Essays at the Mercy of the Reader
Date Published: September 1, 2025
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Essays at the Mercy of the Reader
Date Published: September 1, 2025
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Skating and Fake Dating
Ellie Hall
(Love in Maple Falls, #4))
Publication date: September 3rd 2025
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Sports
I’m pretending to be his stable girlfriend while he plays my successful boyfriend. But now faking feels a lot like falling.
Bailey
I’m a walking contradiction—professional on the job, a hot mess at home, and working my “I’ve got this” smile until my cheeks ache while hiding my hobbies: making maple butter and finding a husband. With my perfect sister’s recent engagement, I’m desperate to avoid Mom’s pitying looks and matchmaking attempts.
Carson
I used to be hockey’s laid-back southern charmer until a crushing rejection from my high school sweetheart transformed me into a workaholic. When I’m unexpectedly traded to a new team, rumors circulate about whether the gentleman wingman lost his edge. I’ll do whatever it takes to prove them wrong.
Bailey
When our worlds collide after a dessert disaster, we come up with a mutually beneficial solution to our respective woes: a fake relationship. The rules are simple: I get a “successful” boyfriend for family events. He gets a “stable” girlfriend for team image. No feelings, no complications, and a definite expiration date.
Carson
But between posing as a couple at the fall festival, midnight maple butter-making sessions, trying to keep our stories straight, and undeniable chemistry, what started as a convenient lie is beginning to feel inconveniently real. As the clock runs down on our arrangement, we’ll have to decide: walk away when the final buzzer sounds, or take a shot at the love neither of us saw coming.
***
Skating and Fake Dating is a heartwarming hockey romcom featuring Bailey and ‘Bama who are perfect for each other in all the most imperfect ways, plus, small-town charm, family shenanigans, and a guaranteed happily ever after sweeter than homemade maple butter blondies.
Welcome back to Maple Falls—the small town where hockey players fall in love! This is a multi-author series of seven full-length books that could be read as standalones, but we think you’ll enjoy them best in order.
Fake-Off with Fate by Whitney Dineen
Offside and Off Limits by Kate O’Keeffe
Checking Mr. Wrong by Anne Kemp
Skating and Fake Dating by Ellie Hall
Goalie and the Girl Next Door by Elsie Woods
Soulmates and Slapshots by Melissa Baldwin
The Icing on the Cake by Grace Worthington
Book 2 in the Frank Adams Detective Series
Murder Mystery
Date Published: October 7, 2025
The ensuing FAA investigation convinced the small town that the crash was an accident. Except for one person. Ted Grant was an academic colleague and good friend of Dr. David Lanmore', and Ted knew that Dr. Lanmore had just discovered a cure for cancer.
The last place Frank Adams wanted to investigate an airplane accident was in his hometown of Scottsville, North Carolina. Though his parents were no longer living, Clayton Housley, his uncle, wielded significant influence over the town and surrounding areas as if it were his own fiefdom.
But Ted Grant's call was urgent and disturbing. Apparently S&H Pharmaceuticals had discovered Dr. Lanmore's secret and would go to any lengths to acquire the research. But would they kill for it? And if Frank meddled in the town's business, would his life be in danger?
Firelight Days
Savannah Pryce
Publication date: August 3rd 2025
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
When wildfires force an evacuation in her small town, baker and loner Penny Ridgeman seeks refuge at the only place she feels safe – Jack Olsen’s family ranch in Eastern Oregon. For years, Penny has seen Jack as just a friend – even if he is, inconveniently, the most attractive man she knows. But just like you shouldn’t mix-up salt and sugar in a cake, she believes that mixing love and friendship is a recipe for disaster.
Jack has always admired and respected Penny’s need for solitude. And, as the town handyman, builder, and cat-in-a-tree-rescuer, he prides himself on being able to fix and figure out anything. But he can’t understand why Penny holds herself back in her work. He can’t see what’s behind those stubborn, thick walls she keeps up. And he can’t work out, for the life of him, why suddenly he can’t stop thinking about her.
As the days stretch into quiet nights on the ranch, Penny and Jack start to see each other in a new light – one Penny is certain can only lead to getting seriously burned. With the world around them on fire and only each other for company, they find themselves in a whirlwind of emotions neither expected.
As the fire threatens to consume everything, Penny and Jack must decide whether to risk their friendship for something deeper… or will that go up in flames, too?
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