Books like 'Before We Kiss'
Readers who enjoyed Before We Kiss by Susan Mallery also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary funny athletes sports second chances tycoon small town m-f
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Forever Paired by Kathleen Brooks
Rated: 4.77 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsLandon Davies had worked hard to start his own restaurant. It was a very different path than most of his family had taken. He was one of the few family members that were not military or law enforcement. But his hard work had given him a restaurant that was beginning to take off when a woman’s scream in the alley outside his kitchen changed everything... -
Irresistible Trouble by Pippa Grant
I, Cooper Rock, baseball god, worshipper of women, hometown hero, beloved son and brother, and owner of a well-deserved ego, have always reached for the stars. Usually in baseball.In love? Nah. When you’ve played the field as much as I have and haven’t been bit by the bug, you’re immune.Or so I thought until she walked back into my life.Waverly Sweet. Pop music sensation... -
Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsIn her twenties, Rachel Walsh was a mess. Since her spell in rehab, though, she's come a long way on the road to recovery - and now, she's ready to go back to where it all began. But this time, the student has become the teacher. She used to hate the staff in charge of treating her addiction. Now, she's one of them.Rachel's finally got herself on track - but life never stops being messay... -
The Start of Something Wonderful by Jessica Redland
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsAutumn Laine has lost her creative sparkle. After losing her grandad and her job as an illustrator in quick succession, she is at a crossroads in life and needs a break. Spending time with her parents in Paris, even in the artistic community of Montmartre, doesn't appear to be the answer... -
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When Alec Met Evie by Jenny Proctor
Evie told herself not to fall for her pro-hockey crush. But when she sees him holding her baby girl, all bets are off.When Evie moves South to the same mountain town where her childhood crush plays pro-hockey, she arms herself with all the reasons why she can’t fall for him again.Number Alec is her best friend’s much older brother... -
Talk Wicked to Me: Baz Wicked by Melissa Foster
Rated: 4.66 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsVeterinarian and Dark Knights biker Baxter “Baz” Wicked, the most charming and mysterious of the family, has a career he loves, a brotherhood he trusts, and plans that don’t include settling down just yet. Come along for the unexpected, hilarious, and heart-wrenching ride as Baz discovers that life and love can be messy, and carefully crafted plans can’t hold a candle to ten tiny fingers and toes... -
The Potter's House by Hannah Ellis
Rated: 4.66 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSometimes facing up to the past is the only way to create a better future…Since the tragic death of his father, Lowen Treneary has kept to himself in his pottery studio on the remote island of Bryher.His quiet life is just the way he likes it.Until Pippa comes along.The local café owner plunges his peaceful existence into chaos and brightens his days while she’s at it... -
Riverbend Reunion by Carolyn Brown
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsBack home is the best place to start over in a heart-stirring Texas romance about friendship, second chances, and small-town scandals by New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown.Riverbend, Texas, doesn’t look like the crossroads of anywhere. But for four high school besties reuniting after twenty years, it’s a place to unpack a lot of baggage... -
Home Run by Jordan Marie, Robin Harper
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsGreen Lucas doesn't know what's about to hit him. Complete Standalone Romance Wanted A woman with grit and fire who will help me get my son’s head out of his ass. You must be self-sufficient and not looking for a gravy train. Common sense is a plus, book smarts are optional. Cannot have red hair, as my son seems to go for that type and he needs something to shake him up... -
Playing Mr. Perfect: Clay Braden by Melissa Foster
Quarterback Clay "Mr. Perfect" Braden is determined to show sexy scientist Pepper Montgomery the benefits of hands-on research in PLAYING MR. PERFECT, the first book in the Bradens at Ridgeport series by New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melissa Foster. Loaded with heat, humor, and heart, this steamy, small-town, opposites-attract standalone romance is unputdownable... -
Game Changer by Alley Ciz
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Just One Look by Rosalind James
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsLuka Darkovic has some tackling skills. He hadn’t planned on using them to bring down a runaway dog the size of a Shetland pony, though, especially not when his neck is already buggered. At 33, a rugby forward protects his vertebrae.. He’s even less happy when the dog’s incompetent owner turns up in his hospital cubicle the next day with a plan to fix those vertebrae... -
The Village of Happy Ever Afters by Alison Sherlock
