Smoke Bomb by Abbi Glines
Huck
Two places I never thought I’d be: a church and my little brother’s funeral.
I was the one who was supposed to die first. Not Hayes.
He hadn’t chosen my path. I took lives but Hayes had wanted to save souls.
Yet here I was drinking from a flask, around people that fucking hated me, unable to take my eyes off the fiancé he’d left behind. My brother may have wanted to be a minister but he’d been going to marry a woman with the body of a porn star.
Trinity
It had taken me a while but I’d finally gotten on my feet after my fiancé’s unexpected death. The first day on my new house cleaning job where I would make enough money to pay for college ended with a gag in my mouth, my hands tied behind my back and a gun to my head. Lucky for me I was taken alive while the rest of the household was shot and killed. My savior? My fiancé’s older brother happened to be one of the men who’d murdered my new employer.
I’m now stuck in a house with three men who refuse to let me leave until it’s safe. Huck hates me because he believes I lied to his brother. He humiliates me every chance he gets. But his cruelty doesn’t affect me. I was beaten down long before I met Huck Kingston.
It’s when I’m forced to pretend I belong to Huck in order to stay safe inside his world that the darkness in my soul finds an outlet I didn’t know I needed.
Accidentally in Love by Claudia Burgoa
It all started on a dating app and a fake name.
Instead of a hot hook-up, I end up face-to-face with Kingston St. James.
He’s one of the most striking and wealthy men in Seattle—as well as my brother’s best friend.
Logic dictates I walk away, but curiosity wins and we follow Myka’s Easy Rules for Healthy Hookups:
Rule #1: Don’t expect anything.
Rule #2: Never wish for more.
Rule #3: Don’t swoon.
Rule #4: Don’t give endearing nicknames to your hookup.
Rule #5: Don’t be possessive, your hookup doesn’t belong to you.
Confession time: I’m making up the rules as we go.
And surprise, surprise, this casual fling rapidly evolves into a friend-with-pretty-weird-benefits (and not the sexy kind).
Kingston is suddenly breaking the hookup rules. He’s all charm and affection, turning possessive and… probably hoping for more than just a fling.
We accidentally find ourselves tangled in something more than just a fling. It’s something dangerously close to love.
We might be heading into a collision where the most beautiful accident or the most disastrous end might happen.
Perfect Together by Kristen Ashley
Wyn and Remy Gastineau were perfect together…Until, without warning, Remy walks out on their life, their love and their marriage.
Wyn is blindsided and heartbroken. It takes her years to get over the loss of Remy.
Sometime later, their children call a family meeting and Remy is acting strange. Wyn refuses to hope. Remy has moved on. She must do the same.
But she’s wrong.
Remy wants her back and he’s pulling no punches. He’s determined to do the work to piece together the marriage he shattered. Forced by circumstances to tell Wyn things he never wanted her to know, Remy reveals his tragic secrets.
As the family reels from pain long buried now laid bare, Wyn realizes instead of letting go, she has to hold tight to the man and the family they made that’s perfect together.
How to Honeymoon Alone by Olivia Hayle
A paradise island. Two strangers. The attraction they never saw coming…
When Eden dumped her cheating ex before the wedding, the last thing she expected was to go on their tropical honeymoon alone. But with no refunds possible, she packs her budget guidebook and broken heart, and sets off.
She plans to relax on the beach, swim in the ocean, and drink cocktails until she feels like herself again… or falls over. Whichever comes first. What she’s not expecting is the brusque, handsome stranger who sits down at her table on the first night.
Philip Meyer is a grumpy workaholic, and so irritatingly cynical that it makes her forget she’s grieving just to prove him wrong about the world. The two have nothing in common… except trying to forget who they’ve left behind.
The luxury resort isn’t too big, and fate soon pushes them together again. And again. Catamaran cruises and midnight swims give way to late night room service and whispered nothings. Maybe opposites really do attract.
But every vacation has to end, even the very best ones… Can these two opposites make it last?
