Adele Buck

The stage is set for the play of a lifetime: but it’s the romantic drama backstage that has everyone applauding. Paul and Cath are the perfect creative team. He’s an up-and-coming theater director and she’s his unflappable, rock-steady stage manager. If Cath’s had to bury her unrequited affection for Paul for ten long years to keep things professional, it’s just the price she pays for a career she loves, working with her best friend by her side. Until he hires her old nemesis as the leading lady for a new play that’s their chance to make it big. Handling temperamental actors is one thing, but watching this diva throw herself at Paul makes Cath miserable. It’s another complication when the leading man shows his attraction to her. Suddenly, an unexpected new job offer seems like a good idea. But then Paul upends her world by declaring his love and sparking a passionate encounter. It’s both a dream come true and a nightmare as Cath is convinced that personal and professional relationships don’t mix and getting involved could jeopardize the play—and both their careers. Can Paul flip the script and set the stage to convince Cath otherwise or is their love always destined to wait in the wings?

Acting Up

In this fun, fast-paced romantic comedy, a bookish firefighter who knows his Jane Austen suggests a little fake dating to fend off an ex. What's a feminist English professor to do--except say yes... You can't fake heat like this... To an observer, hauling a baby grand piano onto a college quad to publicly serenade an ex might seem like a romantic gesture. To literature professor Eva Campbell, it's the latest manipulative move by a cheating jerk who won't take a hint. Plus, she never liked that song anyway. Setting the piano on fire might be an overreaction, but Eva's at the end of her rope, at least until hot young firefighter Sean Hannigan talks her down. And that's not all Sean does. Soon he's offering to be Eva's fake boyfriend to get her creepy ex off her back. Unexpected, maybe, but there's something about Sean--beyond the angelic face and take-me-now body--that makes Eva say yes. Sean battles infernos for a living, reads romance on the side and is a straight-up, family-loving good guy. Eva's not sure she's ready for the danger he poses to her jaded heart. Given their differences, a relationship can't last, right? But the line between fake and real keeps blurring, daring her to take the biggest risk of all... From showing up to glowing up, these characters are on the path to leading their best lives and finding sizzling romance along the way. Don't miss these other fun titles from Afterglow Books: The (Fake) Dating Game by Timothy Janovsky The Bookbinder's Guide to Love by Katherine Garbera The Devil in Blue Jeans by Stacey Kennedy Frenemy Fix-Up by Yahrah St. John The Boyfriend Subscription by Steven Salvatore Manila Takes Manhattan by Carla de Guzman Out of Office by A.H. Cunningham

Fake Flame

All the world’s a stage until your heart is on the line. All Alicia Johnson has ever wanted is to be able to slip into someone else’s life, clothing, and makeup to become a murderess, a socialite, a mother, or a nurse for an episode or a season. And she’s good at it. Being an actress comes with a healthy dose of financial insecurity and a willingness to live out of two jammed suitcases, ready to go wherever the next director wants her. Up until now, it’s been worth it for the creative escape and the thrill of applause. All Colin St. Cyr has ever wanted is to win, going all-in to get Congress to see things his clients’ way. Despite being a Brit in Washington, D.C., he is well off, well connected…and well on his way to becoming a boring bachelor forevermore after a heinous breakup. Especially as he’s just made an arse of himself with the first woman who has knocked him sideways in years. It won’t matter how much money he donates to the theater; Alicia Johnson is still going to look at him like a goddess looks at a flea. The only thing he can do is use his highly attuned persuasive skills to talk her into giving him a second chance. The stage is set, but by the final act, is it a love story between the provocative actress and the cultured power-player or will it end in tragedy?

Method Acting

The Wedding Bait

Parting may be such sweet sorrow, but second chances are so much sweeter. An intense summer fling with handsome, protective actor James Martin opened up self-effacing Frederica Alves’ horizons. Then their potential for love met a swift end when he followed his dreams and left New York for Hollywood. Two years later, James is back, his talent now matched by his rising fame, and that spark is still there. But the shy Freddie he knew has become a confident woman and their passionate reconnection speedily turns into equally passionate conflict. That Freddie was still single was both unexpected and welcome after two years apart. But as James learns how much she’s grown into herself, he realizes he’d walked away from the best thing that ever happened to him. Trouble is, one thing has stayed the same: Freddie hates cameras and attention and they’re about to face a lot of both. Can a publicity-shy woman and a celebrity learn how to reach for the stars together, or will everything come crashing to earth?

Acting Lessons

When you’ve lost nearly everything, can you trust enough to put your heart on the line? Sam Halvorsen has had it with men: from the clients who doubt her skills as a fly fishing guide to the guys who run the local angling shop and the patrons of the bar she works at in the evenings, life is a parade of sexism. When she takes academic librarian Graham Evans out on the water, she naturally expects the worst from him. But Graham confounds her expectations. Unassuming and sweet, he genuinely respects her skills and knowledge. Having just lost his father, he also understands something about Sam’s deep well of grief and fear of abandonment after the death of the grandmother who raised her. With that understanding comes attraction, passion, and for Sam, the love of a man who sees exactly who she is. His adorable dog is a bonus. But then a letter arrives, shattering Sam’s confidence when an unexpected inheritance also brings new and devastating truths about the people she trusted most. Having finally found the woman he can love forever, will Graham lose her in a torrent of family secrets and lies?

Angling for You

Parting may be such sweet sorrow, but second chances are so much sweeter. An intense summer fling with handsome, protective actor James Martin opened up self-effacing Frederica Alves' horizons. Then their potential for love met a swift end when he followed his dreams and left New York for Hollywood. Two years later, James is back, his talent now matched by his rising fame, and that spark is still there. But the shy Freddie he knew has become a confident woman and their passionate reconnection speedily turns into equally passionate conflict. That Freddie was still single was both unexpected and welcome after two years apart. But as James learns how much she's grown into herself, he realizes he'd walked away from the best thing that ever happened to him. Trouble is, one thing has stayed the same: Freddie hates cameras and attention and they're about to face a lot of both. Can a publicity-shy woman and a celebrity learn how to reach for the stars together, or will everything come crashing to earth?

Love isn’t just in the air: it’s contagious. Kathleen Fitzgerald has never been the leading lady. In her stage roles, she’s always the second banana or the sidekick. And in love she’s forever the bridesmaid, never the bride. So, showing up to support her best friend at her weekend wedding by the sea is a well-rehearsed role. Until one look from handsome fellow wedding guest Russell King makes her feel like a star. Law professor Russell was raised to be the consummate gentleman, and after a failed marriage, he’s doubly hesitant about getting involved with women. Except Kathleen is a knockout: creative, irreverent, and unconventional, making him seriously consider stepping off his carefully-trodden life path to trip the light fantastic with the quicksilver actress. The scene is set for a weekend fling but when the curtain comes down there just might be potential for an encore that leads to love.

Adele Buck

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