Books like 'From the Start'

Readers who enjoyed From the Start by Cheryl Etchison also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  romance  small town  military, war & conflict  action / adventure  war  military  female-mc  literary-fiction

  • Nixon's Promise by Riley Edwards

    Nixon's Promise by Riley Edwards

    Rated: 4.75 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Former Navy SEAL Nixon Swagger is home. After twelve years of service and twice as many deployments, all Nix wanted was quiet. He’d sought the solace of the land he’d grown up on and found the peace he needed to silence the noise and figure out his next move. Nixon’s stay was supposed to be temporary...
  • Blood Vows by Cara Carnes, Shauna Kruse

    Blood Vows by Cara Carnes, Shauna Kruse

    Rated: 4.80 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    He’s sworn to find his son. Dallas Mason did whatever was necessary to survive his stint in black ops. While in the Collective, there was no line he wouldn’t cross, and no mission he wouldn’t take. He bedded the enemy to secure his freedom and return to his brothers and build a new life, where the lines between right and wrong are sometimes blurred, but never erased...
  • Chasin's Surrender by Riley Edwards

    Chasin's Surrender by Riley Edwards

    Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Chasin Murray found The One. His perfect match. And in a single act of stupidity he threw her away.Genevieve Ellison is not a woman Chasin can forget, even if she was only his for the weekend. But now that she’s back in his life, the last thing she wants is a reconciliation. And with her comes a deadly secret, one that blindsides the former SEAL...
  • Menace by Laramie Briscoe

    Menace by Laramie Briscoe

    Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    The sexy, single dad of the MTF finally gets his turn....... Mason “Menace” Harrison “Single and ready to mingle……” Those are the words above every picture of almost every female that strikes my interest on this dating app my son talked me into getting...
  • Battle Scars by Cara Carnes

    Battle Scars by Cara Carnes

    Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Scars don’t always heal… Jesse Mason chose duty over love and endured the hell of captivity comforted only with thoughts of the woman he left behind. Though the physical damage has healed, the emotional battle continues now that he’s home. He fakes happy and whole until Ellie is thrust back into his life. She’s everything he ever wanted but can never have...
  • Sight Lines by Cara Carnes, Shauna Kruse

    Sight Lines by Cara Carnes, Shauna Kruse

    Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    They took her best friend. Now she’s taking them down. Viviana “Quillery” Chambers has one mission: find the people behind Hive’s betrayal and take them down. She and her best friend are the most sought after back office operatives around. She’ll stop at nothing to keep her new team and family at The Arsenal safe...
  • Light After Dark by Marie Force

    Light After Dark by Marie Force

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Mallory Vaughn is at a crossroads in her life. A year after learning that Big Mac McCarthy is her father, she’s spending more and more time on Gansett Island, surrounded by the large and boisterous McCarthy family. When she’s laid off from her longtime job, Mallory goes to visit her family on Gansett and tries to figure out the next chapter...
  • A Lot Like Christmas: A Small Town Southern Romance by Kait Nolan, Susan Bischoff

    A Lot Like Christmas: A Small Town Southern Romance by Kait Nolan, Susan Bischoff

    Rated: 4.75 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Jaded Army medic Ryan Malone never expected his next mission would bring him back from Afghanistan to tiny Wishful, Mississippi. His great uncle's health is failing and the cantankerous old coot has pushed everyone in the family away. Ryan is their last resort to get Uncle Percy to move into assisted living before he breaks a hip—or something worse...
  • Angel by Janie Crouch

    Angel by Janie Crouch

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Even angels have their demons Jordan Reiss is well aware that if she was on fire the entire town of Oak Creek would probably go inside and make a sandwich. She can’t blame them. Her father scammed half the town out of their retirement funds, and then she…She did so much worse.She doesn’t expect forgiveness...
  • Jameson's Salvation by Riley Edwards

    Jameson's Salvation by Riley Edwards

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    If there was ever a time when Jameson Grant wished he was a different sort of man, it was now. The sort of man who had it in him to accept the promise of tomorrow from a sweet woman. But he wasn’t the kind of man who liked sweet. The former SEAL didn’t like much of anything or anyone...
  • Finding Peace: Baytown Boys by Maryann Jordan

