Showing results by author "Amelia Simone" in All Categories

Faking it for the holidays… Cheri Ellis Sexy scrooge Luke Wilcox seemed perfectly content brooding alone at his usual table. He shocked me with his offer to swap favors. Attending my sister’s wedding to shield me from my toxic family in exchange for pretending we’re a couple for the holidays? I didn’t think we could pull it off. Until he smiled at me… Luke Wilcox After what happened with my last business, how can I prove to my parents that I can run the family winery without them emerging from retirement to supervise me? Portraying a happy couple with Cheri is a good start. The ...

Love takes flight when a crash-landing beauty meets a grumpy farmer. When Sophie Dunham crash-lands her hot air balloon on Davis Pruitt’s hops farm, she vows to help him heal and keep up with chores as penance, even if her secret crush on the grumpy farmer twists her in knots. Davis can’t believe his bad luck. Sophie, the bubbly second-grade teacher with a hot-air ballooning side-hustle, crash-landed, and now she won’t leave. The attraction between them is hot enough to lift twenty balloons, but he's been down the commitment road once before. Davis’s first marriage failed, and he's ...

Getting his heart broken by his new best friend wasn’t part of the plan. Ed Delancey: How does a nerdy, introverted data analyst make new friends? Very carefully and deliberately, of course. It throws me for a loop when grad student Rita Ryan effortlessly teases me out of my shell. But is she going to stick around long enough for our connection to go anywhere? Rita Ryan: Ed is quirky, sweet, and impossible to resist. Sticking to my job search with the World’s Hottest Nerd distracting me may be more than my ambition can handle. Even if I landed the perfect job, it’s hard to imagine ...

A cinnamon roll football coach. His data analyst secret weapon. And a racy to-do list… Professor Carly Anderson: I never imagined the university president would volunteer me to help our football coach win. My side deal with the sexy coach raises the stakes: if I can help pull the Threshers out of their losing streak, Coach Bear will help tick off items on my Never Have I Ever list. No matter how innocent… or not… Coach Bear—aka Ben O’Reilly: Carly Anderson floored me with her request to help her with the hottest to-do list ever. Sure, I’ve been a monk all season. Okay, all year....

Agreeing to let my enemy lead a plot to flush out the person sabotaging my town was a mistake. And not the first one I’ve made with Zander Nemitz. Our one night together haunts me. My hot neighbor’s habit of washing his truck half-dressed only makes my steamier memories stronger. Is the man allergic to shirts? I thought our secret partnership would help me forgive him and move on, but it’s rekindling feelings I can’t ignore. Keeping up the pretense of our fight while he runs a campaign to recall me as mayor feels more like foreplay than taunting. And if I can’t fool myself into ...

Kissing your co-director is a sure way to fan the flames of gossip… Eve Pendleton moved to Campfire for a fresh start. She's agreed to help the town council with their bachelor charity auction, but hosting it at the high school is a no-go unless she agrees to co-direct the winter play with the principal. Brady Gleason is handsome, but awfully strait-laced for Eve's tastes. Besides, her fresh start didn't include plans for a new man… Can she make room in her heart and her new life for a man whose icy exterior hides a flame only she can quench? Brady Gleason can’t stop thinking about ...

Star-crossed roommates. A pact for change. And friends who want to keep them apart... Jay Richards People who know I've fallen hopelessly in love with Elodie Varona: my sister-in-law, my boss, and our friends. I’m pretty sure the mail carrier suspects. Anyone who has seen me accompany her on guitar while she sings can see at a glance that I'm a fool for her. The whole world knows and wants to keep us apart. My denial is barely plausible. Only Elodie seems oblivious. She deserves the best, and that’s not me. Elodie Varona I ought to see a therapist to discuss the wicked fantasies I’m ...

A good girl gone rogue. A charmer with an overprotective streak. Are their $49 vows the investment of a lifetime? Izzy O’Reilly’s strict upbringing makes running off to Vegas to fulfill her dream of starting her own family seem like the ultimate show of independence. When she runs into Ivan Nemitz there, she wonders if the handsome football coach can make her dreams a reality. He’s on board, but insists they secretly marry to protect her baby from her overbearing father. Ivan Nemitz doesn’t love the idea of his best friend’s younger sister having a baby with a random stranger—...

Growing up on the whitewashed Central Coast in the 1980s and attending an elite school as a scholarship student from the wrong side of the tracks, Lebanese-Cypriot Simone Amelia Jordan felt like an outcast among her peers for years. Her lifeline was hip-hop, then in its golden age. From girlhood, Simone recognised the art form's pro-Black consciousness, and the rappers' resonant words inspired her to embrace her own identity and back herself.

A man pining for his rival. A woman dying to walk on the wild side. A match made in… Vegas? Sidney Culver: Loathing Nate Cummings comes naturally for me. The bad boy hacker has no idea the sacrifice involved in running our department. I’ve worked too hard to become the favorite for department chair. He thinks he can just waltz in and beat me? I don’t think so. Nate Cummings: I admit I’ve made mistakes when it comes to Sidney Culver. Co-chairing our department dinner and beating her at her own game was the only way to win her respect. I certainly didn’t want her to know the real ...