The Graham Effect by Elle Kennedy
Gigi Graham has exactly three goals: qualify for the women’s national hockey team, win Olympic gold, and step out of her famous father’s shadow. So far, so good, except for two little things. Fine–a little thing and a big, grumpy thing. She needs to improve her game behind the net, and she needs help from Luke Ryder.
Ryder is six-foot five, built, opinionated, rude…and sexy as hell. But he’s still the enemy.
Briar’s new hockey co-captain has his reasons, though. The men’s team just merged with a rival program, leaving Ryder with an angry roster where everyone hates one another’s guts. To make matters worse, the summer coaching spot he’s angling for with the legendary Garrett Graham is out of reach after he makes the worst possible first impression on his hero. So, really, this compromise with Gigi is win-win. He helps her make the national team, she puts in a good word
with her dad.
The only potential snag? This bone-deep, body-numbing, mind-spinning chemistry they’re trying to ignore. It’s a dangerous game they’re playing, but the risks just might be worth it.
Underground Kings Boxed Set by Aurora Rose Reynolds
Assumption
a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof
They say when you assume that you make an ass out of you and me. Kenton Mayson learned this lesson firsthand when he made assumptions about Autumn Freeman and the kind of woman she is based on what little information he had. What he finds out is she’s not only beautiful, but also smart, funny, a fighter, and exactly the kind of woman he wants to share his life with. Autumn made assumptions of her own about Kenton, and now he needs to prove her wrong in order to protect her and their future.
Obligation
An obligation is a course of action that someone is required to take, whether legal or moral.
At six years old, Myla was sent to a family her father and mother had chosen for her when they knew their time on earth was almost up. What they were unaware of was what they thought would be her safe haven would become her living hell.
Kai has been watching Myla from afar since he took over the family business from his father and inherited the responsibility of keeping her safe. When word gets back to Kai that Myla is not only in danger, but that his assets are being compromised, he immediately jumps into action and does the only thing that can be done at the time by marrying her.
Neither Myla nor Kai would have thought that something that started off as a farce would become the most important thing either of them could’ve ever done.
Distraction
The great intensity, novelty, or attractiveness of something other than the object of attention.
Sven is a man who takes pride in his ability to separate himself from his emotions. He’s a man who knows who he is and where he’s going in life, a man who needs no one, because needing someone, anyone, is a weakness.
His past taught him love isn’t enough.
Maggie wants the happily ever after, but has never picked the right men, or stuck around long enough, to build a forever. It’s always been easier to get out early, before emotions make things messy.
When Maggie wakes up naked in Sven’s bed, with no memory of the night before, these two must be honest about their feelings and face their fears, so they can build a future together.
Will love be enough for them to get their happy ending together, or will a threat from outside strike them down before they ever have a chance?
Infatuation
A feeling of foolish or obsessively strong love for, admiration for, or interest in someone or something; a strong and unreasoning attachment
From the moment Justin sees the beautiful blonde living in the apartment below his, he becomes curious, and over time, that curiosity turns into an obsession.
When the moment finally strikes for him to make a move, will he take it?
Flip Shot by MJ Fields
Theo
Returning from Texas after summer break, which I spent working, and training, I expected a temperature change. Hell, I welcomed the chill, but I didn’t expect to be completely frozen out by the only chick at Lincoln University who I thought about almost as much as I do hockey.
When I saw Riley Park for the first time, the universe shifted. Which sounds completely lame, but I take issues with liars; therefore, I refuse to be one.
I, Theo Rivera, was enchanted by her.
Was? Yeah. Because now… now I’m just pissed.
Riley
Theo Rivera is six-foot-four to my five-foot-two. The first boy who made my heart do The Biles II—a triple double on the floor for those unfamiliar. And just like every time I attempt to stick that landing… let’s just leave it at that.
Moving on…
My hockey era has come to an end, much earlier than I foolishly hoped it would. But I’m not a naïve freshman anymore with stars in her eyes over a *cough* HAF puck boy *cough*. Nope, I have written it down, a promise to Simone, and manifested it; therefore, it’s official.
I, Riley Park, am now a football fan.
You Beautiful Thing , You by Saffron A. Kent
Nineteen-year-old Tempest Jackson wants a baby.
No, her biological clock isn’t ticking, but she’s desperate for unconditional love. Rejected by all except her brother and soon to be married off by her father for financial gain, she aches for someone to hold close and call hers.
Enter Ledger Thorne. Soccer god, devastatingly handsome and her brother’s rival.
Once upon a time they had a thing. A beautiful thing. But while Tempest thought she was madly in love, Ledger was only using her for petty revenge.
So Tempest has a plan: seduce the sexy jerk who broke her heart, use him to get pregnant and then leave him in the dust like he left her, to marry a stranger.
Only the problem with making babies is that it doesn’t feel like revenge. It feels a lot like that thing they used to have: Hot and stormy, and intense and intimate.
But Tempest isn’t a fool. She’ll stick to the plan.
Because wasn’t it Ledger who turned their beautiful thing into something ugly?
Now it’s her turn…
NOTE: This is a STANDALONE set in the world of Bardstown, a St. Mary’s Rebels spin-off.