    Finding Peace: Baytown Boys by Maryann Jordan

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    The Baytown Boys Mysteries Military duty called them away to war zones, but after tours overseas, the group of friends found their way back home as men, seeking the peaceful little seaside town. Now, the band of brothers, together once more, work to provide a place for less fortunate veterans to call home...
  • A SEAL's Desire by Cora Seton

    A SEAL's Desire by Cora Seton

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Ten years ago, in the middle of a natural disaster, Navy SEAL Greg Devon lost his heart to a young documentary film director, and when he found out she’d been put in charge of Base Camp, a reality television show, he jumped at the chance to participate. Now he’s in big trouble. If he doesn’t marry in forty days, the sustainable community he’s helping to build will be bulldozed...
  • Love in a Sandstorm by Zoe York

    Love in a Sandstorm by Zoe York

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    A standalone military romance in the gripping Pine Harbour series of small town romances from ten-time USAT bestselling author Zoe York. Captain Sean Foster came back from war broken from the inside out. And he doesn't care about being fixed. Not even by a woman who followed him halfway around the world due to some misguided loyalty...
  • Zero Trace by Cara Carnes

    Zero Trace by Cara Carnes

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Don’t get noticed. Zoey “Zero D” Danson thought it was an easy rule to follow. For years she toiled in cubicle 12A of the NSA’s data farm compiling security briefings and Intelligence reports. But she put her neck on the line and burned a dirty government operation to keep a covert ops team alive. Now she’s “one of them.” She’s not a nameless, faceless civilian anymore...
  • A Hero's Heart: Resolution Ranch by Tessa Layne

    A Hero's Heart: Resolution Ranch by Tessa Layne

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    The second book in this captivating new series from USA Today Bestselling Author, Tessa Layne. Featuring five stand-alone books with HEA’s and your favorite characters from the Cowboys of the Flint Hills series...
  • Babysitter Bear by Zoe Chant

    Babysitter Bear by Zoe Chant

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    He takes care of other people's kids ... but he craves a family of his own.Enter a single mom waitress with a broken heart and a whole lot of trouble behind her.Army vet Dan is still figuring out how to deal with being a three-legged bear, but it turns out kids don’t care how many limbs he has as long as he’s willing to be a climbing frame...
  • The Butterfly Effect (Boggy Creek Valley) by Kelly Elliott

    The Butterfly Effect (Boggy Creek Valley) by Kelly Elliott

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    The butterfly effect — one small change, one moment in time that impacts the future.At twenty-six years old I never dreamed I’d walk in on my husband in bed with my best friend. At twenty-seven years old I found myself divorced, and the mother of a one-year-old son. Never mind I was learning to take the reins of my family’s apple orchard business...
  • Eggnog Makes Her Easy by Erin Nicholas

    Eggnog Makes Her Easy by Erin Nicholas

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Lindsey is expecting silent nights this holiday. Just her and her boys while her husband serves overseas. But her blue Christmas turns merry when things start rockin’ under the mistletoe thanks to a surprise gift from her naughty Santa.Which is fine. The nice list is overrated anyway...
  • Drifter by Kristy Marie

    Drifter by Kristy Marie

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Tit for tat. These are the rules I live by. But don’t think this is some kind of cutesy story of a boy and a girl with a simple misunderstanding. This a story of a girl who hates and a boy who loves. This is a story about how weakness became my strength. This is our story. Drifter is a stand-alone in the Commander in Briefs Series. The series has crossover characters from each novel...
  • Beyond Affection by Abbie Zanders

    Beyond Affection by Abbie Zanders

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Shane Callaghan is used to drawing female attention, but this is the first time a woman actually drooled over him. From the moment he spotted the pretty blonde catching a few Z’s during his lecture, a spark ignited deep in his chest. And each minute he spends with the gentle-hearted Kindergarten teacher only fans the flames...
  • Wild Man Creek by Robyn Carr

    Wild Man Creek by Robyn Carr

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Colin Riordan came to Virgin River to recuperate from a horrific helicopter crash, the scars of which he bears inside and out. His family is wonderfully supportive, but it's his art that truly soothes his troubled soul. Stung personally and professionally by an ill-advised affair, PR guru Jillian Matlock has rented an old Victorian with a promising garden in Virgin River...
  • I Want to Hold Your Hand by Marie Force

