New Release: Five Reasons

Hello, and welcome!

I have been so excited to talk about Five Reasons, book five in my Making Love Count series, because this story has been quietly waiting for its turn for a long time.

If you’ve read the first four books, you already know Raven. She was often there in the background—behind the bar, keeping an eye on everyone, serving drinks, making sharp observations, and generally giving the impression that she had absolutely everything under control.

Of course, Raven had a story of her own.

And it is a doozy.

When I first started writing romance, most of my characters were young because I was young. Those were the people I understood and the stage of life I could most easily relate to. But something interesting has happened as I’ve gotten older: my characters have started getting older too.

Five Reasons is the first time I’ve written a romantic couple in their forties, and I loved it.

There is something different about falling in love when you already have a life. You have history. Responsibilities. Old hurts. Habits that have had decades to settle in. You know yourself better—but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re any better at recognizing what you need.

And in Raven’s case, there is also a seventeen-year-old daughter who has opinions about absolutely everything.

As the mother of a seventeen-year-old myself, that part of Raven was especially easy for me to understand. The love, the worry, the urge to protect them even while you know they’re becoming adults and have to start making their own choices. That push and pull became one of my favorite parts of the story.

Raven Cummings has spent seventeen years proving that she doesn’t need anyone.

She raised her daughter, Jade, on her own. She built a life behind the bar of a neighborhood Irish pub. She learned how to work hard, keep moving, and keep certain parts of her past exactly where she believes they belong.

Buried.

Especially one very big secret.

Then seventeen-year-old Jade takes a job with Ronan O’Connor.

Ronan is infuriating. Judgmental. Far too observant.

And, unfortunately for Raven, he is also the younger brother of the one man she never wants to talk about.

Ronan and Raven have spent years keeping their distance from each other, both for reasons they’ve never examined quite as closely as they probably should have. But once Jade unknowingly steps into the middle of the O’Connor family, seventeen years of carefully maintained silence begin to crack.

And suddenly Raven and Ronan are spending far too much time together.

Talking about Jade.

Arguing about Jade.

Worrying about Jade.

Definitely, absolutely, one hundred percent only thinking about Jade.

Until one argument ends with a kiss neither of them can pretend didn’t mean something.

Raven can think of at least five very good reasons why falling for Ronan O’Connor is a terrible idea.

Unfortunately for her, every late-night conversation, stolen touch, grocery-store trip, argument, quiet kindness, and unexpectedly tender moment gives her another reason to ignore the list.

One of the things I loved most about writing Raven and Ronan was that their relationship isn’t only about attraction. These are two people with nearly two decades of history between them. They have misunderstood each other, judged each other, wanted each other, irritated each other, and spent a very long time pretending none of that mattered.

Watching them finally stop pretending was incredibly fun to write.

But this is also a story about family. About parenting a teenager who is almost grown. About secrets that were once meant to protect people but have become harder and harder to carry. About realizing that surviving on your own isn’t necessarily the same thing as living the life you actually want.

And yes, it is also a steamy romance. Raven and Ronan have been ignoring their chemistry for a very long time. They have some catching up to do.

Five Reasons is a fast-paced, heartfelt contemporary romance featuring characters in their forties, enemies-to-lovers tension, years of buried attraction, complicated family secrets, a fiercely protective single mother, plenty of heat, and—because I would never do that to you—a guaranteed happily ever after.

If you love romances about people who have known each other forever, spent years insisting there is absolutely nothing between them, and eventually have to face the fact that everyone else may have noticed the obvious before they did, I hope you’ll give Five Reasons a try.

Raven has been standing behind that bar for four books.

It was finally time to find out what she had been keeping to herself.

And I can’t wait for you to meet the woman behind the bar.