by Lori Roy
First published 2024
Addie Anne Buckley lives in small-town Florida in the 1950s, dreaming of escape. Her glamorous aunt Jean is actually Marilyn Monroe, and Jean has promised to take Addie to Hollywood for her eighteenth birthday. Addie sees her chance for freedom. Her boyfriend Truitt Holt plans to join her in California, but days before departure he changes his mind. He gives Addie an ultimatum: stay and marry him or lose him forever. Addie picks her dream over love. Truitt, wounded and furious, makes a fatal mistake. He exposes the illegal bolita game he runs, not realizing he operates in mob territory. The Tampa mafia comes after him. He has until midnight to negotiate a deal that will save both his life and Addie's. What Truitt doesn't know is that his mob trouble has already reached Addie and her family. She's fighting for her life while he races against time.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: California, Florida, Hollywood, Tampa
Period: 1950s
316 pages · Hardcover · Thomas & Mercer
Content warnings: violence