FAVOURITE BOOKS 2019

Favourite 2019 Books

"Girls like you aren't exactly welcomed at a place like this, so keep your head down and look the other way." 

Those were the exact words of my social worker when she dropped me in my newest hellhole, a place for "troubled teens". 

I didn't listen, and now I'm on their radar. 

They expect me to play along in their games of hierarchy, to fall in line in the social order they've deemed me fit. 

Too bad for them, I don't follow rules. 
Too bad for me, they're determined to make sure I do. 

Inconceivably attractive and treated like kings...these are the boys of Brayshaw High.
And I'm the girl who got in their way.

As the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. It's safer to keep her mouth shut and stay out of sight. Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house, until one night her star gazing causes an accident. After witnessing his motorcycle wreck, she forms an unusual friendship with one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold.

By the time Wavy is a teenager, her relationship with Kellen is the only tender thing in a brutal world of addicts and debauchery. When tragedy rips Wavy's family apart, a well-meaning aunt steps in, and what is beautiful to Wavy looks ugly under the scrutiny of the outside world. Kellen may not be innocent, but he is the fixed point in Wavy and Donal's chaotic universe. Instead of playing it safe, Wavy has to learn to fight for Kellen, for her brother, and for herself.

Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life.

Four caskets. Two bodies.

Jessica and Jude Day witness their funeral and that of their parents a few yards away from mourning family and friends. Stripped of the only life they’ve ever known, the Days say goodbye to San Francisco forever.

Six months later, two thirty-year-old misfits with elite self-defense skills and penchants for alcohol, sex, and trouble arrive like an earthquake to Peaceful Woods, a retirement community in Omaha, Nebraska, that thrives on rules and gossip. Welcome home, Jackson and Jillian Knight.

Jackson celebrates his new beginning by embracing his job and wiping his cavalier past clean with a temporary oath of celibacy. But Jillian’s past is branded into her soul—the deaths, the insanity, Dr. Luke Jones, and the need to make her lovers bleed. Her chance for redemption comes in the form of a next door neighbor, one Senior Master Sergeant Monaghan. He’s sexy, dangerously alluring, and riddled with emotional issues from years of service. He’s also … So. Damn. Grumpy.

Their mission is simple: Let go, start over, don't kill anyone, and pray that nobody wakes the dead.

**This book contains explicit language, sexual content, and violence. 18+ 

The living seek forgiveness. The dead seek revenge.

A first love.
A last breath.
A haunting past.

Armed with a sinful past and an equally sinful body, Jackson Knight absolves his vow of celibacy to pursue Sergeant Monaghan’s unsuspecting—older—housekeeper.

Ryn Middleton, on the cusp of turning forty with a snarky daughter, a killer dog, and an abusive ex-husband, finds Jackson’s advances humorous and unbelievable. After intense negotiations including Vera Wang, Ed Sheeran, and sex four times a day, Ryn accepts Jackson’s marriage proposal on their first date.

What could possibly go wrong?

While struggling to lay claim to the woman of the dreams he never had, Jackson is forced to deal with a grief-stricken Jillian trying to hold on to her past without letting go of her future—the doctor who took her heart and the Sergeant who gave her a new one.

Beyond the hope for light, lies the middle of darkness, the illusion of truth, and a haunting past.*WARNING - Contains explicit language and sexual content and subject matter pertaining to physical/sexual abuse. 

'til death do us part. Aric James Monaghan promised Jillian Knight Portland. With a heavy heart and a light bag, she travels to the West Coast for the man she loved. In a blink her worlds collide, holding her hostage to a past filled with lies, deceit, and revenge. Four Caskets Two Bodies It all started with a boy and a girl-their tragic love story is shared through the eyes of the enemy. Every word fades dreams and shatters memories as life slips away. Jillian needs a Knight, Jessica needs a miracle, and together they need a savior. 

** This book contains explicit language and sexual content.

A Sweeping Standalone from New York Times Bestseller, Pepper Winters.

“Things you should know about me from the very beginning:
I was born to true love, witnessed the destruction it causes, and vowed never to let such agony happen to me. I am not a story-teller like my father. I am not a writer like my mother. I am just a son—their son.
I am happy being alone.
And that is all I ever want to be.”

JACOB
The day he was born, Jacob learned his hardest and longest lesson.
It wasn’t a lesson a boy should learn so young, but from his earliest memories he knew where happiness lives, so does tragedy. Where love exists, so does heartbreak. And where hope resides, so does sorrow.
That lesson carved him from the kid to the teen to the man.
And nothing and no one could change his mind.

