Chloe Mills is finishing her MBA while interning at Ryan Media Group, where Bennett Ryan, the boss's son, demands perfection and makes her work late. Their arguments turn into a charged contest of wills, and neither can stay away from the other. The affair is reckless, secret, and complicated by the fact that Bennett signs her paychecks.
Los Angeles gallery owner Solène, thirty-nine, takes her daughter to a boy band meet-and-greet and catches the attention of Hayes, the band's twenty-year-old singer. Their secret relationship soon grows serious, but his fame and the age gap turn their private happiness into a public storm.
When nineteen-year-old Jordan and her boyfriend have nowhere else to go, they move in with his father, Pike. Sharing the house, she finds in the guarded older man the steadiness her life has lacked, and they both fight an attraction that is off-limits by every rule that matters.
Elena is the favoured, docile daughter of a mafia boss, expected to keep the family's reputation spotless. When her sister is arranged to marry Nicolas Russo, a feared Made Man from a rival family, Elena is drawn into his orbit against her better judgment. He is rude, dangerous and always near, and the attraction between them turns a family alliance into a scandal waiting to happen.
After years with her strict grandparents, eighteen-year-old Reese moves in with the mother she barely knows. When her mother leaves town, Reese is left with Fisher, her mother's charming landlord, and their ten-year age gap turns the close quarters into a forbidden attraction.
Eighteen-year-old Francesca Rossi is promised to Angelo Bandini, the heir to a Chicago crime family, until a stolen kiss with Senator Wolfe Keaton changes everything. Wolfe forces her into marriage to punish her father, and Francesca is caught between two dangerous men while her own feelings turn against her.
Zahra Gulian works at Dreamland's Magic Wand Salon and has long been frustrated by the park's uninspired new rides. After a drunken critique of Dreamland accidentally lands in the company's creative proposal contest, she is promoted to the Creator team—directly under Dreamland's cold, exacting director, Rowan Kane. Working for him was not part of her plan, and neither was the attraction that grows between them.
ER doctor Alexis is thirty-seven and boxed in by her wealthy surgical family's plans for her. In the small town of Wakan she meets Daniel, a carpenter and mayor nine years younger, and a casual fling turns into a love that neither of their separate worlds seems willing to allow.
Lincoln O'Neill takes a night job monitoring a newspaper's email system and finds himself reading the messages between Beth and Jennifer. Their friendship and jokes draw him in, but he cannot reply without revealing his role. By the time he falls for Beth, meeting her means confessing what he has been doing.
Erika has crushed on Michael Crist, her best friend's older brother, for years. After a night that ends in scandal, she joins the same elite university as Michael and his friends, who hold her responsible for a past wrong. Their revenge turns into a dangerous game neither can control.
Rivals at a Seattle public radio station, veteran producer Shay and know-it-all newcomer Dominic are forced to host a relationships show while posing as exes. Working side by side on air, their barbed banter draws listeners and slowly turns into a connection neither of them planned.
Caleb has spent twelve years hunting the mobster who kidnapped him and sold him into slavery. To get close to his target, he abducts eighteen-year-old Olivia and begins training her as a sex slave. Bound and isolated, Olivia fears her captor, but her growing attraction to him makes escape even harder.
Stevie takes a job as a flight attendant on a hockey team's private plane, determined to keep her distance from players. Evan Zanders, the team's most disliked star, seems equally determined to provoke her. Long road trips and shared flights blur the line between irritation and attraction, even though both have reasons to stay away.
Stand-up comic Farley and her grumpy manager Meyer have been best friends and secret crushes for years. When a television opportunity requires a stable image, they fake a relationship, and the line between performance and real love disappears.
ER doctor Briana blurts out that she is dating a colleague to escape an awkward moment, and anxious Dr. Jacob plays along. Pretending to be a couple at his family gatherings brings the two reserved people closer, one quiet gesture at a time.
Iris Landry has worked as Declan Kane's assistant long enough to know his rules. When his grandfather's will ties Declan's inheritance and his chance to take over the family's media empire to marrying and having an heir, his arranged fiancée backs out—and Iris volunteers to take her place. They move in together, perform affection in public, and try not to confuse the terms of their contract with what they actually feel.
Hanna Bergstrom has buried herself in graduate school, so her older brother asks his best friend, Will Sumner, to help her get out and start dating. Will is a venture capitalist who avoids commitment, but their lessons in romance soon turn into something neither expected.
Lucy and Joshua are assistants at the same publishing house, forced to share an office while competing for one promotion. Their open hostility and elaborate office games hide an attraction neither will admit, until a single reckless moment changes the rules between them.
Single mother April Parker plans to sell her house now that her daughter is leaving for college. Her friend Mitch Malone agrees to help with repairs if she will pretend to be his girlfriend at a family dinner. The favour turns into a weekend away, where one hotel bed forces both to admit what they have been avoiding.
Catalina needs a date for her sister's wedding in Spain and claims she is bringing her American boyfriend. Her infuriating coworker Aaron volunteers to play the part, and the two must keep up the act through a week of family dinners, sightseeing and shared hotel rooms.
Ruthie Midona runs a retirement village and keeps her life small until the owner's tattooed, easy-going son, Teddy Prescott, is installed in an on-site cottage and made assistant to two eccentric residents. Teddy has no plan and no filter, but his warmth slowly coaxes Ruthie out of the careful shell she built around herself.
Rosie Belmont returns to her small town and comes face to face with Ford Grant, her older brother's best friend and the man she has known since childhood. Ford is now a single father and a reluctant billionaire, and the pull between them soon becomes impossible to dismiss.
Emma Corrigan is a junior marketing assistant at Panther Cola in London, stuck in a safe relationship and a job she cannot quite master. When her plane hits turbulence, she spills every secret to a stranger beside her. Back at the office, the stranger turns out to be Jack Harper, the company's founder, and he remembers everything she said.
Anxious tech genius Charlie is the reluctant star of a reality dating show, and producer Dev is tasked with helping him connect with the contestants. Behind the cameras their unlikely friendship turns into a romance that neither can script.
Start with “Beautiful Bastard”, “The Idea of You”, “Birthday Girl”: they are the closest to “Praise” in tropes and mood. Under each book in the list you will see what exactly it has in common.
How are similar books chosen?
We compare tropes (for “Praise” these are Age Gap Romance, Forbidden Love, Office Romance), genre, plot, era and tone. It is not “readers also bought”; it is similarity in the content itself.
Are there recent books in this list?
Yes. Among the newer ones are “Beautiful Bastard”, “The Idea of You”, “Birthday Girl”. Switch the “Modern” filter to keep only books from 2000 onward.
