Bookstore Romance Day: Meet Laurie Devore and Marissa Eller!

August 17th is National Bookstore Romance Day and we have TWO very special authors with brand new books joining us from 2-5 p.m.

PLUS – grab one or both these books and get a “Blind Date with a Book” FREE! We’ll also have treats all day long and some special romance sales.

Here’s more info on these wonderful reads – we’ll see you on Main Street!

Laurie Devore’s The Villain Edit

The Villain Edit is a bit of everyone’s favorite Emily Henry (Happy Place) meets The Bachelor! This sexy dramedy has all the fun and feels, beginning with a cynical romance novelist, Jacqueline Matthis. Her career has tanked and she’s ditched the bright lights of New York City for her more affordable South Carolina hometown.

Desperate, Jac dreams up a comeback plan: to be a contestant on the 1, the most watched reality dating show in the world. Jac is a romance writer after all. She knows how to pull off a meet-cute and create a spicy plotline better than most of us.

But Jac soon discovers that while she may have just met the love of her life, the producers are turning her into the show’s villain.

Good villains make good TV, right? On set, Jac quickly establishes herself as a front-runner for bachelor Marcus’s heart, but she’s shocked to discover who’s actually pulling the strings. How was she to know that Henry Foster, her last one-night stand before the show, was actually a longtime producer on the 1? Henry is just as horrified…but they can’t seem to keep their hands off each other.

Jac knows that she’s getting the villain edit. And they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but as Jac’s secret plan begins crumbling around her, she’s not so sure. What happens if Marcus chooses her? Worse, what happens if her affair with Henry comes to light? What if, in trying to save her career, she instead will further wreck her mess of a life?

Smart, funny, and sexy, with a lowcountry twist, anyone who has ever secretly rooted for the villain (or has been one) will love it. Grab now for a perfect beach read; get it personalized by Laurie in August!

Marissa Eller’s Joined at the Joints

Marissa’s book is Joined at the Joints and it’s a delightful read for young readers as well as those of us with a few more books under our belts. When baking-obsessed Ivy meets a boy who shares her rare diagnosis, sparks fly outside of the kitchen for the first time in her life.

Chronically ill seventeen-year-old Ivy has stayed inside baking all summer. Pies are better than people, and they don’t trigger her social anxiety. So when her mom and sister, who also suffer from chronic illness, cook up their plan to get Ivy out of the house and into a support group, Ivy doesn’t expect to participate much.

And she doesn’t expect Grant. Grant is class-clown cute, perfectly-messy-hair cute, will-always-text-you-back cute. There’s an instant connection between them. And he has the same chronic illness as her, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. He can empathize with Ivy’s world.

But understanding her pain isn’t the same as taking it away, as much as she wishes he could because it’s getting worse. Ivy has always tried her best to seem “normal,” but between symptom management, new treatment plans, and struggling with medical self-advocacy, being sick feels more and more difficult. Even her bestie starts drifting away and Ivy begins to wonder, what if Grant does, too?

Marissa Eller serves up a sweet, satisfying romcom that tackles the reality of chronic illness–and coming-of-age milestones from friend breakups to first kisses—with humor and heart. Readers will fall for Eller’s voice in this sweet debut that offers all the right ingredients. It’s a recipe for a delicious read!