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMolly Hopkins has happily watched all of her friends’ dreams come true on Riverside Lane.Deciding to follow her passion for baking, Molly with the help of her friends takes the plunge and opens a Tea Garden in the village hoping to make it a summer to remember!Meanwhile, after a rather public end of his marriage, Logan Armstrong trusts no one but his beloved Grandad... -
Puck Performance by Alley Ciz
Rated: 4.54 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAll's fair in love and potatoes. Melody Brightly Broadway Star. Pink hair. A smile that hits me harder than a slap shot. Terrible taste in hockey teams. Full of secrets. The one woman I fail to defend my heart against. Jase Donnelly Defenseman.Charming. Sexy as puck. Makes my hormones give a standing ovation. The one guy I can never be with, but can't stay away from... -
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The Champion by Shey Stahl
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsA powerful love story of tragedy, love, and commitment. The fourth book in the Racing on the Edge series submerges you in the lifestyle of a champion of a sport that dominates America. Through smoke and methanol, you learn the good, the bad, and the secrets no one wants you to know... -
Thrill of Love by Melissa Foster
Rated: 4.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDiscover the magic of New York Times bestseller Melissa Foster's writing, and see why millions of readers have fallen in love with the Bradens. Fall in love with Ty Braden and Aiyla Bell in this epic love story... -
Pure Chemistry by Emilia Finn
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsI’ve never wished for a knight in shining armor before, but today might be the day I let go of that pigheadedness and accept a little help.I’m a biochemist with a dream to cure cancer, but in my quest to save lives, I may be the reason thousands die... -
Delayed Call by Toni Aleo
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsVaughn Johansson is the Nashville Assassins' star player. He's brash, cocky, and talented. And he isn't afraid to let anyone know it. He lives his life on his own terms, never forming romantic attachments, and only allowing his very closest to see his true, caring self. Brie Soledad has the weight of the world on her shoulders... -
Cocky Senator’s Daughter: Hannah by Faleena Hopkins
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsHANNAH COCKER Every man I've dated in this city has either bored me or hurt me. When Sofia Sol, my crazy cousin, offers a ride on the back of her Harley with no destination in mind besides out-of-Atlanta, what do you think my answer is? I'll give you one guess. TOBIAS KYRKOS Life doesn't ever hand you what you want. You have to take it... -
Playing Dirty: A Bad Boy Sports Romance by Mickey Miller
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsI'm going to teach Andrea to play dirty...she just doesn't know it yet. Jake Pulling in eight figures a year as star pitcher for the Chicago Jaguars, there's no shortage of parties, booze, and women. I'm a beast on the mound and between the sheets but when my social media presence becomes a major problem, the team’s owner brings in a PR expert to clean up my image... -
Forever Entangled by Kathleen Brooks
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsRyan Parker had always loved Sienna Ashton, but gave up on his fantasy years ago. After working as an undercover FBI Agent in Los Angeles, Ryan gets a phone call telling him to come home to the small town of Keeneston, Kentucky. The woman he thought he was over is now in serious trouble. Sienna Ashton fell in love with Ryan Parker too late... -
Protecting Her Heart by Chance Carter
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsI'm going to make her beg. Emma asked me to take her all the way. She wants to experience every delicious thing a woman can feel. She wants to be brought to the very edge of ecstasy, and then she wants to leap right off the cliff. I'm a complete playboy, an expert in the ways a man can make a woman beg, so naturally I accept. I love a good challenge... -
Winning Mr. Wrong by C.W. Farnsworth
A reality television dating show was never part of my post-college plan. Nearly broke, unemployed, recently dumped me let my best friend Haley decide it should be.They say don’t make important decisions after five shots of tequila, and I now believe whoever coined that phrase... -
All Hung Up by Kathleen Brooks
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsThis novella originally appeared in the Three Southern Beaches collection released July of 2014. Taylor Jefferies fled the Hollywood spotlight and found herself helping the citizens of the small town of Keeneston. As luck would have it, the sexy man who caught her eye and found a place in her heart joined her at college that fall... -
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Second Dive: A Second Chance Sports Romance by Jasmin Miller
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNoah Winters was my heart’s desire, the boy I loved desperately and had hoped to spend my future with. Until our plans were derailed and life took us in completely different directions.When our fate changed, and our paths crossed again, nothing prepared me for the punch straight to the heart when I saw him . . . or his anger and bitterness... -
Somebody Like You by Carrie Elks
