by Olivia Dade
First published 2025
Molly is in Los Angeles, newly divorced, narrating monster romance audiobooks for a living, when she sees it: Karl's obituary in the Harlot's Bay local paper. The grief hits harder than she expects. She books the next flight to Maryland without overthinking it. Karl opens the door very much alive, the victim of nothing more than a newspaper error. Standing there, they finally say the things they never said after high school, when a stupid misunderstanding ended everything before it started. Karl stayed in Harlot's Bay and runs a bakery. Molly built a whole life somewhere else. Neither of them is exactly warm and fuzzy about it. This is a grumpy-meets-grumpy situation, not a sunshine story. But Karl has spent years listening to every audiobook Molly narrates, holding onto the only piece of her he could get. He is not about to waste a second chance. Molly is a cynic with good reasons not to trust. Karl is the town curmudgeon with something to prove. Her return visit has an end date. The second installment in Olivia Dade's Harlot's Bay series, this book is funny, spicy, and full of the body-positive warmth Dade's readers count on.
Genres: fiction, romance, adult, adult-fiction, comedy, contemporary-romance
Vibes: body-positive, emotional, funny, spicy, warm, witty
Tropes: forced-proximity, friends-to-lovers, grumpy-meets-grumpy, second-chance-romance
Setting: Los Angeles, Maryland, Harlot's Bay
Period: 21st-century
385 pages · Paperback · Avon