Monica McCallan

Maeve Murphy doesn't have much to celebrate this holiday season. Ten years ago, she moved from Kingsford with no intention of returning. But home came calling, in the form of her mother's unexpected death. The least thing Maeve wants is to make friends—she's only back in Kingsford to help her father keep the family business, Murph's, afloat. Bianca Rossi, whose father is the chef at Murph’s, moved to Kingsford four years ago from the hustle and bustle of New York City. She loves everything about the charming little river town, and her positive attitude and willingness to engage is usually reciprocated by the Kingsford locals. Maeve’s been resistant to Bianca’s attempts to strike up a friendship so far, but a little holiday magic may be just the thing they need to push them both in the right direction. Cuffing Season is a 65k full-length standalone romance novel set in the world of Back in Your Arms.

Nora Gallagher can begrudgingly admit that she and Gray Ferris are both stellar Philadelphia real estate agents, but that’s the beginning and the end of the similarities between them. Nora’s life has been in a self-imposed holding pattern for half a decade. Depending on people in her personal life only leads to disappointment, and she has no plans of making that mistake again. Gray Ferris is extroversion personified. Bubbly. Conversational. Vibrant. She’s trying to make the best of life, even if it hasn’t always gone her way. When the two women begin to learn that maybe they’re not as different as they think, they may finally figure out the most important thing they have in common when it comes to finding a life worth living.

Lucy Parsons wants absolutely nothing to do with the Westmoore family or the maple syrup they produce. When Sierra Westmoore blows back into town after her father’s death and tries to rent a room at Lucy’s family’s bed-and-breakfast, The Maple Inn, Lucy kicks her out on the spot. It doesn’t matter that Sierra hasn’t set foot in Maple Run in fifteen years—the Westmoores are not allowed. But small towns don’t leave a lot of room to hide, and Sierra and her brother, Drake, have set their sights on improving the town’s opinion of them now that their father is gone. Lucy doesn’t believe any Westmoore could have good intentions, and although she may have to play nice with Sierra, it doesn’t mean she’s going to like it.

Avery Simmons' life is in a rut. As the co-founder and creator of a lesbian dating app meant to help people find love, or at least a fun fling, the irony isn’t lost on her. Her girlfriend broke up with her, she can’t fit into her favorite jeans, and to top it off, she’s getting a new roommate who will be privy to her depressing pity party. Personal trainer Charlie Grant wants nothing more than a clean slate and a fresh start from her old life in New York City. One of her oldest friends offers an extra room in her San Francisco duplex, but Charlie quickly finds out that it comes at an unforeseen cost. A sullen, misanthropic storm cloud of a woman already lives there, and Charlie has to wonder if cheap rent is worth her sanity. Avery wants to hide from her feelings, and Charlie wants to run from hers. Can they both survive living together? But more than that, can they finally help one another break down their walls along the way? This is the first book in the LadyLuck Startups Romance series but also acts as a standalone novel.

Seventeen years ago, Quinn McKinley left her small town of Kingsford for a shot at a happier life. Now a successful real estate agent in New York City, she’s brought back on behalf of a client, begrudgingly accepting her return home in order to close the deal of a lifetime. Coming back opens doors she’s done her best to keep closed all these years, namely, how she felt about her childhood best friend, Sawyer Kent. Sawyer’s spent her whole life in Kingsford, working at her family’s antique store and trying to make everyone happy. Quinn’s return is unexpected, knocking her routine existence more than a little off balance. She’s still frustrated at how Quinn left things between them, and even if she has all kinds of unresolved feelings, she’s got bigger problems to worry about right now.

App designer Carter Montgomery has thrown herself into being a successful co-founder of LadyLuck for the last half decade. Until now, she’s been content to focus on work mixed with a little light fun. It takes a horrible date with an infuriating woman to make her realize that maybe she isn’t so satisfied with things and that it’s time she got serious about investing in her love life. Jamie Prescott spends her time working in different cities, always with a new startup to wrangle as she avoids putting down roots. It’s worked well for her so far, at least as well as living out of hotels and having casual flings can for a person. When Jamie ends up in San Francisco, she expects some carefree hookups from the LadyLuck app. She isn’t expecting to meet Carter, a woman who’s as frustrating as she is attractive. Carter is finally ready for something serious, and Jamie wants anything but emotional vulnerability. Why is it that everyone around them seems to think that might just make them the perfect match?

Public Relations expert Emery Bates has exactly one problem she’s willing to admit, and it’s that she doesn’t have a girlfriend to take as her date to a wedding. Not because she needs a girlfriend, but because she needs an easier way to come out to college friends that she hasn’t seen in five years. Her job is about controlling the narrative, and as she sees it, there's no reason why that can't extend to her personal life. When her next door neighbor ends up single a few weeks before the wedding, problem solver Emery realizes inviting Jordan along and faking romance for a week in Hawaii could be perfect for both of them. Jordan Davis doesn’t worry about much, especially what will happen tomorrow. Life’s too short to plan every second, and it usually doesn’t work out anyway. When Emery invites her on an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii, it’s not a hard sell. She’ll get to enjoy a tropical vacation with one of her closest friends, and she’ll get to spend more time with Emery, away from Emery’s hectic work schedule back in Austin. But, there’s more to the request than Emery’s letting on, and there’s more to Jordan’s willingness to help than she wants to admit. It’s only eight days, but time passes differently when there’s nowhere to be and nowhere to hide. Faking it is all about the spin, but when lines begin to blur, both women have to decide if falling in love for real is worth the jump.