Christmas in Kentbury by Claudia Burgoa
From USA Today bestselling author Claudia Burgoa comes holiday single dad, best friends romance.
This book was previously released in 2018. It has been updated re-edited and some names have changed.
She was Mine First by M.Robinson
Being the man of honor in my best friend Livvy’s wedding wouldn’t be such a big deal…
If I wasn’t in love with her.
But I won’t turn her down. No matter how much it’ll tear my heart out to watch her walk down the aisle toward another man.
It should have been us—from friends to lovers and back again. But after college, I was so busy building my empire that I let her slip through my fingers. She was my first. And once she realizes he’s the wrong one for her…
I’ll be her last.
Best Friend Temptation by Carrie Ann Ryan
The Montgomery Ink Legacy series continues with a forbidden romance between two best friends and the woman they both crave. Ford, Noah, and Greer aren’t ready for what happens next.
I fell for my best friend long before I knew what that meant. Only I know he’ll never love me back.
He’s stuck in his head and his past demons and can’t see what is right in front of him.
But when Greer loses her home and needs a place to stay, both Noah and I know the only place she belongs is with us—in every way possible.
Now I’m falling for both of my roommates and trying to keep the people I protect safe.
Only someone is coming for them, and I can’t stop the inevitable fall.
I just have to hope that we made the right choices and that one day soon Noah and Greer will finally see who we can be.
Before we lose it all…or I finally walk away for good.
A Fire in the Flesh by Jennifer L. Armentrout
After a startling betrayal ends with both Sera and the dangerously seductive ruler of the Shadowlands she has fallen madly in love with being held captive by the false King of the Gods, there is only one thing that can free Nyktos and prevent the forces of the Shadowlands from invading Dalos and igniting a War of Primals.
Convincing Kolis won’t be easy, though – not even with a lifetime of training. While his most favored Revenant is insistent that she is nothing more than a lie, Kolis’s erratic nature and twisted sense of honor leave her shaken to the core, and nothing could’ve prepared her for the cruelty of his Court or the shocking truths revealed. The revelations not only upend what she has understood about her duty and the very creation of the realms but also draw into question exactly what the true threat is. However, surviving Kolis is only one part of the battle. The Ascension is upon her, and Sera is out of time.
But Nyktos will do anything to keep Sera alive and give her the life she deserves. He’ll even risk the utter destruction of the realms, and that’s exactly what will happen if he doesn’t Ascend as the Primal of Life. Yet despite his desperate determination, their destinies may be out of their hands.
But there is that foreseen unexpected thread—the unpredictable, unknown, and unwritten. The only thing more powerful than the Fates…
Too Good to be True by Kristen Ashley
Heiress Daphne Ryan is uncertain about spending a week at the sprawling country estate of the family of her sister’s boyfriend. For starters, she doesn’t get along with her sister. Then there’s the fact his family is old, wealthy aristocracy, and Daphne’s from brash, new American money.
Mostly, it’s that everyone knows Duncroft House is haunted by the ghost of a 1920s film star who died there. Deemed an accident, for nearly a century, people are sure it was murder.
Daphne doesn’t like scary things, say…haunted houses. She likes it less when strange things start happening to her when she arrives.
But she finds she has a surprising ally.
Ian Alcott, the heir to the earldom, is rich, gorgeous and just as concerned about the frightening things that keep befalling Daphne at his ancestral family home. As he moves to protect her, Daphne finds he’s also funny, kind and sexy as hell.
Indeed, he just might be too good to be true.
Run, Little Rabbit by Jenika Snow
It was supposed to be a fun evening at the Halloween carnival, but I ended up being stalked by a masked stranger the entire night.
He found me in the haunted house and gave me that first forced touch.
He caught me at the bouncy house and used his mouth and knife on me, making me feel good, even though I tried to hate it.
And when he chased me through the woods, calling me his prey, I didn’t know if it was the fear or the excitement and anticipation that made me run faster.
His kinks were unmatched. Dark and depraved.
They were just for me.
He called me his little rabbit.
He told me to run. He wanted to chase me, to hunt me down.
And when he caught me, he’d do whatever he wanted to me.
*This is a Halloween short story filled with kinkery. Please heed the CW/TW list as this story does have heavy material inside.
With This Woman by Jodi Ellen Malpas
The Manor—the heartbeat of hedonism and pleasure, the place where Jesse Ward lost himself for years in women and alcohol, escaping his past—was his life. His everything. Until the day Ava O’Shea walked through the doors and Jesse discovered something else to live for.
Her.
Their love affair was passionate, intense, and all-consuming. She became his heaven. His escape. And eventually, his downfall. When Ava walked away from him, he was destroyed, even more broken than before.
But she’s come back, and Jesse vows never to lose her again.
Except Ava’s only scratched the surface of his broken soul, and as their relationship intensifies and their love deepens, Jesse’s pushed to the brink of insanity when his past creeps into his present and risks destroying everything.
They will never survive his truths, and Jesse will never survive losing Ava again.
So he’ll do anything to shield her from his dark, soul-destroying past.
Absolutely anything.
