Rivals and Romance Series
She wants roots. He collects boarding passes.
Travel journalist Knox Sheppherd is supposed to be sipping sangria in Spain. Instead, a forgotten passport renewal strands him in Iowa, covering the Midwest Rival Fest, where two neighboring towns are locked in a decades-old rivalry fueled by pumpkins, apples, and a mischievous goat named Karen.
As Harvest Glen’s event planner, Mia Mullins thrives on turning chaos into magic. Between organizing the festival and defending her three-year Pumpkin Palooza winning streak, she has no time for distractions—especially not a charming reporter who’s only passing through.
But between runaway livestock, festival disasters, carnival lights, and one increasingly inconvenient attraction, keeping things professional becomes harder by the day. As sparks fly and festival season heats up, Knox and Mia find themselves facing an impossible choice.
Mia is building a future in the place she loves. Knox is always chasing the next destination. With an expiration date looming over their romance, they’ll have to decide whether love is worth rewriting the plans they thought they wanted.
Because sometimes the greatest adventure isn’t the one that takes you somewhere new—it’s the one that makes you want to stay.
Ally
As the daughter of a politician, I’ve spent my whole life behaving like a walking press release. Mom expects perfection, and I deliver: smiles, posture, and not a single hair out of place.
So, when I’m asked to babysit my twin cousins in small-town Iowa, I arrive armed with expert parenting tips and the confidence of someone pretending to know what she’s doing. Unfortunately, none of it prepares me for the consequences of momentary distraction…
And I get arrested.
By a ridiculously handsome policeman.
Thankfully, the charming Officer Griffin sentences me to community service rather than a jail cell. As long as word of my crime doesn’t reach the dozens of news outlets covering Mom’s Senate campaign—and as long as I keep my heart in check—I’ll escape town with my record and dignity intact.
Riley
Working as a police officer in a rival town has branded me an outsider and strained my already-fragile family relationships. Still, protecting people is worth the cold shoulders and whispered judgments. Besides, the job comes with unexpected perks.
Like meeting another outsider.
Who I arrest for shaving a goat.
Specifically, the town mascot.
Allyson James is sweet, gorgeous, and completely unprepared when it comes to babysitting—which is why I suggest she volunteer at the festival to make up for her crime. If that means I get more time with her as her self-appointed probation officer, all the better.
But when Ally finds herself the target of a malicious threat, my convenient excuse for proximity becomes an opportunity to protect the woman who’s never seen me as an outcast.
Detective Tony Perez catches criminals all the time. Catching the right moment to tell his best friend he loves her? That’s another case entirely.
It’s practically a law of nature: every time Dahlia Peterson and I come close to crossing the line between best friends and something more, disaster strikes.
Sometimes disaster looks like Dahlia’s annoyingly perfect ex-husband showing up at exactly the wrong moment. Other times, it’s my ex-girlfriend bragging to everyone about how she intends to hang onto me for a few seasons before tossing me aside and finding a newer model.
This fall, however, disaster has outdone itself.
Our neighboring small towns are preparing to duke it out over whose fall festival reigns supreme. The mayors are treating the rivalry like an international crisis—and threatening to fire me if I don’t catch the prankster turning the festivities into an applesauce-soaked crime scene.
Through it all, Dahlia and I have continued doing what we do best: spending every spare minute together while pretending neither of us wants more. That is until my meddling abuelita volunteers me for the festival’s bachelor auction—and Dahlia pays four thousand dollars to go out on a date with me.
Four. Thousand. Dollars.
Suddenly, I’m wondering whether fate has finally declared a cease-fire and given us the green light.
Unfortunately, confessing my feelings isn’t as simple as flashing my badge and presenting the evidence. Dahlia’s ex-husband is circling, and Veronica—a holy terror in heels with a yappy chihuahua and no concept of personal boundaries—is determined to keep us apart. She’s even holding my mother’s dream job hostage until I agree to become her personal handyman.
Then there are the two feuding mayors threatening to run my partner and me out of the county if we don’t catch the festival prankster before the entire celebration becomes an autumn-themed crime spree.
Losing my job could send me to some podunk police department where the biggest crimes involve tipped cows and stolen irrigation water. Losing Dahlia could be worse.
