The Next Round

Winner of the Holt Medallion Best First Book & Emma Award Debut Author of the Year. Friends-to-lovers, second-chance romance. Perfect book club read for fans of Christina Lauren, Emily Henry, Ali Hazelwood, and Abby Jimenez

Winner – 2025 Emma Awards Best Debut Author of the Year
Winner – 2025 HOLT Medallion Award - Best First Book
Winner – 2025 Passionate Plume Award - Contemporary
Winner – 2025 IndieReader Discovery Award - Romance
Finalist – 2026 LA Book Festival Awards - Romance
Finalist – 2026 Feathered Quill Book Awards - Romance
Finalist – 2025 HOLT Medallion Award - Long Contemporary
Finalist – 2025 American Fiction Awards - Romance
Finalist – 2025 Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards – Romance
Finalist – 2025 Literary Global Book Awards - Fiction/Romance
Finalist – 2025 Emma Awards Best Romantic Comedy
Finalist – 2025 DWRI Romance Book Literary Award
Finalist – 2024© Reader Views Reviewer's Choice Literary Awards – Romance
Honorable Mention – 2025 Beach Book Festival - Romance
Honorable Mention – 2025 New York Book Festival - Fiction
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Shaken and stirred.

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

Meet Andreia Herrera. Strong-willed, 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 leads her to run away and keep her distance from the possibilities of love, even with restaurant and bar entrepreneur, 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 that upends the neat rhythm of Andie's present life 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?

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"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)
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