The Thanksgiving Hookup by J. Sterling
Spending Thanksgiving trapped in a hotel with a man I can’t stand, really isn’t my idea of a good time, but that’s what’s happening anyway.
I’ve hated River Santos since I first started working for the airline. I was warned to stay away from him by more than one flight attendant, my best friend included. River was your typical pilot: cocky, arrogant, and left a trail of broken hearts in his wake.
At least that’s what I’d always been told. And so far, he’d done nothing to dissuade my negative opinions of him.
But one unprecedented snowstorm later and I find myself spending time with a guy I thought I knew, but didn’t really know at all. I don’t want to like him, but he’s making it difficult. And we have more in common than I ever thought possible.
What happens when you stop hating your enemy and start wanting him instead?
All the Little Raindrops by Mia Sheridan
It’s senior-year spring break, and Noelle Meyer and Evan Sinclair have been kidnapped. Neither knows why they were chosen, only that they share a tragic past: Evan’s father got away with killing Noelle’s mother, effectively ruining her family when the death was ruled an accident.
Despite the connection that should have made them enemies, the teens instead unite to face their other common denominator—their abductors. Noelle and Evan survive one sadistic circumstance after another, eventually making a harrowing escape. But every happy ending comes at a price…
Years later, Evan, now a private investigator, revisits the crime when he learns it may be ongoing. He reaches out to Noelle for help, and they discover that the answers lie with a man known only as the Collector. To close their case and solve the ones that followed, Noelle and Evan must unmask this mysterious spectator—the only man who knows enough secrets to take their captors down.
Because of Her by Jewel E. Ann
“If sin weren’t pretty, it wouldn’t be so tempting.”
I was an accomplished music professor.
Happily single.
Perfectly content.
Now, I’m unemployed.
Pining for a dark, brooding guy named Jack who lives in a garage with a piano.
And I’m plotting to seduce a married man because his daughter is responsible for my nephew committing suicide.
I don’t know why teenage girls are so mean.
I don’t know why rich men cheat on their wives.
And I don’t know why Jack has serial killer vibes, even though he leaves me speechless every time he speaks.
All I know for sure is that I feel safe in a stranger’s arms and understood by someone I don’t understand.
“You should be a little scared of everyone because humans are unpredictable.”
How far will I go for revenge? More than that …
How far will he go to save me?
*This book contains material involving sexual assault and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.
Reckless Hearts by Jagger Cole
I’m caught in the psychopath’s web.
Cold, heartless, and as dangerous as he is beautiful. Deimos Drakos is both Greek mafia royalty and a chameleon hiding a true monster in plain sight.
No one sees the villain behind those dark, lethally gorgeouseyes.
No one but me.
You see, I know his worst secrets. But he knows my darkest fantasies. And he’ll use them, to trap me.
To toy with me.
To own me.
We’re blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. Except true psychopaths like him have no lines.
No limits. No mercy.
Six years ago, he was the devil who told me to run and never look back.
I should have listened.
Because now he’s going to chase me. He’s going to catch me, and flay open every dark primal part of me.
But he’ll never capture my heart.
Reckless Hearts is astandalonedark mafia, blisteringly steamy enemies-to-lovers romance with a smart, good-girl heroine, and an ultra possessive, morally gray, dark-hearted hero with “look at her and I’ll unalive you” energy. Readers are HIGHLY advised to read the TW inside. No cliffhanger; HEA included.
Christmas Cupid by Ilsa Madden-Mills
From #1 Amazon Bestselling Author Ilsa Madden-Mills comes a brand new enemies to lovers holiday novella (40,000 words) about finding love in unexpected places.
Dear Sneaky Santa,
I’d like to have a word about your sense of humor. Was it really necessary to stick me, a professional hockey player nursing an injury and avoiding the media, in an isolated cabin with a bratty, boot-designing princess who seems to have made it her mission to despise me? I mean, come on, what did I ever do to you?
And let’s talk about our first encounter. Was it your intention for her to barge in on me while I was enjoying a soak in the tub? It wasn’t exactly my finest moment, and I’m sure she didn’t appreciate the view of my massive body floundering around as I tried to grab a towel.
Now, I’m stuck with her, thanks to a mutual acquaintance, in the middle of a snow blizzard, navigating through bear attacks, sketchy neighbors, and whole lot of tension. I had plans, Santa, plans to escape to Cabo and forget about the world, not to be trapped with a woman who thinks I’m unworthy of her time just because she can’t stand hockey players.
Oh, and speaking of our delightful Iris, she’s stingier with her food than Scrooge was with his pennies! I’m not asking for a feast, but a guy’s got to eat! And could you possibly turn her yippy dog into a reindeer or something? It would certainly add to the Christmas spirit and save my eardrums.
I’m trying to rediscover the meaning of Christmas, and you throw me into this chaos? Is this some kind of test, or are you just having a jolly laugh up there in the North Pole?
So here’s my Christmas wish, Santa: sprinkle a bit of your magic and either get me out of here or be a Cupid and ignite a fiery, undeniable passion between us, because right now, this scenario is frostier than a snowman.
Slapshotting Through the Snow, Kyler Blanchette