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.
Charlie needs money, so she goes to her ex-boyfriend's father, Emerson Grant, to collect a security deposit. He mistakes her for a new secretary and then hires her as his assistant; he is twice her age, owns the Salacious Players' Club, and expects absolute obedience. His praise gives her what her old relationship never did.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
LaRynn and Deacon married young, divorced, and hoped never to see each other again. When they inherit a crumbling building that must be renovated before it can be sold, they are stuck working side by side and confronting why they failed the first time.
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.
In Victorian England, Anna Champion offends the wealthy Christopher Davenport at a ball, and he sets out to ruin her. Using his charm and money, he turns her family's world upside down and brings her into his household. Anna fights back with wit and courage, even as their hatred turns into something more dangerous.
Jules Ambrose is focused on passing the bar exam, while doctor Josh Chen is her best friend's brother and her oldest rival. A single night together turns into an enemies-with-benefits arrangement, and when a ski trip with friends leaves them sharing one bed, their hostility and their attraction become impossible to separate.
When her father cannot pay a debt, he sells Roxy to the Vipers, four men who run the city's underworld. Held in their home, she refuses to submit and plots her revenge. The longer she stays, the more the line blurs between captor and lover, and the four men begin to claim her as their own.
Vanessa spends years as the assistant to Aiden Graves, a silent, demanding football star, and finally quits. He then turns up at her door to ask her back and follows it with a bigger request: a marriage of convenience that helps his immigration case. The practical bargain and the time it forces them to spend together wear down his reserve.
The Scottish king orders laird Alec Kincaid to take an English bride, and spirited Jamie is sent north to marry a warrior she has never met. Wedded for peace between two suspicious peoples, the stubborn pair battle for control of their marriage until respect and tenderness take root.
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.
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.
Jessica Trent comes to Paris to drag her foolish brother away from Sebastian Ballister, the Marquess of Dain, a notorious rake. Their battle of wills ends in a scandal, a duel and a marriage neither wanted, and two proud, guarded people slowly learn to trust each other.
Scarred and bitter, the Duke of Ashbury needs an heir, so he offers a plain marriage of convenience to Emma Gladstone, a vicar's daughter turned seamstress. She accepts on her own conditions. Inside his forbidding house, two wary strangers slowly discover warmth, trust and unexpected love.
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.
Rachel White is a thirty-year-old lawyer in New York who has always lived in the shadow of her glamorous best friend, Darcy. After a drunken night on her birthday, Rachel sleeps with Darcy's fiancé, Dex, a law-school classmate she has quietly loved for years. Their affair continues in secret, forcing Rachel to weigh loyalty, love, and the life she actually wants.
A public spat between the US president's son Alex and Britain's Prince Henry forces their handlers to stage a friendship for the cameras. What starts as reluctant damage control turns into late-night texts and a secret romance that neither man can keep hidden for long.
Astrologer Elle sets her sceptical friend Darcy up on a blind date that ends in disaster. To appease Darcy's brother they pretend the evening went well, then keep fake-dating through the holidays, even as real feelings complicate the act.
Minerva overhears her ex-boyfriend bet the charming Cal that he can get her into bed within a month, so she accepts his dinner invitation to turn the tables. The sceptical actuary and the commitment-shy businessman keep colliding through meddling friends and sheer bad luck, resisting an attraction neither of them wants.
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.
Start with “The Sweetest Oblivion”, “Praise”, “Corrupt”: they are the closest to “The Kiss Thief” 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 “The Kiss Thief” these are Age Gap Romance, Marriage of Convenience, Enemies to Lovers), 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 “The Sweetest Oblivion”, “Praise”, “Corrupt”. Switch the “Modern” filter to keep only books from 2000 onward.
