friendstolovers

A Shore Thing

by Emily Shacklette

Juliette Matthews has chased light across the globe—from the Andes to North Africa—but nothing throws her off balance quite like being back at her family’s Jersey Shore summer home. Especially when “temporary” starts looking a lot like staying… and Wesley Olson is everywhere she turns. Wesley never left Ocean City—and never forgot the girl next door who wrecked him in the best and worst ways. He’s spent seventeen years building a life that’s safe, steady, and entirely Juliette-free. That is, until, she shows back up on his front porch like the prettiest ghost he’s ever seen. Because one look at her, and suddenly the past isn’t so past. The summer is hotter, the tension thicker, and staying away? Not an option. Not when every shared glance feels like a dare—and every touch reminds them exactly what they lost. This summer, Juliette and Wesley will have to decide—were they destined to be nothing more than a summer fling…or have they always been a shore thing? [Read More]

Because Fate Said So

by R. B. Gourley

A guarded heart. An unyielding wall of morals. And a collision course with destiny. Connor Byrne is a dedicated Brisa Heights paramedic whose life is governed by a tight routine. He manages the raw chaos of the first-responder ranks with effortless clinical skill, but off-duty, he keeps his heart under lock and key. Trapped behind a multi-generational legacy of family tragedy, Connor weaponizes a flawless moral high ground like a protective shield. His rigid rules are a psychological bunker designed to prevent him from ever being vulnerable enough to risk failing in a relationship. But when a cold morning call for service completely fractures his world with a shattering discovery of betrayal, his carefully guarded perimeter is permanently breached. Enter Brandi Schmidt: a sharp, fiercely independent, and quick-witted Brisa Heights Police Officer. A former Marine and a martial arts black belt, Brandi is a formidable force on the street who commands absolute authority. Yet, she approaches her private life with a resilient, clear-eyed honesty. She is the last person Connor ever expected to pull him out of the wreckage of his life. Intrigued by the quiet, capable paramedic she has crossed paths with on mutual-aid calls, Brandi intentionally shifts her world to cross his path, meeting his stubborn, guarded distance with an unforced warmth that begins to systematically thaw his defenses. WHAT ARC READERS CAN EXPECT: * Dual-POV, Slow-Burn Pacing: An organic intimacy built through raucous weekly group dinners. * Mutual Competence: Hyper-competent leads who protect each other as equal partners on and off the street. * A Mature Subversion of the Genre: A sophisticated, deeply moving look at how two people can do the hard work to salvage a protective post-divorce friendship. * Healing Multi-Generational Trauma: A profound thematic payoff about throwing away the fear of vulnerability to build a foundation designed to last. [Read More]

Talk to Me at Midnight

by Stephanie Harina

The voice that once saved her nights is now her trainer at work. Forced out of Bangkok by her dad, Yannie finds comfort in one thing: a mysterious voice who calls her every midnight. He doesn’t know her. She doesn’t know him. And that’s exactly why it works. Until she moves to Manila. And the voice gets a face. Now a teaching intern navigating office politics and Manila slang, Yannie is assigned to Ash Anderson, her serious, exacting English curriculum trainer—who is nothing like the man she talks to every midnight. Except he is that man. To protect her secret, Yannie makes one rule: Ash must never recognize her. Not when he texts her under the table with that ridiculous grin. Not when he stands far too close while demonstrating materials. And definitely not when he singles her out to present in front of everyone… where she’s now a walking disaster in heels. But when her fake deep voice slips, his smirks sharpen, and Ash starts calling her at work, Yannie realizes midnight secrets don’t survive daylight... especially when trouble wears a suit and knows all her confessions. [Read More]

In Every Other Way

by Clementine Hart

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Elsie Morgan has two problems, and she's fairly sure they're unrelated. The first is her boss. Joshua Larsen is meticulous, maddening, and impossibly self-contained — the one man Elsie has spent two years being scrupulously, exhaustingly normal about. The second is @plaintext: the anonymous true-crime obsessive she's been arguing with online for eight months, who somewhere along the way became the person she tells everything. Including, lately, far too much about the boss. They are the same man. Elsie has no idea. Joshua finds out by accident, and it stops him cold: the woman he stays up talking to every night is the colleague he's been so carefully keeping at arm's length. And now he's the only one who knows. So he says nothing — and has no idea how long he can keep it that way. A slow-burn, dual-POV workplace romance for readers of Ali Hazelwood and Sarah Adams. [Read More]

Vanilla (with Sprinkles)

by Rosemary Victus

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Sam is so comfortable around Kalie because there is no way she's into him… Sam is wrong. Kalie left the west coast a year ago after a viral video blew up her whole life. She’s done wallowing and trying to take baby steps towards rebuilding herself. Sam was dumped by his girlfriend of five years. He's now that guy you know who talks about his ex way too often. As a chubby retail clerk nearing 30, trying to meet someone romantically seems futile. Kalie meets Sam at a New Year's party and settles for friends after a failed hook up attempt. Kalie can’t tell her new friends about her past; she has to at least pretend to be a sane person. Sam does whatever he can think of to conceal his growing crush. However, unbeknownst to Sam, his new friend, Kalie, is still trying her level best to bang the chubby retail clerk. [Read More]

Her Heart's Wish

by Dawn Baca

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Can a woman who built her life around everyone else finally choose love? Leila Durand has spent years being exactly who her family needed: a devoted mother, a doting grandmother, and the steady heart of the farm that saved her after loss. But when Yuri Petrova asks her to come to Saint Petersburg, the quiet life she has carefully built begins to feel less like safety and more like a beautiful cage. Yuri has always been a man of stars, students, and solitude—until one unforgettable Frenchwoman makes his orderly world feel suddenly incomplete. From their first meeting at a family wedding, Leila’s warmth, strength, and laughter unsettled him in ways no equation ever could. After three years of calls, letters, and longing, he is ready to stop loving her from a distance. Leila is falling for Yuri, but loving him means facing the grief, guilt, and fear she has buried beneath decades of devotion. Yuri is falling just as hard, but winning Leila’s heart may mean leaving behind the life, career, and country that have defined him. When distance, family ties, and old wounds threaten to keep them apart, Leila must decide whether being wanted is worth the risk of finally being seen. Will she cling to the life that made her feel necessary—or open her heart to the man who makes her feel chosen? Her Heart’s Wish is an emotional later-in-life romance about second chances, found family, healing after grief, and the brave, terrifying joy of beginning again. Perfect for readers who love mature heroines, patient heroes, slow-burn longing, complicated families, European settings, and love stories where the biggest battle is learning to believe happiness is still allowed. Read Her Heart’s Wish today and fall in love with a romance that proves it’s never too late to choose your own happily ever after. [Read More]