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHe’s rich, talented and way out of her league. Now he’s making her an offer she can’t refuse…Football has always been Cam Hartson’s life. When he's forced to retire following an injury, he slinks back to his small home town, planning to lie low and lick his wounds. Until he meets Mia Devlin. The beautiful single mom of two tearaway boys has no interest in love... -
Breakaway (The Rule Book Collection) by A.M. Johnson
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAs Tampa Bay's star center, Mark Carmelo's life was hockey, and after a bitter and public break up, all he wanted to do was focus on the game. Until he saw her. The one that got away. The one he thought he'd never see again. For thirteen years, Stevie West drowned in her lackluster life. Recently divorced from her “roommate” with passionless benefits, she was ready to start over... -
Shopping for a Turkey by Julia Kent
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsI don’t understand Americans. Or, as we say in Scotland, I dinna understand ye eedjits. And I definitely dinna understand the crazy mother-in-law of my cousin Declan... -
The Christmas Dilemma by Sarah Vance-Tompkins
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSkipping Christmas is easy. But it’s impossible to deny your heart… Eli Adair is the first call whenever his family and friends need a hand. But this Christmas, he has no obligations, so he’s taking a break from the stress of big family celebrations. No presents under the tree. No stockings by the fireplace. No twinkling lights. All he wants is to be home alone at Hillcrest House... -
The Sweetest Chirp by Toni Aleo
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAudrinaI ran.I left everything I knew, and I didn’t look back.I have loved my best friend since I the moment I knew what love was. While I adore a good best-friends-to-lovers trope, that was never our story. We danced around each other, skated along the line but didn’t cross it, and I never knew why. Until one night, I took matters into my own hands... -
Bittersweet by Jessica Prince
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsShe thought he was just a cocky, spoiled rich kid. She had it so very wrong.Shane Hendrix had a hundred-foot reinforced steel wall around her heart to keep people out, so when she first laid eyes on Jensen Rose, she wanted nothing to do with him. But what started as disdain quickly grew into something so much more... -
Outta My League by Ali Parker, Weston Parker
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe way she looks, smells, laughs is killing me.I fell in love with my sister’s best friend. To top it all off, she’s brilliant. And I’m failing Chemistry.Of course, when I get her help, she’s laidback about it. Charming and helpful as always, like she doesn’t know how much I want her. I’ve got to play it cool and let her see a different side of me... -
The Midwife By The Sea by Jo Bartlett
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe last thing Ella Mehenick wants is the fifteen minutes of fame she’s found herself landed with. After all, who wants to star in a viral video of the very public ending of their relationship?Newly single, and desperate to get as far away from her former fiancé as possible, Ella heads back to the Cornish seaside town of Port Agnes, where she grew up... -
It Takes a Village: A wonderfully uplifting small town romance by Hannah Ellis
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsTake a trip to Hope Cove, the wonderful seaside village in Devon. The perfect escape for stunning scenery, glorious sunshine and the County’s best scones!For Leo, it’s a place to return to. His hometown is now the place he’ll raise his daughter. The surprise daughter who was a result of a fling with a woman he barely knows... -
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My Scorned Best Friend by Piper Rayne
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsXavier and Clara kissing in a tree…When your best friend growing up is a girl, that’s the song your classmates taunt you with over and over again. But it was never like that… until now.It’s always been Clara and me. She’s the only one who truly knows me. After I was drafted into the NFL and ended up the starting quarterback for the San Francisco Kingsmen, I begged her to come with me...Categorized as:
sports second chances athletes m-f contemporary humor friends to lovers from hate to love -
Play Me by Kelly Elliott, Kristin Mayer
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsShe has a head for business and a body for sin. He is a coach who knows how to use his equipment. Neither is looking for love. Should be easy, right? Wrong. This might be the most important game Kendall Wales and Hunter Owens have ever played where everything is on the line. With one wrong play, they could lose it all... -
The Friend Face Off by Grace Worthington
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGetting involved with your brother’s best friend is risky enough. But when he's a hockey player? It's a whole new level of bad idea.As a ravenous reader, I’ve got a I’m obsessed with hockey romances.But let me tell you, real life hockey players are nothing like my book boyfriends.So I threw down the gauntlet on BookTok. I challenged any single guy out there to prove me wrong... -
Hot Pickle by J.J. Knight
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsI'm rock hard.No, not like that.When that happens, you won't need me to tell you.I'm a competitive bodybuilder, ready for my very first contest. And winning requires more than killer workouts and stage presence.It's all about the tan.My training partner Franklin uses the best in the business — Camryn Schultz. She understands the career killer of a badly placed white spot.She’s also his sister... -
