Perfect for fans of Tessa Bailey and Beth O’Leary, in this bright, laugh-out-loud rom-com, the grind of the millennial struggle is a lot more fun when you add falling in love to the mix.
Isla Jane is living the millennial nightmare. She’s got a shiny new MBA and no way to pay for it, thanks to her dead-end entry-level job, and nowhere to live, thanks to her miserable salary. Going home to her parents is not possible, but for once Isla’s brother may be her saving grace. He’s out of town on business for a month, meaning the guest room in his condo is blissfully empty.
Or so Isla thinks, until she runs into Cade Greenley, her brother’s best friend—who’s crashing there while his own condo is undergoing renovations. When a desperate plan to sleep under her desk miraculously turns into a house-sitting job for one of the big bosses at her office, Isla is certain her luck has turned—with no one, Cade included, the wiser. It’s a perfect solution—until Cade catches her sunbathing at a mansion that is definitely not hers, and she admits she’s house-sitting because she can’t afford rent.
The pair strike a deal—Cade will keep Isla’s secret from her overbearing parents if she agrees to pose as his girlfriend at a few upcoming corporate events. The fun and friendly vibe of his office is a surprise compared to hers, but the biggest shock is that each “date” with Cade feels less and less fake. Suddenly she’s looking forward to every minute they spend together while the chemistry between them sizzles. As Isla’s house-sitting scheme begins to unravel, she’ll have to face the fact that her biggest lie of all is the one she’s telling herself: that she’s not falling in love with Cade.
This is it. The final showdown between the curse and the twelve descendants of the zodiac.
Jocelyn Everett has been on her own for the last four years. Ever since the tragedy that ended her fiancé’s life on the day of her wedding, a tragedy that the entire town blames her for. But no one blames her more than Rafe Wilder, her former best friend and the man she’s been in love with since she first laid eyes on the lonely, haunted boy in the woods.
But with the curse winning in its quest to sink their island into the sea, everything hinges on her ability to work with Rafe. As the descendant of Sagittarius, Jocelyn can weave the illusion necessary to bring the curse’s human host to his death, but her magic is useless without Rafe’s trust. And earning that will prove to be more difficult than battling the black magick from an ancient god.
Rafe Wilder has loved one woman his entire life. Unfortunately, that woman was off-limits long before he ever came to Zodiac Cove. Having spent the last four years blaming himself as much as Jocelyn for his best friend’s death, the moody Gemini doesn’t know how to dig himself out of the cycle of guilt and blame that keeps him from claiming the woman who should’ve always been his.
But when they’re trapped in Jocelyn’s apartment together, they have no choice but to face their past. Especially when Jocelyn keeps weaving memories that reveal the pieces she’d kept from him. And when that reckoning finally comes to a head, Rafe will have to hold them up in more ways than one. Because the curse is eating away the land beneath their feet, and their combined magic is the only hope they have of stopping it.
Brooke Hudson has been desperate to use her magic since she first felt the earthquake and learned she was the descendant of Cancer. As the whimsical beekeeper and florist of the island, she’s always believed in the power of nature and the unexplainable. Unfortunately, fate paired her with the ultimate stoic grump and her complete opposite, the intimidating Cole Latham. And he doesn’t want anything to do with Brooke or magic.
Cole spent his life being groomed to be the head of the Latham family and CEO of their sprawling empire. A Capricorn to his core, Cole considers himself the most grounded of the earth signs and has no time for the humor, light, and love that are so much a part of his brothers’ lives. He wants to work, go home, and generally be left alone to brood.
But when the curse traps the residents of Zodiac Cove on this island and blocks out the sun, work grinds to a halt, and surviving day-to-day while keeping the town from spiraling into panic becomes a new full-time job. When walking along the beach to escape the constant pressure, the curse attacked and tried to drag him into the ocean, where he would’ve drowned if not for Brooke’s life-saving vines. Making it clear he had no choice but to work with the pretty hippie who made his blood run hot and flipped his protective instincts into overdrive.
But what neither of them understood was that their combined powers held the key to unlocking another piece of the past. One that could change everything in the fight to save their island. If they couldn’t put their differences aside and learn how to lean on each other, all would be lost—because the curse was gearing up for the final phase and they no longer had any means of escape.
Violet Fischer has lived in Zodiac Cove her entire life and has been in love with Donovan Latham for just as long. They’d been best friends since kindergarten, but when he left the island shortly after she confessed her feelings for him, she vowed never to let him know how bad his rejection crushed her. Their friendship survived the eight years they were apart. But it might not survive the magic that burns hot between them.