    I Want to Hold Your Hand by Marie Force

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    For the Abbott siblings, the Green Mountain state has always been an idyllic place to call home...
  • Kiwi Rules by Rosalind James

    Kiwi Rules by Rosalind James

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Need an escape? Coming soon: The brand-new, snarky, steamy, Kiwi-centric series by the bestselling author of Escape to New Zealand.  Afghanistan hadn't quite killed me. Karen Sinclair just might.You don't find many too-pretty rich boys in the New Zealand Defense Force. Turns out there's a reason for that. Fortunately, you can find your true self in the oddest places...
  • Truth Be Told by Marie James

    Truth Be Told by Marie James

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Lies ruin lives.Ignacio Torres, the translator for Blackbridge Security, has told his fair share and then some.He lied more than once to Tinley Holland when they were teens.Told her he didn’t love her.Told her he could live without her.Told her what they shared didn’t mean a thing.He’s lived with those lies, lived with the loss of her for over a decade...
  • Ranger's Baby by Elle James

    Ranger's Baby by Elle James

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Duncan McKinnon is on leave from the Army Rangers to help his brothers find their missing father. Having sustained a shrapnel wound to the leg, his continued military service is up before a medical review board. A chance meeting in the airport with the woman he’d seduced on his last trip home makes him want to launch a mission to rekindle their desire...
  • Wind Chime Wedding by Sophie Moss

    Wind Chime Wedding by Sophie Moss

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Second grade teacher Becca Haddaway is weeks away from walking down the aisle with her high school sweetheart when she learns that the Heron Island Elementary School is about to be shut down. Knowing that losing the school would devastate the fragile island community, Becca pushes aside her wedding plans to save it...
  • Southern Sunshine by Natasha Madison

    Southern Sunshine by Natasha Madison

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Reed I never wanted to be a cowboy, living in a small town was suffocating.The military was my out.I saw every place I ever wanted and everything that nightmares are made of. Until I almost lost my life and then I ended up back home.HazelFinding out that I was pregnant the night before I left for college changed everything.I left that small town and vowed to never return...
  • Serve and Protect: a small town romantic suspense novel by Lori Ryan

    Serve and Protect: a small town romantic suspense novel by Lori Ryan

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    She’s hiding from memories that could tear her apart. He knows getting her to face her past is the key to the most important murder investigation he’ll ever handle. Ashley Walker was one of the lucky ones. Adopted when she was fourteen years old by a family who loved her as their own and stuck beside her through all she put them through. She can’t outrun the hell of her past, though...
  • Ghost: A Linear Tactical Romantic Suspense Standalone by Janie Crouch

    Ghost: A Linear Tactical Romantic Suspense Standalone by Janie Crouch

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Everyone eventually breaks under torture. It’s a truth elite solider and government agent Dorian Lindstrom, codename Ghost, knows firsthand. His body may have recovered from what was done to him in that Afghani prison six years ago, but his mind…not quite so much.He’s seeing dead people.Grace Brandt, government codename Wraith, knows her past can’t be forgiven...
  • Guardian Angel: Callaghan Brothers, Book 5 by Abbie Zanders

    Guardian Angel: Callaghan Brothers, Book 5 by Abbie Zanders

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    They call him the Iceman. The eldest of seven brothers, he is the biggest. The coldest. The meanest. No one has been able to break through the icy shield Kane Callaghan has built around himself. No one except the tiny, stubborn woman willing to sacrifice herself for him. She haunts his dreams, but he has no idea who she is. Where she is. Or if he’ll ever see her again...
  • My Everything - Seth & Amber by Melanie Shawn

    My Everything - Seth & Amber by Melanie Shawn

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Strong. Sexy. Skilled. Seth Sloan is returning to Harper’s Crossing a decorated war hero. As the leader of a Special Forces Marine Elite Unit Seth is trained to handle any situation…except one. An injury sustained in combat forced him to accept a medical discharge. Now he’s heading back to his hometown to reconnect with his family and a world he doesn’t recognize...
  • No Broken Beast by Nicole Snow

