Embracing the Change by Kristen Ashley
Gorgeous New York socialite, Nora Ellington has been waiting a very long time for her happily ever after.
So long, she’s given up on it and has decided, even though she’s the plus-one friend without benefits to a man she’s head over heels in love with, an HEA will forever be out of her reach.
Handsome billionaire Jamie Oakley thought he’d had two happily ever afters in his life. However, neither lasted long, and both ended in tragedy. He’s not about to try it again or put his children through the trauma Jamie has learned from experience undoubtedly will come their way.
And he’s made this decision even if the woman who’s become his constant companion is a woman he loves straight to his soul….and wants with everything that is him.
But then, one night, Jamie loses control and kisses Nora.
He can’t go there.
She can’t go on without it.
They’ll never be the same.
Or will they?
King by Sawyer Bennett
I love being a member of the Pittsburgh Titans, even if my teammates are constantly ribbing me about women who they claim are throwing themselves all over me. Could I go for the easy lay? Sure, but that’s not my style. I’m more of long-term kind of guy. Instead, I’m going to keep doing what I do best—killing it out on the ice. Everything else will fall into place…eventually.
That time comes sooner than expected, in the most unlikely of ways. At the rink to watch our goalie’s kids play Peewee hockey, I meet Willa Montreaux and somehow, by the end of that interaction, I’ve offered to help her coach the Ice Pups. Altruism or were there other intentions in that offer? A little of both, if I’m being honest.
As the time I spend with Willa increases, I am absolutely certain I want even more. She’s gorgeous, sure, but that’s superficial. Willa is also funny, loving, determined and smart. SO smart. Doctor smart. Probably too intelligent for a jock like me, but that’s not going to stop me from shooting my shot.
Not looking for anything more than a fling and concerned that she’s too old for me, Willa doesn’t want to venture into anything serious. I’m willing to put in the work and give her the space she needs to come to terms with the fact that the connection we have is far more than physical. Willa and I are end game, but I’m willing to play into overtime if that’s what it takes to walk away with her by my side.
Fire Line by Maggie Gates
LENNON:
Rule number one: Committing crimes is not a group project.
Rule number two: Don’t start fights. Finish them.
Rule number three: Don’t try to hustle a hustler.
I should have walked away. I should have ignored that sweet-talking cowboy.
Good things don’t happen to people like me. Good people stay away from people like me.
But that cowboy wouldn’t leave me alone.
He should have known better. After all, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Carson James:
Rule number one: When you’re holding a grudge, don’t think about how attractive the object of your hatred is.
Rule number two: When you do think about how attractive she is, ignore it. It’ll go away. Probably.
Rule number three: When you’re stealing a car, it helps to have the keys.
That girl was trouble. I knew it from the moment I laid eyes on her bruised knuckles in the bar.
The last thing I expected was for her to show up on the ranch and bring that trouble to my front door.
I always liked playing with fire, but apparently, so did she. Only time will tell which one of us is going to get burned.
Fire Line is the final book in the Griffith Brothers series. Get ready for a romance jam-packed with lust, heat, and danger.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune
A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.
Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.
He’s the headmaster of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.
Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there’s the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.
But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.
And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.
Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.
Passing Ships by Amber Kelly
Excited to return to Sandcastle Cove as maid of honor for my best friend Avie’s wedding, I’m ready for sun, surf, and celebration. That is until I learn I’ll be sharing a beach cabana with the sexy-as-sin but uptight Naval officer, Lennon Harraway—the groom’s older brother and best man.
With his strict, by-the-book personality, Lennon and I are complete opposites. He likes to play by the rules, and I like to break them all. Sparks fly, and tensions rise, but as the days unfold, so does an undeniable attraction.
Caught between fiery clashes and off-the-chart chemistry, we must navigate our differences and work together to ensure the wedding goes off without a hitch while discovering opposites really do attract.
*This is the third book in the Sandcastle Cove series.
Temptation Trails by Claire Kingsley
He’s hunting a killer so she won’t be next.
Single dad Garrett Haven doesn’t have time for dating. With a teenage son and a high-stakes job in law enforcement, he has enough on his plate.
Besides, he risked his heart once. He has no intention of doing it again.
Until he meets her.
Harper Tilburn brought her passion for baking to the small town of Tilikum to take over her aunt’s bakery. Anything else will have to wait, at least until her bad luck curse runs out.
