Recommendations based on "The Hard Way"

A national bestseller!When it comes to romance, sometimes it doesn't hurt to play games. A fun YA romcom full of fake dating hijinks!Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she's grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop.Riley can't waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous.But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game…or that role playing would be so fun. Soon, Riley starts to think that flirting with Nathan doesn't require as much acting as she would've thought...

Bestselling and award-winning author Mason Deaver’s adult romance debut follows a journalist in a dead-end job who agrees to teach his disastrous blind date how to be a better boyfriend. Readers will delight in this sweet and steamy queer romance with trans representation!Eli Francis is stuck. Stuck in an assistant position at the online magazine Vent when he should be a writer. Stuck with a boss who dangles a promotion but would rather he just fetch the coffee. Stuck working alongside the ex who has had no trouble moving up at work…or moving on.When Eli’s roommates push him to date so he can get over his ex once and for all, they set him up with Peter Park. Tall, handsome, and unbelievably awkward. The date is a complete disaster, and further proof to Eli that love isn’t for him. But when his boss overhears Eli recounting the catastrophic night, he suggests teaching Peter to be a better boyfriend through a series of simulated dates so he can write an article about it.But Eli has other ideas…Eli plays along, pretending to write the article, while secretly interviewing Peter about growing up queer in the South and coming-of-age dating wise in adulthood. Eli hopes writing this sort of piece will finally get him the promotion he deserves. And in exchange, he will teach Peter how to be a better boyfriend.But the more time Eli spends with Peter, the closer they become, and the lines between what’s real and what’s fake begin to blur. Before long Eli is forced to face his greatest fears to become the writer he wants to be and secure the love he’s always needed.

Prim Victoria Forley’s perfect life changed forever the night she slept with Kyle Karlinsky, baddest boy in town. These days, single mom and über-perfectionist nurse Victoria has goals that nothing, not even Kyle’s shocking reappearance, can derail. But behind Victoria’s oh-so-frosty exterior is a heat that only Kyle can unleash.... Maybe it’s the right time to be with the wrong guy after all?

Alexandra Moody's BookTok sensation continues with Darling Devils #2: Grumpy Darling — perfect for fans of Hannah Grace, clean romance, and slow-burn fire on the ice!She's never been kissed. He's never felt this way about anyone.Paige has ticked off everything on her senior year bucket list except one tiny thing — she’s never kissed anyone. And her best friend, Grayson Darling, is to blame.Grayson is the school hockey team’s notorious enforcer, and he’s been scaring away any eligible bachelors that so much as look in Paige’s direction. With time running out, she demands that Grayson stop defending her honor. Instead, he’ll become her dating coach, training her to win the guy of her dreams.But Grayson has plans of his own. He’s been in love with Paige since they were kids, and his clock is running, too. Coaching Paige might be his last chance to show her how good they’d be together. After all, practice makes perfect.

An all-new print edition with exclusive bonus content, the #SpicyTok favorite GAME ON series by New York Times bestselling author Kristen Callihan brings the heat. Are you ready for it?“The Friend Zone is an exquisite, delicious cupcake of a book. You will gobble it down and hunger for more.”—SARINA BOWEN, New York Times bestselling authorThey started as strangers texting…The last thing star tight end Gray Grayson wants to do is drive his agent’s daughter’s hot-pink car. But he needs the wheels and she’s studying abroad.Unknown: Mr. Grayson, my father tells me he lent you my car. I don’t care if he’s going to sign you or not. As said agent’s daughter, I know football players & their ways. So let me be clear. There will be no shenanigans taking place in it or you’ll answer to me. You want to hook up with someone, do it in a bed and not in my car. Sincerely, Ivy MackenzieGrayG: Hey, Miss Mac. You do realize your car is a bubblegum-pink Fiat, right? Even if I could get it up surrounded by all that heinous pink, the car is better suited for Lilliputians. So don’t worry, there will be no shenanigans (Shenanigans? Srsly? What are we, 80?) anywhere near the car. I’m not about to pull a hamstring in the pursuit of pleasure. BTW beds are overrated. Branch out a little.Soon became best-texting buddies…Gray Grayson drives Ivy nuts. He’s irreverent, sex on a stick and completely off-limits. Because Ivy has one golden rule: never get involved with one of her father’s clients.But when they finally meet in person, everything goes haywire. Game on.

She's a tomboy. He's the boy next door.With three older brothers, Charlotte Reynolds, aka Charlie, has always been more comfortable calling the shots on a basketball court than flirting with the opposite sex. So when her police officer dad demands she get a summer job to pay for the latest in a long line of speeding tickets, she's more than a little surprised to find herself working at a chichi boutique and going out with a boy who has never seen her tear it up in a pickup game. Charlie seeks late-night refuge in her backyard, talking out her problems with her neighbor and honorary fourth brother, Braden, sitting back-to-back against the fence that separates them. Braden may know her better than anyone. But there's a secret Charlie's keeping that even he hasn't figured out—she's fallen for him. Hard. She knows what it means to go for the win, but if spilling her secret means losing him for good, the stakes just got too high.On the Fence is a sweet and satisfying read about finding yourself and finding love where you least expect it.

America Mason, a sassy undergrad at Eastern State University, is in love with a Maddox--Shepley Maddox. Unlike his cousins, Shepley is more lover than fighter, but a road trip to her parents' home in Wichita, Kansas could mean the next step, or the end of everything.

I should've known better than to swap places with my twin sister. No one would ever believe that me, Claire Ward-the straight A student who never gets in trouble-, would impersonate her sister just to earn a night out with the guy she's crushed on forever. But how else could I get her best friend Finn to notice me? It would've worked perfectly. Except Finn wasn't the guy to pick me up that night. In Finn's place-wearing a perfectly tailored tux and looking like sin-is his brother, Bauer. Finn's exact opposite in every way, my date for the evening is a tattooed snowboarder with a sexy smirk and a chip on his shoulder the size of Mt. Olympus. I should've known better. Because now the good girl is stuck with the bad boy for the night, and the consequences of that are much bigger than I could have imagined.

Brooklyn's relationship with Damon has taken a left turn towards boredom until an over indulgent night at the casino leads to them waking up with a beautiful stranger in their bed who introduces them to a darker side of life fuled by 'candy.' A passing curiosity opens the doors to an alternative lifestyle that unearths dark desires and half-truths that will test the foundation of Brooklyn and Damon's relationship. Will their love for each other pull them out of the tailspin their lives have been thrown into or will the secrets they're keeping from each other tear them apart? Come find out if three is a crowd or a recipe for disaster in this sexy tale of love, lust and betrayal.

Jason is a basketball star and one of the most popular guys in school. Brainy Kyra isn't, but she doesn't much care what other people think. Under normal circumstances, Jason and Kyra would live in their separate worlds until graduation. But fate intervenes, and the unlikely duo is paired up for a class project. Although preconceived notions abound on both sides, Kyra soon realizes that Jason is not the dumb jock she anticipated. And Jason finds himself telling Kyra things he can't even tell his best friend. As the two become close and eventually start to fall in love, no one in school can believe it, especially Jason's ex-girlfriend, who is determined to get him back. Being together means navigating the obstacles that are coming their way-but staying apart may be impossible. Dana Davidson is a high school teacher who was the 2001 winner of the Newsweek WDIV Outstanding Teacher Award. This is her first book for young adults.