    No Broken Beast by Nicole Snow

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Fierce. Scarred. Ginormous grump.And I get to tell him he's a father...Brilliant life decisions--falling for the bad guy.Leo damn Regis. Hated scourge of Heart's Edge.A wall with arms and legs. Hercules dipped in ink. Incandescent eyes.The legend, the outcast, the boy I loved.But the man they call "Nine" isn't the villain they think.He saved my life and seared my heart once upon a messed up time...
  • Collision Course by Julie Trettel

    Collision Course by Julie Trettel

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    There's little worse than your best friend finding out you're crushing on his baby sister.That was eight years ago. Baine lost everything, the girl, his clan, and his best friend. Smiles and jokes are his defense to cover the pain he still harbors. He hasn't been home since, but a mission to save his clan from a Raglan threat has him on a collision course to face his past...
  • Living with the Single Dad by Whitley Cox

    Living with the Single Dad by Whitley Cox

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    A pain so powerful can only be eased by a love even stronger. Welcome to Seattle, the Emerald City and home to The Single Dads of Seattle. Ten sexy single fathers who play poker every Saturday night, have each other's backs, love their children without quarter, and hope to one day find love again.This is Aaron's story ... Single Dad of Seattle, Aaron Steele isn't a single dad at all...
  • Montana SEAL Friendly Fire by Elle James

    Montana SEAL Friendly Fire by Elle James

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Trevor Anderson gave up his life as a Navy SEAL when he lost his best friend in an ambush. Before his friend died, he’d promised him he’d take care of his wife, should anything happen to him. Trevor left the Navy and returned to his home state of Montana to follow through on that promise...
  • Adam by Roxanne St. Claire

    Adam by Roxanne St. Claire

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    7 Brides for 7 Soldiers Fall in love with seven sexy and irresistible soldiers who find their courage and heart tested like never before in the battle for love! This multi-author collaborative series of contemporary romance novels is brought to you by bestselling authors Barbara Freethy, Roxanne St. Claire, Christie Ridgway, Lynn Raye Harris, Julia London, Cristin Harber and Samantha Chase...
  • Ford: 7 Brides for 7 Soldiers Book 7 by Samantha Chase

    Ford: 7 Brides for 7 Soldiers Book 7 by Samantha Chase

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Fall in love with seven sexy and irresistible soldiers who find their courage and heart tested like never before in the battle for love! This multi-author collaborative series of contemporary romance novels is brought to you by bestselling authors Barbara Freethy, Roxanne St. Claire, Christie Ridgway, Lynn Raye Harris, Julia London, Cristin Harber and Samantha Chase...
  • Last Chance Harbor by Vickie McKeehan

    Last Chance Harbor by Vickie McKeehan

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Twenty years ago, a pair of lovers disappear into the night to begin a new life. But is that really what happened?New principal Julianne Dickinson is overseeing the renovation of the brand-new elementary school when an old wooden box surfaces among the rubble...
  • Bayou Baby by Lexi Blake

    Bayou Baby by Lexi Blake

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    A heartwarming contemporary romance set in Louisiana's Butterfly Bayou from New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake.   Seraphina Guidry loves Butterfly Bayou. A young, single mom, she’s trying to find a place for herself in the town she cherishes, but past mistakes have made her wary. She adores her son but has sworn off men...
  • Love on a Summer Night by Zoe York

    Love on a Summer Night by Zoe York

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Never say never. Especially not to a determined bad boy. Zander Minelli is exactly the wrong kind of man. He’s dark, dangerous, and knows far too much about sawed-off shotguns. Faith Davidson finds him irresistible. The widowed single mother knows she should dip her toe back in the dating pool with someone solid and dependable. Definitely no tattoos...
  • Protecting Sam by Abbie Zanders

    Protecting Sam by Abbie Zanders

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Where there's "Smoke", there's definitely fire. Former SEAL Steve "Smoke" Tannen is finding the transition back to civilian life more of a challenge than he'd expected. Not only is he dealing with the aftereffects of a horrific ordeal overseas, he doesn’t know what normal is anymore...
  • Savage Rising by Katie Reus

    Savage Rising by Katie Reus

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    From USA Today bestselling author Katie Reus comes the second book in the ALL NEW Redemption Harbor series where sparks fly and so do bullets… He's a former Marine, her new fake boyfriend, and the only way to escape her dangerous past. Having a child changed everything for Olivia—she vowed to keep her little girl safe from the mistakes of her past...
  • Sunrise Point by Robyn Carr