Her dating hiatus is essential, and she’s sticking to it.
Until she meets him.
The sparks that fly between Garrett and Harper are instantaneous—their attraction undeniable. And suddenly, the practical, responsible sheriff’s deputy is throwing caution to the wind, boldly pursuing Harper, determined to make her his.
But when the cold case Garrett is investigating takes a chilling turn, he fears the perpetrator will strike again—and Harper will be his target.
With his career—and his life—on the line, he’ll sacrifice everything to protect the people he loves, and catch a killer before it’s too late.
Author’s note: a buttoned-up sheriff’s deputy gets thoroughly unbuttoned by a sweet as sugar baker. A hero who falls hard and fast, a heroine you’ll root for, a teenage son who will steal your heart, page turning suspense with a shocking twist, and heartwarming found family vibes with a big HEA.
Still of the Night by Donna Grant
Forest child they call me. It is within the woods that I find solace and feel the magic of my ancestors. For I am a Druid. One who can trace her roots from the very first to call the Isle of Skye home.
The isle draws many to its magical shores. It drew him. Imposing, bold, and handsome. We fell hard and fast that summer. Then he left with the tide to the city.
I learned to live with the cracks and fissures on my pieced-together heart, the scars only I can feel.
Until the day he walks back into my life asking for a second chance. I yearn to give it to him. How can I not? He’s the only one I’ve ever loved.
The only one I will ever love.
But there is a darkness growing on the isle—a treacherous evil that has targeted him. I’ve lost him once.
I won’t lose him again.
The One I Didn’t See Coming by Piper Rayne
It’s the classic story—girl returns to her hometown only to end up moving in with her high school crush, who she hates.
Returning to Willowbrook was my only option after Chicago chewed me up and spit me out. Technically, it wasn’t Chicago’s fault. It was his fault—the man I thought I knew who turned out to be a liar.
My older sister, always the one to swoop in and fix things, secured me a job as a yoga instructor on her fiancé’s family ranch. As my self-assigned protector, she’s keeping one eye on me and one eye on Emmett Noughton, her fiancé’s brother.
He’s the charming, fun-loving, take-life-as-it-comes kind of guy, and once upon a time, his name was scribbled in my notebooks. Back then, I was invisible to him. Now, he’s looking at me like I’m the only thing in the room. But he lost his chance with me a long time ago.
It’s easy to keep him at arm’s length and nurse the grudge I’ve held onto for years. Until the house I’m staying in sells, and I have nowhere to go except his house. Now, resisting him isn’t just difficult—it’s impossible.
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.
Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.
How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.”
Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.
A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.
If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?
Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.
Sterling Clay by L.B. Dunbar
Love doesn’t break us; it makes us whole, my nana used to say.
However, one minute, my world is set on fire, literally. The next, I am raising a six-year-old as a single mom without a clear path ahead of us. No place to live. No job. No money.
I’m returning to Sterling Falls to claim what’s mine, then there will be no looking back on this beloved small town, a place I consider a handful of sand in the hourglass of my life.
Then again, Clay Sylver has shaken up that ancient time clock. The silver fox in his forties is a bit cocky, but solid in every way that matters. He loves his siblings. He works hard. He owns an honest business. Honest, the emphasis here. He also suffers from damsel-in-distress syndrome with a savior complex for lost causes, like stray animals and down-and-out women.
And I have a secret crush on him.
When I see Clay stranded on the side of the road one dark, stormy night, I stop to offer assistance. Burning with fever, Clay is sick, and my mom-instincts kick in to give him comfort. That decision throws me off course again. While my past lurks everywhere, I find myself falling in love with Sterling Falls once more and falling harder for the man giving my son and me a safe haven.
Love is a risk, according to Clay, but he’s slowly rescuing my heart while I’m saving his.
The Royals Upstairs by Karina Halle
He’s the royal bodyguard. She’s the royal nanny. The annoyingly hot attraction that simmers between them—that’s a royal pain.
James Hunter has made a tactical error. His new role as protection officer to Prince Magnus of Norway was supposed to be an exciting change. Instead he’s marooned on a royal estate in the middle of nowhere charged with chasing after demon children and dodging the machinations of meddling staff. And the crowning jewel in this little drama—the children’s nanny is none other than Laila Bruset. The woman whose heart he broke. The woman who still holds his.
