Books like 'Not the Marrying Kind'
Readers who enjoyed Not the Marrying Kind by Jae also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary lesbian romance secret-relationship queer forced proximity small town competent heroine shy heroine tall-heroine asexual-heroine
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The Flaw in Our Design by Monica McCallan
Olivia Carver’s life in Lake Cabot, New York is simple. That’s how she likes it, even if she can’t stop the town she loves from being overrun by wealthy tourists each summer. When she’s not working at her family’s paddleboard shop or spending time with her lovable but infuriating brothers, she puts her energy into writing professionally, a dream that has yet to materialize...Categorized as:
queer small town secret-relationship f-f friends-benefits length-medium audiobook dual-pov -
The Love Lie by Monica McCallan
A year ago, Sydney King was a successful pro tennis player with a long-term boyfriend, a plan for the future, and a shot at fulfilling all her dreams. Now, she has a cheating ex-boyfriend and a career-ending injury, and—quite frankly—things could not be going worse for her...Categorized as:
queer forced proximity small town competent heroine tall-heroine f-f length-long contemporary -
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Mutual Benefits by H.P. Munro
Coming out to your loved ones is stressful, so when Hannah Melville’s family not only accept but celebrate her accidental announcement, it should be a relief. Which it would be, if Hannah was gay. Ashley West isn’t looking for a relationship. When she’s set up by her mother on a blind date, she’s ready to nip any expectations in the bud. She’s less prepared for her love interest to be straight...Categorized as:
forced proximity queer f-f contemporary humor fake relationship length-short friends to lovers -
Shifting Gears by Jazz Forrester
A spicy, small-town, opposites attract lesbian romance about learning to let go, no matter the cost. Workaholic Eleanor Cromwell blows into rural Canada, laser focused on her real estate development project. Given the locals already hate her father’s company, she plans to hide away in a cabin and conceal her identity to get the job done. And then her car breaks down…...Categorized as:
queer small town f-f contemporary class difference audiobook canada career professional -
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Say Cheese by T.B. Markinson, Miranda MacLeod
In a small town teetering on the brink of collapse, will one woman's arrival seal a factory’s fate or open the floodgate for love and redemption? Elle Robinson's world is literally swept away when a raging flood sends her car careening toward certain doom, only to be rescued by Angela Lane – a spirited, self-reliant, and unexpected savior who pulls Elle back from the edge of calamity... -
Impulse Buy by Jae
Prickly emergency physician Regina has never liked romantic gestures, but when her girlfriend, ER nurse Ellie, surprises her with a gift right after Valentine’s Day, rejecting it is not an option. Little does she know the impulse buy will have unexpected consequences. “Impulse Buy” is a short story sequel to Jae’s lesbian romance Bachelorette Number Twelve.Categorized as:
competent heroine queer f-f contemporary childfree-couple dual-pov third-person-pov cold heroine -
Perfect Rhythm by Jae
Pop star Leontyne Blake might sing about love, but she stopped believing in it a long time ago. What women want is her image, not the real her. When her father has a stroke, she flees the spotlight and returns to her tiny Missouri hometown. In her childhood home, she meets small-town nurse Holly Drummond, who isn’t impressed by Leo’s fame at all...Categorized as:
queer asexual-heroine small town forced proximity competent heroine f-f contemporary dual-pov -
The AM Show by T.B. Markinson, Miranda MacLeod
Would you give up your lifelong dream for a shot at everlasting love? Amanda Morgan is a morning show host with a fierce reputation, but a bitter divorce has left her feeling all washed up. Being mistaken for a grandmother at her own son’s wedding has her teetering on the edge—until a stranger at the reception rocks her world...Categorized as:
queer forced proximity secret-relationship competent heroine humor f-f age difference office -
I Can't Think Straight by Shamim Sarif
Tala, a London-based Palestinian, is preparing for her elaborate Middle Eastern wedding when she meets Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating her best friend. Spirited Christian Tala and shy Muslim Leyla could not be more different from each other, but the attraction is immediate and goes deeper than friendship... -
French Kissing: Season Three by Harper Bliss
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsASIN B079Y3G6HS moved to the more recent edition. Paris. .. City of lights, City of love. .. City of drama! It has been six months since Dominique and Steph came out publicly... -
This Is Who I Am by Harper Bliss
Love doesn't always follow the recipe. .. Cass Little has built a life defined by two passions: food and control. As head chef she’s used to perfection—except when it comes to her own body. Menopause has taken its toll, leaving Cass struggling to accept a body she barely recognizes. She’s convinced that love, like her libido, has long left the building...Categorized as:
queer asexual-heroine competent heroine shy heroine small town mature couple f-f length-medium -
No After You by Nicole Pyland