Traded by Lisa Suzanne
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe first time I met pro football’s hottest quarterback, we ended up horizontal just before the most embarrassing moment of my life.The second time, I unleashed all my pent-up anger on him.The third time was when the owner of the Vegas Aces introduced him as the newly traded player I’d be coaching for the next year. No…I’m not a football coach. I’ve been hired as his full-time behavior coach... -
Trying to Score by Kendall Ryan
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsTeddy King excels at many things. Playing hockey. Check. Scoring on and off the ice. Check. Being stupidly attractive ... Double check. I knew him way back when. Before he was the guy everyone wanted a piece of, he was just a rebellious college co-ed and one of my more energetic study partners... -
Cross by Adriana Locke
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsCross Jacobs was a screw-up. Everyone knew it, especially him, and the point was hammered home when Kallie Welch drove herself right out of his life. But, she’s back. Seeing Cross wasn’t on Kallie’s to-do list. She didn’t think she could avoid him forever but trying never hurt anyone... -
Face-Off at the Altar by Toni Aleo
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsMarkus Reeves is sucking. Big-time. Toiling away on a minor-league hockey team hundreds of miles away from home, he's watching his dreams of an NHL career fade away. Add in the lingering guilt he has over the dramatic demise of his relationship with college girlfriend, Mekena, and he's a mess on and off the ice. But the family of his heart, the Sinclairs, won't let Markus suffer any longer... -
Turn of the Tides by Jessica Prince
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsWhen Beau Wade left his small hometown of Whitecap, Oregon, he swore to himself he’d never go back. But when his NFL career goes up in smoke, that’s exactly what he finds himself doing. Not much has changed in the ten years he’s been gone... -
The Race by Alice Ward
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsI like it fast. She likes it faster. Who will win this race? As founder and CEO of UnCaged Fitness, I sponsor some of the hottest fitness properties around. Top female athletes and models beg for my attention. I’m rich. I’m ruthless. And when it comes to my business, I don’t play around. Until Emma James and her beautiful curves comes to Daytona... -
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Wedding Days at Halesmere House: A heartwarming feel-good romance by Suzanne Snow
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe last thing on Lizzie’s mind is catching the bouquet When her best friend’s wedding venue catches fire, Lizzie Martin is on the case to find somewhere new. By some miracle, a space opens up at Halesmere House, and it makes perfect sense to move the event to the Lake District artists’ residence... -
A Wild Card Kiss by Lauren Blakely
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsA sexy standalone romance between a single dad athlete and the woman who got away!Things that suck on my wedding day -- walking in on my groom kissing another woman twenty minutes before the ceremony.Things that suck worse? The woman he’s kissing is my mom.I head straight for the bowling alley bar down the street and ask for a double...Categorized as:
sports athletes second chances contemporary humor forbidden love friends to lovers single-father -
Love, Tussles, and Takedowns by Violet Duke
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsHe’s a better fighter...but she has all the weapons. After his combat injuries retire him from the military career he wasn't ready to give up, battle-scarred Hudson Reyes now spends his new life as a movie industry fight scene and weapons specialist simply doing what he knows best: surviving. Until he meets her . The one woman who makes him want to live again... -
Changing Lanes by Katie Graykowski
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsProfessional Football Player, Devon Harding found his soul mate at the age of seventeen. Trouble is, he can’t remember her last name. For the last fourteen years, he’s been waiting for The Universe to send her back to him. When that day comes, he nearly falls all over himself to get to her. But he plays it cool and waits for her to come to him. And she walks right past him... -
One Steamy Pucking Meet Cute by Penelope Bloom
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsI’ll tell you about the two very large pickles I’ve found myself in, but only if you promise not to laugh… Pickle number one: I'm unexpectedly pregnant by an NHL star, who just so happens to be my big brother's best friend—and no, we weren't exactly dating. For reasons that totally make sense (trust me for now), I never told him about the baby... -
Accidental Baby Daddy: A Single Dad Runaway Bride Romance by Mia Mara
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsRunning from the altar was just the beginning. Now I’m back in my small hometown… running straight into the arms of my ex.After ditching my fiancé in New York, I stumble into our town's bar looking like a runaway bride cliché. The last thing I need is a cute guy offering to buy me a drink...
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