by Annabel Monaghan
First sentence: “‘Good sports.'”
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Release date: May 26, 2026
Content: There is some fade-to-black sex and mild swearing. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Dolly Brick is trying to live life. Her mother left the family when Dolly was 12, and she’s been taking care of things ever since. She got pregnant at 26, her boyfriend left her, and she’s been taking care of things ever since. And so, when she’s called because of a fire at her dad’s house, she and her son, Gus, head out there to take care of it. The problem, though, is that replacing the roof is going to cost $50,000. Which she doesn’t have. Enter Stewart Whitfield. He’s off a bad breakup with his fiancé, and is looking for a girlfriend so the board of his family’s company thinks he’s serious enough to be CEO. When he and Dolly accidentally meet, he comes up with a plan: he’ll give her the money she needs for the roof, and she will pretend to be his girlfriend for the summer.

Of course, things are more complicated than that. But I’m not sure it matters. I have discovered over the years that I like a good fake dating trope, and I do appreciate that Monaghan’s women are fully fleshed out people with concerns and hangups, and not young twenty-somethings who are just trying to figure things out. I also just really like the way she tells a story. It feels real, it feels fully dimensional.

And I really adore this particular story and the way it ended up. Everyone grew, everyone changed, and everyone’s lives were better for it in the end.

It was a delight.