HOPE
I first met him when he was fourteen at a movie premiere of all places. A movie based on his parent’s life.
He was stoic, strong, suspicious, and secretive.
I was only ten, but I felt something for him. A strange kind of sorrow that made me want to hug and heal him.
I was the daughter of the actor hired to play his father.
We shared similarities.
I recognised parts of him because they were parts of me.
But no matter how many times we met. No matter how many times I tried.He stayed true to his 

vow to never fall.

I’ve got a secret.

Savannah, Georgia is full of debutantes and greed. The Heirs own this town. They own me, too.

I don’t know what I did to ruin what we had. But their kindness turned cruel almost a year ago. I was prepared to leave it all behind and start over at a new school. But Rogue Kelly, the king of the Heirs, ruined that.

He doesn’t want me anymore but doesn’t want anyone else to have me either. I know too much to be set free, but not enough to stay.

The Heirs aren’t through with me yet. And I crave their cruelty too much to give up now. 

Misfortune. Bad luck. Heartache.

Devon Thorpe is no stranger to any of them.

After devastating news, Devon’s life becomes a prison of responsibility, heartbreak, and hardship. All her dreams to leave her small town vanish. A prisoner of circumstance.

At her breaking point, Devon has a reckless moment in a diner bathroom with a blue-eyed sexy stranger. A single encounter with him leaves a deep mark on Devon, giving her only a memory of his touch when nights are lonely, and her life becomes too much to take.

Years later, a terrifying incident takes her and her family to Albuquerque NM, where she finds work as a server at a bar to support her mother.

Tattooed, moody, rough, brown-eyed, sexy as hell, Lincoln Kessler, the mysterious owner of the saloon, instantly draws Devon in. She can’t let go of the feeling there is some strange connection between them.

But the more Lincoln tries to push her away, the more determined she is to figure out the enigmatic man. One fiery kiss and Devon realizes she should have stayed away because when their worlds collide and tragedy strikes, she recognizes they are not each other’s savior, but each other’s misfortune.

A tear-jerking novel about ill-fated love, heartache, loss, and finding your way through the pain.

And a lot of bad luck.

*A NA/Adult Sexy and heartbreaking Contemporary Romance. Deeply emotional with a sensitive subject matter of dealing with a crippling mind disease. 

Remember us...when I can't.

Thea Hughes has five minutes to live.

A car accident stole her parents and left her with the second-worst documented case of amnesia in the world. She now has only minutes of experiences, of consciousness, of life…before her memory is wiped clean. The once effervescent artist with a promising future is reduced to scribbling with pens and paper, living an empty, quiet life, three hundred seconds at a time.

Jim Whelan is on autopilot.

A foster kid shuffled around the system since birth, he’s lived his entire life without knowing love…and it’s taken its toll—until he learned to fight back, carry his armor, and keep his head down.

Working as an orderly in the Blue Ridge Sanitarium, deep in Virginia countryside, Jim looked up…and found Thea.

When Thea has the chance to break free of her five-minute prison with a risky, experimental surgery, it could lead them both to an epic love they never thought possible… or one that could require the ultimate sacrifice.

From bestselling author Dr. Rebecca Sharp comes an enemies-to-lovers epic romance with a forbidden twist...

Love is angry. Love is blind.
Love is envious and loathful.And I loathed Léo Baudin. My new art professor. My enemy.
I didn't move to Rhode Island for this. I came to forget the Troian Milanovic I'd left behind and start fresh where the damage and betrayal couldn't follow.
But Professor Baudin wouldn't let me.
Cold. Caustic. Captivating. He didn't just push my buttons...
He lit them all up with the indifferent smirk of an aristocratic French asshole.
But how much I loathed him only made my need for him stronger.
To have him would be either victory or loss. There would be no compromise.
To have him would be war.
So I fought back.
But I was Troy. And he was the wooden horse, full of dangerous secrets I never saw coming.
I was the one who invited him inside my walls, celebrating without seeing through his disguise.
And under the cover of darkness, he laid siege to my body, my mind, and finally, my heart.
The first may be a myth, but this time the history books would show that if Troy fell, it was with her all.

The Fall of Troy is the first book in the Odyssey Duet. 

The Fallen: Genesis is a prequel novella in The Deadly Virtues Series and MUST be read before RAPHAEL (DV: book one). 

*****
THE FALLEN: GENESIS 
(A Deadly Virtues Prequel)

IN THE BEGINNING...

They told them they were evil.
They told them they were possessed by demons.
They told them that darkness ran in their veins.