Dani Wilder only intended to go to a fundraiser and donate money to a worthy cause. She had no idea that she’d meet the love of her life that night. There were only a couple of problems with that chance meeting. Dani had a boyfriend. That chance meeting – it was with Peyton Gloss, the world’s most famous music star, who also happened to be a woman... -
A Very Miller-Cooper Wedding by Erica Lee
Charlie Miller and Reagan Cooper have been through a lot in the three years since they started dating. What started as a fake dating scheme between Reagan and Charlie’s brother, Jamie, turned into an everlasting love affair between Charlie and Reagan instead. Now the two are engaged and finally ready to plan their dream wedding. The countdown is on - one year until their big day… finally...Categorized as:
queer small town f-f contemporary christmas length-short explicit-open-door lgbtqia hate -
When We're Meant to Be by Skye Von Triessen
When Dr. Alexandra Edison’s world was ripped apart, the last thing she expected was to end up in a casual affair with Blake Westmore. Soon after she was forced to choose between her past and her present, when her strong sense of obligation forced her to leave the woman whom she shared one of the most unforgettable experiences with, and head back to L. A. to help the woman who broke her heart... -
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Reservations of the Heart by T.B. Markinson
Can two wounded souls find solace together? 41-year-old doctor Stella Gilbert used to have it all. Her career was on fire, and she had a picture-perfect family--until she was blindsided by her wife doing the unthinkable... -
Sparks Like Ours by Melissa Brayden
Gia Malone wants one thing and one thing only: to be the best surfer in the world. Her biggest obstacle is the annoyingly perky Elle Britton. Not only is Elle number one in the rankings, she’s also a fan favorite. But there’s a lot about Elle that Gia never noticed, like her surprising sense of humor and picture-perfect mouth. Elle Britton is tired...Categorized as:
forced proximity queer sports contemporary f-f from hate to love cheerful heroine heroine athlete -
No Such Thing as Serendipity by Rita Potter
Ambitious Blake Saunders is about to have it all. The forty-two-year-old is set to become CEO of a multibillion-dollar private equity firm and win at life. Until everything starts to unravel for the woman who is all about control. Her sympathetic sister, Emma, offers her a One month with Emma where she makes all of Blake’s decisions for her...Categorized as:
queer forced proximity secret-relationship small town f-f length-long audiobook open-door -
Last Chance by Claire Highton-Stevenson
An injured athlete desperate for a comeback. A career-driven team owner. Passion ignites when they meet, but will victory cost them true love? Nora Brady has one last shot at the career she adores. After a devastating injury knocks her off the women’s football A-list, the tenacious midfielder accepts an offer to play for a struggling young team longing to compete in the big time...Categorized as:
queer forced proximity secret-relationship small town tall-heroine contemporary sports f-f -
Something New by Jacqueline Ramsden
The “something new” at your sister’s wedding is supposed to be your sexuality, right? Thea Cooper is heading to her sister’s wedding in Montana for Christmas. The problem is that her ex is going to be there, and her mother is hoping they’ll rekindle their romance. All Thea wants is to enjoy the lodge, the holiday, and celebrate her sister...Categorized as:
queer forced proximity secret-relationship small town competent heroine christmas f-f length-short -
The Wedding That Almost Wasn't by Sienna Waters
It’s time to fall in love. Literally. American Emily Jackson has been in love with her best friend’s oldest sister Savannah for as long as she can remember. Which is why a family wedding in far-off Scotland is a dream come true. A week trapped in the Highlands with Savannah is exactly what she needs to prove that they belong together. Harry Lorde has a problem... -
Price of Honor by Radclyffe
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsHonor and duty are not always black and white—and when self-styled patriots take up arms against the government, the price of honor may be a life. Blair Powell and Jane Graves have much in common and even more that sets them apart in an invisible battle raging on home soil... -
Under the Sitka Sky by Violet Morley
Cam Porter is a charter pilot living a quiet life in the small island town of Sitka, Alaska. She’s spent most of her adult life avoiding any kind of affection and has put off romantic relationships. Her small but mighty family circle includes her exuberant dog Goose who gets her through the days between doing what she loves most, flying...Categorized as:
queer small town competent heroine forced proximity friends to lovers f-f contemporary siblings-bff -
French Kissing: Season Five by Harper Bliss
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsASIN B07S73K4SR moved to the more recent edition. Paris. .. City of lights, City of love. .. City of drama! With a year remaining on Dominique's first presidential term, the Laroche camp is gearing up for her re-election campaign. Dominique herself, however, doesn't seem so keen on going through it all again... -
Soul Unique by Gun Brooke
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGreer Landon is a successful art gallery owner. She has created an empire by discovering and developing new artists. When she agrees to visit an art school in Boston, she encounters a woman, Hayden Rowe, whose paintings take her breath away. Greer realizes Hayden is not a student, but lives in a remote wing of the school and the maddeningly frustrating headmaster is her mother...Categorized as:
queer competent heroine shy heroine forced proximity f-f contemporary age difference length-medium -
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Foxy Lady by Cara Malone
Foxes make terrible pets but they’re fantastic wingmen. Sydney Young has dedicated her life to animals. She’s a wildlife rehabilitator on call around the clock for rescue missions all over the state and every last one of her friends are veterinarians. Waiting at home for her is a rambunctious fox too tame to be released...Categorized as:
queer forced proximity small town tall-heroine competent heroine humor f-f contemporary -
The Residency by Lise Gold, Madeleine Taylor
For the first time in years, Zara Nova is staying put. Ten months in Vegas for her residency means no tours, no running from city to city. It also means time—time to finally stop running from herself. Zara’s built a career singing about love while ignoring her attraction to women since college. When a friend offers to set her up with someone discreet, she says yes...Categorized as:
queer secret-relationship contemporary f-f length-medium nevada famous heroine lgbtqia hate -
Camp Lost and Found by Georgia Beers
Cassidy Clarke wants to find herself. Tasked with scattering her friend Mason’s ashes, she heads to the campground where they met as kids. She expects the grief. She expects the guilt. She expects how absent she feels in her own life. What she doesn’t expect is the broken disrepair of the campground. Or the grouchily broody, yet intriguingly beautiful, cabin manager... -
A Life Worth Living by Monica McCallan
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsNora Gallagher can begrudgingly admit that she and Gray Ferris are both stellar Philadelphia real estate agents, but that’s the beginning and the end of the similarities between them. Nora’s life has been in a self-imposed holding pattern for half a decade. Depending on people in her personal life only leads to disappointment, and she has no plans of making that mistake again...Categorized as:
forced proximity queer contemporary f-f office from hate to love age difference length-medium -
Paper Love by Jae
Falling in love wasn’t part of the plan in this lesbian romance from best-selling author Jae. Susanne Wolff isn’t thrilled when her mother sends her all the way across the country to Freiburg to save her uncle’s stationery store from bankruptcy. Freiburg is too provincial for her taste, and besides, pen and paper are outdated anyway... -
The Love Project by T.B. Markinson, Miranda MacLeod
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsCan a long shot bring love to a couple of lonely hearts? Joni Fisher is facing economic ruin. The once successful advice column she runs with her mother is on the brink of cancellation, and it’ll take a miracle to turn things around... -
Thrust by Rachel Spangler
Fencing prodigy Jess Kidman has always been ahead of her peers. At the age of thirteen she made the varsity team, won a state championship, came out, and fell head over heels in love with her team captain, Lauren Standish...Categorized as:
queer forced proximity small town competent heroine contemporary sports f-f audiobook -
Up Against Her by Lisa Elliot
Skye, Head of Qualitative Research, loves her job exploring what makes people tick and generating insights for her clients. She’s worked her way up and is on the brink of a promotion at her top market research consultancy. But when she’s forced to merge her department and compete for the job she thought was hers, she’s seriously displeased... -
In Development by Rachel Spangler
From a young age, Cobie Galloway made a career of playing the girl-next-door on the silver screen. Only, she's not a teenager anymore. Ready to challenge herself artistically and earn the part she's always dreamed of, she's forced to face the realization that in order to win the roles afforded to edgier actresses, she might first have to audition by playing someone edgier in her day-to-day life... -
Touch the Sky by Katia Rose
The first time I met her, Jacinthe Gauthier-Laframboise was running screaming after an escaped donkey while covered in manure. It wasn’t exactly a meet-cute, but luckily, I’m not looking for a relationship. Dating has been on the backburner ever since life threw a wrench and left me to raise my daughter on my own...Categorized as:
small town queer forced proximity f-f length-medium contemporary canada single-mother -
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The Trip by Robin Alexander
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWho wants to take a road trip with two old, bickering women and a complete stranger? Not Jill Savoy. She finds herself behind the wheel of her father’s sacred Winnebago anyway, responsible for her grandmother and adopted aunt, both of whom are mischievous teenagers in old bodies, and then there’s Shay. The last thing on Shay Macaluso’s mind was a vacation... -
Moments in Ink by Carrie Ann Ryan
The Montgomery Ink saga continues with a bonus romance between two strangers on a path of healing that leads to something far more. Zia Clarkson thought she found her happily ever after, not once, but twice. Her first love is now engaged, and her second love broke more than her heart. Heart and soul bruised; she’s not looking for a relationship. Ever... -
Second Night Stand by Karelia Stetz-Waters, Fay Stetz-Waters
One hook-up is about to become one seriously hilarious situationship in this vibrant and lively romantic comedy about taking chances . . . and breaking the rules. Prima ballet dancer Lillian Jackson is all about control—on stage and in bed. Which is precisely why she keeps her hook-ups to one night, and one night only. No strings. No phone numbers. No scones in the morning... -