Kennedy Ryan likes her life neat and orderly. Growing up in a big, rambunctious family, all she’s ever wanted is a little peace and quiet. She may not love her job, but she knows what to expect from it. And maybe she’s never been head over heels for any of her boyfriends, but they’re stable and practical. In her world, a life well-lived is a life well-planned. And there is nothing that gets under her skin more than the chaotic energy of Brooke Nicholas. After an adolescence filled with unpredictability, Brooke Nicholas never got in the habit of expecting things. She managed to finish college, moved to Philadelphia, and lucked her way into working at a hip wine bar after graduation. Other than that, she takes life one day (or night) at a time, choosing to spend her time meeting new people and enjoying the moment. Kennedy and Brooke have circled around one another for years without growing close, and it takes getting stuck together during a post-graduation trip for Kennedy to finally realize she may have only scratched the surface where Brooke is concerned. A growing friendship, an abandoned puppy, and no one to act as a buffer between them is going to upend a lot of ideas Kennedy had about her perfectly crafted world. And it’s going to terrify Brooke because, for the first time in her life, she feels like maybe she’s found a home.

Lily Connor has focused all her energy into becoming a successful wedding planner, and after five years, she’s on the precipice of taking on more responsibility at Southerland Wedding Company. When the chance finally presents itself, it comes with a complication she couldn’t have dreamt up in her worst nightmares. With the bride and groom away for a month, Lily needs to work with the bride’s best friend, Bennett Burke, a woman she never thought she’d see again. It was only for a few months, a study abroad experience that felt plucked from those same dreams turned nightmares, but Bennett is back, and Lily wants nothing to do with her. Bennett broke her heart the first time, and Lily swore she’d never let something like that happen again. Working together can’t be avoided, but falling in love? Lily needs to stop that at all costs, even if it comes at the sake of her own happiness.

When Remy’s grandmother dies, it means leaving her life in San Francisco and returning to a town she swore she'd never revisit, forced to confront a world she'd worked hard to put behind her over the last twelve years. She's not expecting that the first girl to ever steal her heart, the pretty, popular Fallon Lewis is still around, and in a town this small, their paths continue to cross much to Remy’s dismay. It's hard enough seeing her first love, but it's exponentially more difficult when she can barely stand to look at the woman. Remy's trip back has the possibility to open up doors she believed were shut long ago, but she's never planned on staying, and she definitely never planned on letting Fallon back into her life. If she thought being a teenager in a small town was hard, she's about to find out how much harder life is when there's no one but herself to blame for her problems.

A year ago, Sydney King was a successful pro tennis player with a long-term boyfriend, a plan for the future, and a shot at fulfilling all her dreams. Now, she has a cheating ex-boyfriend and a career-ending injury, and—quite frankly—things could not be going worse for her. She hopes that returning home to Stoneport, Massachusetts will be the reset her life needs—until she finds out her ex’s wedding to the woman he cheated with is the social event of the season. The last person Sydney expects to find camaraderie with is her former fiancé’s sister, Reese Devereux. Back home after the purchase of a local inn, Reese has wounds of her own and seems even less enthused about her brother’s wedding than Sydney. When an unexpected mix-up creates the perfect story that she and Reese are dating, shockingly, Reese runs with it. Sydney knows it’s a bad idea, but being on Reese’s arm gives her the chance to pretend life is just a little bit more in her control than it feels. Both women are coming home to their pasts, but it’s up to them to decide what they want their futures to look like.

ASIN B07MX1LW47 moved to the most recent edition Taylor Tate has one last chance to turn things around. As the owner of Charm City Events, she needs her upcoming week of Valentine’s Day events to go off without a hitch. She’s painstakingly planned every detail down to the last red heart decoration, but what Taylor doesn’t plan on is the less than enthusiastic bar manager she’s paired with stumbling into her life at the worst possible time, making things more difficult every step of the way. Carson Smith is getting by fine. She loves her job as the bar manager at Second Chances, a dive bar staple of the Baltimore landscape, and she doesn’t need anything or anyone disrupting the delicate balance she’s finally created. Especially for a stupid Valentine’s gimmick to take advantage of desperate singles. When the owner of the bar forces her to work with an event planning company to drum up business, she has no choice but to begrudgingly agree. It’s either play along or see the bar close, and she can’t let that happen. It’s only a week, but time passes differently when there’s love in the air and too much on the line, and both women soon find their lives, and hearts, intertwined as they work together to make the week a success. Can opposites attract? Find out in this HEA Valentine’s Day novella.

Olivia Carver’s life in Lake Cabot, New York is simple. That’s how she likes it, even if she can’t stop the town she loves from being overrun by wealthy tourists each summer. When she’s not working at her family’s paddleboard shop or spending time with her lovable but infuriating brothers, she puts her energy into writing professionally, a dream that has yet to materialize. Valerie Maycomb used to summer in Lake Cabot with her family when she was younger, until school and planning for her future became the driving forces in her existence. For the first time in years, following her college graduation, she’s spending a few months in the small, lakeside town she loved as a child. All she wants is a little time to decompress before law school in the fall and maybe even strike up the courage to talk to a woman. A chance meeting at the lake opens up the possibility of a summer romance, with the explicit understanding that it can’t become something more. Olivia’s not built for falling in love, and Val needs to keep her eye on the prize of a successful career. But neither of them can deny the attraction, and summer quickly takes on a life of its own.