by Cara Bastone
First published 2021
Mary Trace runs a trendy Brooklyn boutique and wants what her friends have found: love. When a regular customer offers to set her up with her son, Mary says yes despite her reservations. The date with John Modesto-Whitford starts promisingly. He's attractive and polished, everything Mary hoped for. Then he makes a cutting remark about her age, and the evening crashes. John works as a public defender and prides himself on brutal honesty, a reaction against his politician father's lies. His bluntness just cost him a chance with the most stunning woman he's ever met. His mother refuses to give up her matchmaking scheme. She engineers encounters between Mary and John all summer long. To escape the meddling, they pretend to date each other. The fake relationship becomes real friendship. Friendship becomes attraction neither expected. Mary and John must decide if they can move beyond their disastrous beginning to build something lasting.
Genres: fiction, romance, adult-fiction, contemporary-romance
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Brooklyn
Period: 21st-century
384 pages · ebook · HQN Books