Because if we take a chance on love and it all goes wrong, I won’t just be left without the woman I’ve loved for years. I could ruin the friendship that’s kept me sane in a town full of people willing to commit murder over pumpkin pie.
But after waiting this long, I may have to risk everything to prove that Dahlia and I are one mystery worth solving.
She left to chase her dreams. He stayed to build his. Neither realized that the one thing they were searching for was each other.
Evie Mae Holloway never meant to fall in love with Maple Ridge all over again…
Not after she built a life traveling the world as a photographer. Not after she left behind the boy—and the town—that once felt like home.
But when her grandmother takes a tumble down the stairs, Evie returns to help run Mae’s Hollow… only to find the B&B in far worse shape than anyone had let on.
There’s only one person in town she knows who can handle the job.
And Granny Mae is determined to hire him.
Jack Bennett—Apple Jack.
Her childhood best friend. The best fixer she’d ever known. The one she hasn’t spoken to in years… and never managed to forget.
Now he’s quieter. More guarded. And possibly a little grumpy—nothing like the boy from her youth.
Jack Bennett never expected Evie Mae Holloway to come waltzing back into his life.
She left Maple Ridge—and somewhere along the way, she left him behind too. The easygoing boy she once knew disappeared right along with her.
He’s spent years fixing everything in sight. The B&B should be no different.
But nothing about this is the same.
Because Evie’s there—living under the same roof, looking at him like she still remembers.
As the renovation progresses, old memories resurface… along with feelings never truly forgotten—only misplaced. And with one meddling grandmother’s not-so-subtle nudging, it becomes nearly impossible for either of them to ignore the longing for what could have been.
Working side by side to restore the B&B means facing everything they never quite let go of.
Evie was only supposed to stay long enough to help—and return to her life abroad.
But the longer she’s home, the harder it becomes for both of them to deny that the life they’ve been chasing might just be the one they left behind.
“Maple Ridge never needed to change, Evie… you just left it. And some of us have been waiting on you to come home ever since.”
She needs a fake boyfriend. He’s been secretly in love with her for years.
After a sports injury ends her college scholarship, Leah Miller is determined to save her family’s failing business. It’s her last chance to prove to everyone, including herself, that she can still make something of her future—even if it means turning her life into a questionable publicity campaign with fake engagement photos featuring her brother’s best friend, Sam.
Sam Carter has always put everyone’s needs ahead of his own. But being the guy everyone counted on came with a cost; mostly, he’d forgotten how to say no. He’s spent years showing up for the Miller family and caring about Leah far more than he should.
When their photos catch the attention of the internet and a local news station, there’s just one problem: no one knew they were staged. Now the news wants to promote the story of small-town lovers saving their family business. It’s the publicity miracle Leah has been looking for, but first she has to convince Sam to be her fake fiancé.
Between festival chaos, runaway goats, and a town far too invested in their relationship, the line between fiction and reality blurs.
But as Leah fights to save the farm, she realizes she could lose something far more important. She could lose the man who’s been beside her all along, the man who has started to feel like home. Now she’ll have to decide how far she’s willing to go to save the future she thought she wanted.
She stole his truck, he’s hoping to steal her heart.
Camille Blake
I don’t recommend stealing a truck as a way to meet hot guys, even if it’s effective. But with a festival to win and a long history of bad male relationships to overcome, finding a boyfriend and getting arrested aren’t on my to-do list. A few weeks of flirting might be fun, though.
Except, my fickle heart yearns for more when it comes to Everett Thomas. Unfortunately, our time in Maple Ridge is short and doomed from the beginning because everyone knows long distance relationships hardly ever work—especially internationally.
Everett Thomas
After an ex-fiance tries to steal millions, would it be advisable to date a woman who stole your truck? Asking for a friend. Okay, it’s me. Can you blame me? The elite New York event coordinator Maple Ridge hired is beautiful, talented, and so compassionate. The kind of woman you bring home to stay. But she’s got a severe distrust of men, and I’ve got secrets I want to keep.
With our jobs forcing us together and our attraction to each other growing, the odds of my heart escaping unscathed are about as good as the town goat not eating my pants. Is it worth the risk?