The Next Round | Winner of the RWA Diamond Heart Award, Holt Medallion, Passionate Plume, and Emma Literary Awards. Breathtaking friends-to-lovers, second-chance slow burn for the summer

Winner - 2026 RWA Diamond Heart Award - Contemporary Romance

Winner - 2026 RWA Diamond Heart Award - Best First Book

Winner - 2025 HOLT Medallion Award - Best First Book

Finalist - 2025 HOLT Medallion Award - Long Contemporary

Winner - 2025 Passionate Plume Award - Contemporary Romance

Winner - 2025 IndieReader Discovery Award for Romance

Winner - 2025 Emma Award - Best Debut Author of the Year

Finalist - 2025 Emma Award - Romantic Comedy

Finalist/Runner-Up - 2026 Los Angeles Book Fest - Romance

Finalist - 2026 Feathered Quill Book Awards - Romance

Finalist - 2025 American Fiction Awards - Romance

Finalist - 2025 Independent Author Network Book of the Year Award - Romance

Finalist - 2025 Literary Global Book Awards Romance

Finalist - 2025 DWRI Romance Literary Award

Finalist - 2024© Reader Views Reviewer's Choice Literary Award for Romance

Honorable Mention - 2025 Beach Book Fest - Romance

Honorable Mention - 2025 New York Book Festival - Fiction

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“A contemporary romance that will take your breath away.”

“A feel-good book with a casual vibe that screams summer reading by the pool with a fruity cocktail in hand.”

“Between the novel’s breathtaking setting, the multidimensional (and aesthetically pleasing) characters, and the stirring romance, you’ll get all the feels you need from this endorphin-boosting prose.”
-Reader Views Reviewer's Choice Literary Awards for Romance (Finalist)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Real people inhabit this love story; the dialogue sparkles, the situations are down to earth, and the characters, easily relatable.”
-IndieReader Discovery Award for Romance (Winner)

_____

Shaken and stirred.

Five years is a long time between drinks for old friends.

Meet Andreia Herrera. Strong-willed and foul-mouthed. A PR executive, but a writer and designer at heart. Generous but stubborn. Judgy, by her own admission.

Shaken by a series of heartbreaks, Andie’s fear of jumping into new relationships has her running away to keep her distance from the possibilities of love, especially with her old friend, Chris Vaughn.

Meet Christopher Vaughn. The reluctant CEO-in-waiting and heir-apparent to his family's bar and restaurant empire. Passionate about two things: his family’s legacy and Andie.

After five years apart, Andie and Chris are unexpectedly thrown together in a messy mix of professional and personal circumstances as they work on the launch of a new bar establishment. Is this their chance to re-ignite their complicated friendship and heal the rupture from the last time they saw each other?

The heady cocktail of familiar warmth, heated conversation, and undeniable chemistry upends the neat rhythm of Andie’s life and has her questioning what she really wants: friendship—or maybe even more, this time around.

Can Andie face her demons and move beyond her deep-seated fears to finally take the leap of faith and meet Chris halfway? Is it possible that the person who knows her best might be the love she’s been missing?