As a descendant of Pisces, Violet has always been drawn to the water. It only makes sense to her that touching Donovan would give her the ability to breathe under it. Too bad he’s been avoiding her ever since that first spark of magic ignited between them. Violet is desperate to master her gift, but not if it means once again asking Donovan for something he’s not willing to give.
Donovan Latham spent eight long years away from his home and the woman he’s loved for his entire life. Family obligation kept him away, but when he returned, the Virgo in him started making plans to make Violet Fischer his at last. Until an earthquake released both magic and a deadly curse on the island. Now, he can’t bear to be around her, knowing that when he touches her, it’s only magic that makes her think she wants him.
But when the curse moves from the center of the island to the ocean, guarding something it doesn’t want the descendants to find, they have no choice but to work together. Because as the only pair who can put up a fight in the water, the curse has set its sights on them. If they can’t figure out a way to be honest with each other once and for all, they have no hope of using their magic to discover what the curse is hiding. And no hope of saving the island they call home.
Thora Chase thought she’d left Zodiac Cove behind for good after having her heart broken seven years before. But when she lost her job on the mainland, she returned home to regroup and figure out her next steps. What she didn’t count on was triggering an earthquake that released an ancient curse on the residents of the celestial island.
As the descendant of Aries, she’s been gifted with the power to heal any injury, making her the only one who can combat the curse’s deadly poison. But she can’t access her magic unless she touches her opposite sign, the descendant of Libra—who is none other than Finn Wilder, the man who broke her heart and the reason why she left Zodiac Cove in the first place.
Finn has spent the last seven years trying to forget Thora Chase, the feisty Aries he’s been in love with since they were teens. While their magic reveals just how hot the passion still burns between them, she refuses to forgive him for the past. Until the curse sets its sights on the two of them. Now they have no choice but to stick together.
Thora isn’t one to back down from a fight, but getting tangled up with Finn for a second time might be more than she’s willing to risk. Though there is more at stake than her heart. Because the forces that tore them apart last time are still lurking. And a forked-tongue man with a connection to the curse is determined to split up their magic by any means necessary. Even if he has to kill them.
Three hundred years ago, the people of Zodiac Cove gave up their magic to stop Ophiuchus’s curse from sinking their island into the sea. As the resident shopkeeper of witchy odds and ends, Audrey Raynor has always believed in the legend. But when an earthquake releases the magic that had been binding the curse, the legend suddenly gets very real.
The descendants of the Zodiac have the power to stop the curse, and Audrey has Scorpio’s water magic running through her veins. The problem? In order to access that magic, she has to touch Wes Latham—an arrogant Taurus who happens to be her ex-boyfriend’s brother and the man who betrayed her four years ago.
Wes was born and raised in the charming celestial town and has always thought the legend was a bunch of bull used to drive tourist dollars. Until the night he’s able to hold lightning in his hands. Now fate has paired him with Audrey, the woman he’s been in love with for over a decade, who couldn’t be more off-limits.
The price of using their magic comes with an especially difficult side effect: the inability to keep their hands off each other. But as their partnership begins to heat up, the curse seeps into their minds, exploiting the hurt they’ve caused each other. If they can’t find a way to work through the past and learn how to harness their magic in the present, the curse will finish what it started centuries ago.
A smart, sexy, and witty romantic comedy—perfect for fans of Christina Lauren and Sally Thorne—about a twentysomething who lives out every woman’s fantasy: getting paid to give men who do us wrong a taste of their own medicine. But when a previous target unexpectedly shows up at her office, she’s forced to rethink her life as a professional heartbreaker.
Brinkley Saunders has a secret.
To everyone in the academic world she left behind, she lost it all when she dropped out of grad school. Once a rising star following in her mother’s footsteps, she’s now an administrative assistant at an insurance agency—or so they think.
In reality, Brinkley works at Heartbreak for Hire, a secret service that specializes in revenge for jilted lovers, frenemies, and long-suffering coworkers with a little cash to spare and a man who needs to be taken down a notch. It might not be as prestigious as academia, but it helps Brinkley save for her dream of opening an art gallery and lets her exorcise a few demons, all while helping to empower women.
But when her boss announces she’s hiring male heartbreakers for the first time, Brinkley’s no longer so sure she’s doing the right thing—especially when her new coworker turns out to be a target she was paid to take down. Though Mark spends his days struggling up the academic ladder, he seems to be the opposite of a backstabbing adjunct: a nerd at heart in criminally sexy sweater vests who’s attentive both in and out of the bedroom. But as Brinkley finds it increasingly more difficult to focus on anything but Mark, she soon realizes that like herself, people aren’t always who they appear to be.
With Sonia Hartl’s “bitingly funny” (Publishers Weekly) prose, Heartbreak for Hire is a clever romcom you and your girlfriends won’t be able to stop talking about.
