Dear Mara readers,

As our Maraverse grows with new readers every day (which I’m immensely grateful for), I realized it’s time to explain where to start and where to go next.

Currently, there are three books in the Carve series, and all are standalones. This means that you can pick the one that is closest to your heart, start there, and continue with any other book.

Carve My Heart

The logical starting point would be the first book in the series, Carve My Heart. It is a sports romance with everything we love about the subgenre. There is a golden-boy athlete—a champion who has won it all but is missing that little something in his life. As romance readers, we know that “little something” is actually a little someone.

The only trouble is that his perfect match—his PR manager (because it’s a genius trope)—swore never to date an athlete, because it would threaten her career. After they share one steamy night (one-night-stand to lovers, my absolute favorite trope), she gets the job as the team’s PR genius (because, of course she does). What follows are months of slow-burning agony for them—and for the team, who must endure their endless flirting and tension. Of course, when the slow-burn finally combusts, it gets steamy and complicated.

https://penpinery.com/u/1089/carve-my-heart-a-steamy-forbidden-olympic-sports-romance-2/

Carve Me Free

The second book in the series, Carve Me Free, follows the next season.

It is for fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope. It is not that Elise and Nico want to kill each other, but their relationship is somewhat toxic in the beginning; they use each other and make each other miserable.

The book turns the class-gap trope upside down, as she is the wealthy one. This is a fresh variation on one of the oldest story archetypes of all time, tailored for modern romance. Carve Me Free is steamy as hell; their relationship still affects me, even after writing, editing, and re-reading the book. https://penpinery.com/u/1089/carve-me-free-a-steamy-enemiestolovers-forbidden-ski-romance-2/

Carve Me Golden

The final book, Carve Me Golden, still smells of fresh ink.

It begins as the ultimate fangirl fantasy: a girl gets stuck in a storm in the forced proximity of a ski gondola, and she seizes the opportunity for the hour of a lifetime. However, her crush turns out to be not just an incredible lover, but also the perfect “golden retriever.”

This complicates matters, as she is still recovering from a toxic relationship (and dealing with her abusive ex in real-time, on-page) and feels unready for a relationship. She wants to focus purely on her skiing career. But what if he—the ski champion, Olympic medalist, and Austria’s media darling—offers not just his bed, but also his coaching?

Could she resist that? Would you? https://penpinery.com/u/1089/carve-me-golden-1/

All of my books are currently available on Amazon in e-book and print formats, as well as via Kindle Unlimited or here as ACR copies.

With love, Mara