This steamy romantic comedy is the perfect summer read! Great for fans of The Love Hypothesis or Beach Read, it involves a feisty heroine and the grumpy hero who reluctantly (but inevitably) falls for her charms…
A Love Catastrophe by Helena Hunting
Kitty Hart has become internet famous as the Kitty Whisperer for her expertise on all things feline, and as a result, her cat-sitting business is booming. But lately, she has a terrible feeling that maybe her life isn’t quite going where it’s supposed to—especially after falling face-first into her newest client. Not exactly the best first impression.
Fortunately, Miles Thorn is just as bad at first impressions. Strike one: he doesn’t like cats, especially Prince Francis, the haughty and mischievous Sphynx his mom left in his care. Strike two: tackling Kitty to the floor in a misguided attempt to save the pet he continually calls “the gremlin.”
As awkwardness slides into attraction and things start to turn purr-sonal, will these two complete opposites ever be able to find their furry-tail ending?
Dragon Arisen by Donna Grant
Handsome. Commanding. Powerful. Alasdair isn’t a Dragon King to sit and wait. His carefully laid plans dissolve when he comes upon an enchanting woman. Lotti’s beauty beguiles him, her spirit intrigues him. The longer he’s with her, the more mysteries he uncovers. And the more his passion grows. He never expects she will lead him into the heart of Stonemore —while ensnaring his at the same time. With their enemies closing in, Alasdair will do anything to protect the woman he’s destined to love.
If there’s one thing Lotti knows, it’s that she’s a danger to others. She keeps her distance. Always. But all that changes when she lands in a difficult situation…with a gorgeous, seductive man. Every choice somehow leads her straight back to Alasdair. She can’t ignore his sexual magnetism or the undeniable desire between them. Their journey unravels everything she knew about herself to reveal a carefully constructed fallacy. Yet, she discovers an inner strength she didn’t know she had. But is her yearning for Alasdair worth the risk for them both?
Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Rival physicists collide in a vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this delightfully STEMinist romcom from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain.
The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.
Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and arrogant older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he’s the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing right between Elsie and her dream job.
Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?
The Sweetheart List by Jill Shalvis
What makes life sweet?
- Freshly baked bread
- A cool lake on a hot summer day
- The comfort of a cozy bookstore
- Second chances and new beginnings
When Harper Shaw’s life falls apart, she knows it’s time for a change. She removes everything that doesn’t spark joy—from her soul-sucking job to eating kale to making lists—and sets off for the last place she was happy, Lake Tahoe (who wouldn’t feel good there, right?) to fulfill her dream of opening her own bakery.
With her Sugar Pine Bakery in between a tavern, owned by sexy, grumpy Bodie Campbell, and a bookstore, run by her new BFF, she feels a peace she’s never experienced since…well, forever.. Then she meets Ivy, a teenage runaway, who barrels into her heart. She sees a lot of herself in Ivy and takes her under her wing, but the teenager has secrets…
When those secrets explode, it changes Harper’s new world, and she’ll learn, it’s never too late to start over, it’s never too late to figure out your life, and best of all, it’s never too late to let yourself believe in love.
Crimson River by Devney Perry (Live 6.15)
A small town, romantic suspense story from Wall Street Journal,USA Today and #1 Amazon bestselling author, Devney Perry.
Lyla Eden has spent the last few years watching her siblings fall in love. Meanwhile, she’s married to her job. It’s on her hundredth consecutive workday that her sister stages an intervention, kicking Lyla out of her own coffee shop. With nothing else to do, Lyla sets out on her favorite hiking trail.
It’s there that she spots a man washing blood from his hands in a stream. One moment she’s staring at the jagged scar on his face. The next, his hand is around her throat. But by some miracle, he lets her go.
Shaken to her core, Lyla reports the incident to the local police. Two days later, Vance Sutter arrives in town, armed with endless questions and a tarnished badge.
Vance may be ruggedly handsome but he’s as mysterious as the man he’s hunting. And he’ll be gone from Quincy in a blink. Yet Lyla’s crush is impossible to stop.
No matter how hard Vance tries to ignore it, there’s no denying the chemistry between them. And avoiding Lyla is not an option. After years of chasing dead ends, she’s his only lead to closing the case that haunts his career. So together, they’ll retrace her steps.
To find the scarred man she met beside a crimson river.