    Sunrise Point by Robyn Carr

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Tom Cavanaugh may think he wants a traditional woman, but in Virgin River, the greatest tradition is falling in love unexpectedly....Former Marine Tom Cavanaugh’s come home to Virgin River, ready to take over his family’s apple orchard and settle down. He knows just what the perfect woman will be like: sweet, decent, maybe a little naive. The marrying kind.Nothing like Nora Crane...
  • Angel's Peak by Robyn Carr

    Angel's Peak by Robyn Carr

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    FOUR YEARS AGO, AIR FORCE SWEETHEARTS FRANCI DUNCAN AND SEAN RIORDAN REACHED AN IMPASSE. SHE WANTED MARRIAGE AND A FAMILY. HE DIDN'T. BUT A CHANCE MEETING PROVES THAT THE BITTER BREAKUP HASN'T COOLED THEIR SIZZLING CHEMISTRY. Sean has settled down in spite of himself --- he's not the cocky young fighter pilot he was when Franci left, and he wants them to try again...
  • Moonlight Road by Robyn Carr

    Moonlight Road by Robyn Carr

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    WITH HER BELOVED YOUNGER SIBLINGS SETTLED AND HAPPY, ERIN FOLEY HAS EMPTY NEST SYNDROME. AT AGE THIRTY-FIVE. So she's hitting the pause button on her life and holing up in a secluded (but totally upgraded --- she's not into roughing it!) cabin near Virgin River. Erin is planning on getting to know herself ... not the shaggy-haired mountain man she meets...
  • My Kind of Christmas by Robyn Carr

    My Kind of Christmas by Robyn Carr

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    PATRICK RIORDAN ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT NOTHING COULD MATCH THE ADRENALINE RUSH HE GETS FROM HIS JOB. BUT THIS CHRISTMAS, PATRICK’S PULSE IS REALLY RACING... The Riordan brothers may have a reputation for being rough-and tumble, but Patrick has always been the gentle, sweet-natured one. These days, his easygoing manner is being tested by his high-octane career as a navy pilot...
  • Quadruplets for the Mountain Man: A Mountain Man's Baby Romance by K.C. Crowne

    Quadruplets for the Mountain Man: A Mountain Man's Baby Romance by K.C. Crowne

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    A standalone novel from the bestselling Mountain Men of Liberty Series. "Hold up!! Did you say FOUR heartbeats?" My babies' father is a war hero. Beautifully broken mountain man. And my brother's best friend. Basically... the one I've wanted since adolescence. I can't even process the fact I'm having his babies. Four babies!!!! Ground Rules of our Arrangement: #1...
  • It's In His Arms by Shelly Alexander

    It's In His Arms by Shelly Alexander

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Lorenda Lawson has built a safe, sheltered life for her two young sons since their father was KIA several years ago. She has a beautiful cottage and a support network of family and friends. No one in Red River suspects that her marriage to Cam was ever less than perfect. Nobody, that is, except the gorgeous ex-SEAL who’s shown up after a long absence: Cam’s notorious twin brother, Mitchell...
  • Her Hopes and Dreams by Terri Osburn

    Her Hopes and Dreams by Terri Osburn

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    As a newly single mother, Carrie Farmer isn’t quite ready to jump back into the dating pool in Ardent Springs—especially since her last marriage was such a disaster. But if anyone could entice her to wade in a bit, it would be her hunky neighbor, Noah Winchester. He’s the perfect man: strong, protective, and smoking hot...
  • Enemy Zone: Enemies-to-Lovers Standalone Healing-Love Military Romance (Trident Rescue) by Alex Lidell

    Enemy Zone: Enemies-to-Lovers Standalone Healing-Love Military Romance (Trident Rescue) by Alex Lidell

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    I know all about guys like Cullen Hunt.Gorgeous. Wealthy. Powerful. I just fled New York to escape one. But when I reach Colorado, it’s either take a job at Cullen’s Trident Rescue or become homeless.And Cullen? He’s worse than I thought. Controlling. Demanding. Jerk.A grenade always teetering on the edge.He’s also hot as sin and makes my toes curl.I hate that I dream about him...
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