First Position by Melissa Brayden
Anastasia Mikhelson is the rising star of the New York City Ballet. She’s sacrificed creature comforts, a social life, as well as her own physical well-being for perfection in dance. Even her reputation as The Ice Queen doesn’t faze her. Though Ana’s at the peak of her career, competition from a new and noteworthy dancer puts all she’s worked for in jeopardy...Categorized as:
forced proximity queer competent heroine f-f from hate to love office new adult contemporary -
Where the Heart Is by Lily Seabrooke
Kissing her childhood friend on a family Christmas vacation is probably a bad idea…. The Jackson family is primed to explode over Christmas—with Stella’s parents hiding their divorce proceedings from the family during a two-week vacation to the cozy Christmas town of Bellsford, Stella and her sisters are under strict orders not to cause drama... -
Scaredy Cat by Robin Alexander
Blake Taylor isn’t the queen of horror, but she’s certainly a member of the royal court. Blake has made a career out of writing novels that make her readers want to leave the lights on at night. What Blake’s fans and very few people realize is that Blake Taylor is scared of her own shadow and just about everything else... -
Not Only One Bed by Sienna Waters
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNot falling in love has never been so hard. .. Trix Winchester has been promoted to head of romance acquisitions for London’s leading literary agent. The problem? Trix hasn’t believed in romance for years. Kel Bradshaw’s looking for a sugar mommy to pay her way through art school. But she just can’t bring herself to be mercenary enough to trick someone into it... -
Making It: A Novel by Laura Kay
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the author of Wild Things comes a heartwarming and relatable queer rom-com about an isolated young woman whose artistic celebration of her pet chinchilla suddenly launches her into the professional art world, reality TV fame, and first love. Isobel's life is just her, her mum, and her pet chinchilla, Abigail, in their council flat on the Kentish coast... -
Just Jorie by Robin Alexander
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsSome believe that special someone is out there just waiting to be found. Jorie Andolini is one of those people and has spent a lot of time envisioning that moment. She bumps into a woman at a grocery store, the woman drops a can of peas, Jorie picks it up, their eyes meet, and two souls connect... -
That Woman Next Door by Harper Bliss
Sometimes what you're running from is exactly what you need. Olivia Chevalier is perfectly happy living a quiet life of solitude with her two cats in the tempestuous countryside of Brittany. Olivia’s peace is disrupted when heartbreaker extraordinaire Marie Dievart moves in to the holiday home next door after an event at work makes her flee her everyday life... -
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Two is a Pattern by Emily Waters
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA charged lesbian romantic suspense set in the early nineties, with gripping twists, turns, and surprising secrets. A mission gone wrong leads to rising-star CIA operative Annie Weaver quitting her job and reinventing herself as a college student. But the CIA, desperate for her skills, refuses to let her go without a price...Categorized as:
forced proximity queer bisexual f-f age difference contemporary suspense length-short -
Different Worlds by Lily Seabrooke
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNatasha Seychelle, heiress to the vast Seychelle Enterprise, has been on a crumbling road ever since losing her mother. Losing her friends, falling away from her work responsibilities, and sinking deeper into depression, rumors are she won’t be able to succeed the company at the end of the summer. Annelise Benson just lost her kitchen job and is in freefall...Categorized as:
forced proximity queer f-f from hate to love boss & employee contemporary new adult length-medium -
Love Like This by Melissa Brayden
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsSometimes the most imperfect match is the most perfect surprise. Hadley Cooper believes in happily-ever-afters with her whole heart. Described by her friends as a wide-eyed, eternal optimist, she looks for the bright side in most any situation... -
Run To You by Georgia Beers
Welcome to Junebug Farms, a successful, well-known animal shelter in upstate New York, where every day brings something new—love, stress, heartbreak, warmth—and not just from the animals. Catherine Gardner knows what it means to work hard. Growing up with little, it's pretty much all she's done for most of her life. As the bookkeeper for Junebug Farms, she handles the money... -
Home for the Holidays by Erin Zak
When Iris Abbott, alongside her best friend and roommate Zac Nowak, returns to his hometown, the sleepy familiarity of Indiana holds more than just nostalgia. Little does Iris know that her own journey of self-discovery is about to take an unexpected turn. Enter Heidi, a breathtaking woman who captivates Iris from the moment their eyes meet... -
Capture the Moment by KC Luck
Sometimes all it takes to find love is a little courage. After being fired from her job and faced with a dwindling bank account, Jennifer Harris finds herself at a crossroads, uncertain of her next move. When her best friend suggests that she stay at a cabin on the edge of her family’s property for a few weeks, Jennifer reluctantly agrees...
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