of. Five years ago, she was our best friend. Our moral compass. The girl that held our hands everywhere we went. We were young. Innocent. Nothing could touch us — not even heartache. That was then. Now she’s back. All grown up. With red lips and long legs — a challenge waiting to be accepted. A prize that’ll turn our world upside down. Brothers turned to enemies. Friendships decimated. Lies told.Hearts torn apart. Prep school’s never been so scandalous.USA Today Bestselling author, Trilina Pucci, brings you an addictive, sexy friends-to-lovers high school romance packed with off-the-chart chemistry, competition, and raw emotional angst.

Forever Innocent


Deanna Roy - 2013
    On what should have been one of the happiest nights of her life, she and her boyfriend Gavin watched a nurse disconnect the ventilator from their seven-day-old baby. During the funeral two days later, Gavin walked out and never returned.Since then, her life has been a spiral of disasters. The only thing that has helped is her ability to black out whenever the pain gets too hard to bear, a habit that has become an addiction.When Gavin shows up in her astronomy class four years later, he is hell-bent on getting her back, insisting she forgive him. Corabelle knows she can’t resist the touch that fills the empty ache that has haunted her since he left. But if he learns what she has done, if he follows the trail back through her past, her secrets will destroy their love completely. And once again, she’ll lose the only person who always believed she was innocent.New Adult Contemporary Romance

One to Hold


Tia Louise - 2013
    Melissa Jones is a small-town girl trying to escape her troubled past. When the two intersect in a bar in Arizona, their sexual chemistry is off the charts. But what is revealed during their "one week stand" only complicates matters. Because she'll do everything in her power to get away from the past, but he'll do everything he can to hold her. Adult Contemporary Romance: Due to strong language and sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18. (M/F)

Sweet Sinful Nights


Lauren Blakely - 2015
    It’s his greatest regret, especially since she’s all but disappeared. But when the gorgeous and captivating woman walks into his life unexpectedly, he’s determined to win her back. Whatever it takes, he won’t make the same mistake twice. Easier said than done… Shannon Paige has hardened her heart to the man she was once engaged to be married to. After the way he left, and after the hell she’s been through with her checkered family, there’s no way she’s letting him into her life again. The problem is, the second she sees him, he’s more handsome and charming than before. And she’s torn between wanting to fight with him and wanting to sleep with him -- Maybe both. Soon they fall into each other’s arms, consumed with a desire that burns through the years. But if these two fiery lovers are going to have a real second chance at this kind of intense, passionate, bone-deep love, he’ll have to give her his whole heart, and she’ll have to give up all the secrets from her messy past. And that messy past is about to spill over into her carefully constructed present… SWEET SINFUL NIGHTS is book one in SINFUL NIGHTS, a four-book series. Each book will follow a new couple.