Booked for Fall - June Connor

Two childhood best friends. One unfinished love story. A whole town rooting for another chapter.

New York editor Laurel Sullivan’s return to Apple Valley is supposed to be temporary. She’ll help her father recover from surgery, get his beloved bookshop back on its feet, and leave before the town’s over-the-top autumn festival can work its sentimental magic.

Then she discovers her father has volunteered her to co-host a writers’ retreat with Will Redmond.

Once, Will was Laurel’s best friend, favorite literary rival, and the boy behind one unforgettable kiss and one spectacular falling-out. Now he’s a bestselling novelist with a cabin in the woods, a lovable golden retriever, and a smile that still makes her forget every reason she should keep her distance.

Working together soon feels dangerously familiar. Their disagreements turn into banter, long days at the bookshop become late nights talking over manuscripts, and Laurel begins to suspect that Will’s next novel isn’t going nearly as well as he claims. She may be the only editor who understands him well enough to help. But doing so means confronting the story they’ve both been telling themselves about what happened fifteen years ago.

The longer Laurel stays, the harder it becomes to imagine leaving. But building a future with Will would mean risking her heart on the one person who has already broken it and deciding whether the life waiting for her in New York is still the life she truly wants.

As Apple Valley settles into its most beautiful season, Laurel and Will may discover that some stories deserve a second chance...especially the ones that ended too soon.

Booked for Fall is a warm, closed-door small-town romance filled with bookish banter, childhood friends turned literary rivals, second chances, a cozy family bookshop, an autumn writers’ retreat, a bighearted family, and an irresistible golden retriever.