First published 2025
Tess Murphy arrives at a Virginia estate in summer 1996 with strict instructions from her mother. Keep quiet. Stay out of trouble. Her mom just landed a job cooking for a wealthy family and cannot afford any complications. But Tess falls hard for Grant Alexander, the privileged boy from the neighboring property. Their romance burns bright through those sweltering months until betrayal tears them apart. Twenty years later, both Tess and Grant are running for Governor of Virginia. The campaign forces them back into each other's orbit, where buried secrets from that transformative summer threaten to destroy their political ambitions and their families. As the race intensifies, they must confront what really happened between them and decide whether their shared past will define their separate futures.
Genres: drama, romance, contemporary, political-thriller, contemporary-romance, family-drama
Vibes: dramatic, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity, past-secrets, second-chance-romance
Setting: Virginia, Virginia estate
Period: summer 1996, twenty years later
336 pages · Paperback · Zibby Publishing