Holy Innocents Home for Children is a haven for orphaned boys who have nothing and no one. The priests watch over them, educate them, raise them in the family of the church.

Except for some.

Seven of the orphans are no ordinary boys. They attract the attention of the priests for their acts of violence, of bloodlust. The priests realize these boys are drawn to the darkness.

And the priests are no ordinary priests. They are the Brethren, a secret sect who believe themselves on a divine mission to seek out evil in the boys in their care. Seek it out, and then drive it out.

The seven have fallen from God’s grace. And the Brethren will cleanse their blackened souls…

Dark Contemporary Romance novella. Contains sexual situations, violence, sensitive and taboo subjects, offensive language and topics some may find triggering. Recommended for age 18 years and up.

Lars Bradby was supposed to be my forever.
That was before we found out he would become a father at the tender age of eighteen. 

For years, he’d watched me.
For months, he’d wanted me.
For weeks, he’d chased me. 

Relentless and infuriating, he turned my stubborn heart into something pliable and weak. 
Sly and honest, he worked his way into my life as though he’d always planned to be the focal point of it.

In love and naive, even when our future seemed bleak, I believed in us. 
Heartbroken and desperate, I tore my bleeding heart from my chest, wanting only the best for him. 

In doing so, our forever wasn’t just interrupted. It was chased away with one irreversible decision after another. 

And now, we could no longer see it beneath the heaping piles of debris we’d left in our wake. 

There’s two sides to every love story. The how you fell in love, and the how you fell apart.

This is ours.

The cardinal rule of friendship is you don’t mess with your friend’s sister.
That goes double when she’s his little sister.

It was just supposed to be fun.

She wasn’t supposed to end up being the love of my life.
And I definitely wasn’t supposed to break her heart.

Ainsley is a wedding dress designer. That should’ve been a warning that she’s a hopeless romantic. That should’ve clued me in that she believes love conquers all.

But there are some things that love can’t fix. I’m one of them.

She thinks love is the answer.

But love is the reason I let her go.

First and Forever is the second book in the Heartache Duet, and must be read after Heartache and Hope.

Duet Synopsis: 
Ava Diaz needs saving.
She just doesn’t know it yet.
Just like she doesn’t know a thing about the boy she sits next to on the first day of senior year.
He thinks she’s a brat.
She thinks he’s entitled.
Maybe first impressions don’t always last… 
Because Connor Ledger’s about to save her.
He just doesn’t know why.

A Greek family. An Indian family. A summer wedding on the Aegean coast…

Meet Moti Ferreira—spectacularly jinxed from the day she’s born.

Saddled with an eccentric mother, she stumbles upon the one man who holds the key to her freedom—the best man at her cousin’s upcoming wedding.

All Moti has to do is overcome her fear of water, board a yacht to the Greek Isles, seduce the dreamy Nikos Manolas, and survive two weeks at sea with her oddball family.

The only obstacle Moti doesn’t see coming is Alexandros Veronis, the onboard chef and star witness to her awkward mishaps. He transforms onions into chocolate and aroma into nostalgia. Day by day, his alchemy works its magic on Moti. But she’s not the only one falling under his spell. Everyone has a secret, growing round and ripe at Chef Alex’s table. When the masks fall off, they spill out one by one, and everything blows up in their faces.

Now Moti’s truth is exposed, and worse, she’s hooked on more than Alex's midnight snacks. But this time, screwing up could be the best thing she’s ever done…

A new, seductive forbidden romance that caters to Manhattan's elite...
I knew the rules:

Never reveal my true identity.
Play the game, give the illusion. 
Don’t get close to the clients. 

The dark and glamorous lifestyle of the rich and shameless open my eyes to a lavish world of sin and wealth, and a man I can’t have. 

A man I desperately want—James Riviera. 

We're treading a fine line as we live the ultimate double life until we make a startling discovery that tests both our loyalties. 

I only had to follow the rules, but rules are meant to be broken.

Stone Reeves was my neighbor, and I’ve hated him since sixth grade.

Gorgeous and charismatic, he became the town’s football god, while I became the town’s invisible girl.
He went to a Division 1 school for football, while my father was fired by his father.
His team won the National Championship, while my mother died the same day.

He was a first round pick for the NFL ...
… while I made the worst decision in my life.

Now I’m in Texas trying to pick up the pieces of my life.
But, Stone is here.
Stone is everywhere.

It doesn’t matter that disaster has struck my life again.
It doesn’t matter that he’s the one trying to console me.
It doesn’t matter that he’s the nation’s newest football obsession.

Because for me, he always has been and always will be my enemy.