When Laila took the job as a nanny for the Norwegian royal children in order to be closer to her ailing grandmother in Oslo, the last thing she expected was to have her life turned upside down—again. But as much as James gets on her nerves, he’s also getting under her skin, and the tension between them sizzles just as devastatingly as before.
As undeniable sparks turn James and Laila’s battle royal into a more serious game of hearts, nanny and bodyguard will have to decide just how much they’re willing to risk for a second chance at love.
The Heartbreaker by Marni Mann
Captivated.
Addicted.
Mesmerized.
All the things I felt the minute I saw Addison Lark.
The last thing I’d expected was to fall in love at a strip club.
But Addison was the woman of my dreams.
It didn’t matter that I spent an obscene amount of money just to talk to her.
The fiery redhead made me feel things I’d never felt before.
But she didn’t want anything to do with me.
And she left without a backward glance.
Making me crave her even more.
Imagine my shock when we unexpectedly met again, presenting the most unexpected problem—Addison Lark was forbidden.
But did that stop me?
Did that stop us?
I’d made a promise to start living my life, and I wasn’t going to let that woman walk away for a second time.
Face Off with the Captain by R.C. Stephens
I accidentally hooked up with the captain of the hockey team…
In my defense, it was before I landed the social media internship—and learned about the strict no fraternization policy.
Not that it matters. I’m pretty sure he hates me after I took off and left him sleeping on the beach.
I’m forced to work closely with the angry captain and all I can think about is the steamy night we spent together. And how it can’t happen again, because if word gets out it could cost us both everything.
Keeping my distance is harder than I thought when my dorm floods and my temporary housing is— you guessed it. The hockey house.
Being under the same roof, I see Finn in a whole new light.
He’s not just the cocky jock I pegged him as.
He’s so much more, and it pushes the boundaries of our frenemies-with-benefits situationship.
Now I’m not just facing off with the captain… I’m falling head over heels for him.
Delayed Penalty by Teagan Hunter
I have two goals this season:
1. Prove to the Seattle Serpents I’m not a complete screwup.
2. Stay away from the nanny.
I’m hardly able to keep myself out of trouble, let alone a seven-year-old, but when my estranged brother gets a life sentence, I have no choice but to clean up my act and take the kid in.
It’s all going according to plan…until I’m forced to hire Quinn Benson.
She’s everything I need to avoid—flighty, messy, creating chaos everywhere she goes. But she makes my niece happy, so I hire her anyway, keeping our interactions as brief as possible, even when she moves in with me.
Thing is, the more she’s around, the more I want her around—and not just as a nanny. I can’t seem to stop falling into bed with her even when I know I shouldn’t. Quinn goes against everything I’m trying to accomplish, but I can’t stay away.
This might be one delayed penalty I don’t mind serving…
DELAYED PENALTY is a standalone hockey romance novel. There’s a single guardian a bit on the grumpy side, a sunshine nanny who doesn’t take any crap from him, an adorable little girl you’ll want to hug and keep safe, ridiculous teammates who make way too crude jokes, plenty of steam, and a happy ending.
In the Details by Julia Wolf
Two strangers at a beat down biker bar. A hot night twisted up in the sheets. Absolutely no strings attached.
My life is too complicated for more than that. Besides, what would I do with a possessive, demanding, sexy as hell motorcycle man? Especially one who’s younger than me.
As an executive with a demanding career and single mom to a three-year-old little girl, my life is planned down to the minute, but everyone knows what they say about the best laid plans…
When Jake Hayes walks into Rossi Motors looking for a partnership between our two companies, I’m lost for words. It turns out, my motorcycle man looks just as good wearing a finely tailored suit as he does straddling a bike in his leathers.
Now that he’s found me, he wants more hot, steamy nights with me. He’s persistent and I’m…tempted.
I try to keep him at arm’s length, but he slowly draws me in with his searing kisses and lighthearted teasing. It doesn’t hurt that he’s sweet and gentle with my little girl either. But then, he has plenty of experience with kids since he has a daughter of his own.
Jake wants me and all the baggage I come with. I want him too, but my heart’s been too battered to give it away easily.
If I don’t choose, Jake just might take matters into his own hands and steal it anyway.
Tropes:
*Single dad AND Single mom
*Billionaire (Her)
*One night stand
*Curvy Heroine
*Workplace
