Tropes: Small Town; Second Chance; Secret Baby; Blue Collar; Past Abuse (FC); High School Sweethearts; First Everything; She Runs
Release Date: February 16, 2026
In fisherman tales, there’s always talk about the one that got away… This is that story.
When they were in high school, Brock and Courtney felt they were destined to be together. They’d had their future all mapped out. Until a week before graduation, when two pink lines changed everything, diverting the course of the life they’d planned.
Young and scared, Courtney made the impossible decision to keep it a secret and leave their hometown, never planning to return, and breaking both their hearts in the process.
And for years, her plan works. Until her abusive father dies, leaving her mother rudderless in her newfound freedom. Returning home with her secret daughter is the only answer. But what will happen when she comes face-to-face with the past she’s tried so hard to forget but couldn’t?
Thirteen years after the only woman Brock has ever loved ran from the small Alaskan island they’d called home, he learns she’s back—with a preteen daughter. Too many emotions and unanswered questions hang heavy between them. And when the answers are brought to light, the chasm between them widens further. Will it be possible for them to reconcile for their daughter’s sake?
Benny Reed came back to Waypoint to rebuild a baseball team, not to fall for Quinn Logan, the hometown girl turned global pop sensation who once wrote songs about him. Keeping their distance should be easy, but unresolved history, explosive chemistry, and nonstop attention from everyone make it nearly impossible. Readers who love missed connections and return-to-hometown romances will fall head over heels for Lineups and Lyrics by Tina Gallagher, a steamy, small-town sports romance.
Benny Reed has a plan. Quinn Logan isn’t part of it.
Managing an MLB team means building something from the ground up, and that challenge is exactly what drew him back to Waypoint. He knows the game. He knows the job. And he knows one rule that’s always served him well: baseball and his personal life don’t mix.
Then he meets Quinn Logan.
She’s Waypoint born and raised.
She’s also a retired pop star with a name the world recognizes.
He doesn’t remember the quiet girl from high school.
She remembers him—and the crush that inspired her first songs.
Getting close is risky.
The town is watching.
The media won’t stay quiet.
And some connections don’t care about timing.
Lineups & Lyrics is a steamy small-town sports romance about missed connections and unexpected love.
Benny and I stepped into the elevator and the doors slid shut. The car moved maybe two feet before a dull clang sounded and the motion stopped dead. A single, half-hearted ding followed—less “arriving at your floor” and more “I tried my best.”
I stared at the panel like it might offer an explanation.
Benny pressed one button, then another.
The lights flickered, then dimmed into a steady glow.
He hit the red emergency call button. A few seconds later, the speaker crackled to life.
“Building security,” a tinny voice said. “Are you stuck in an elevator?”
“Sure looks that way,” Benny said.
“All right. Maintenance will be there within the hour.”
The speaker clicked off, leaving only the hum of the fan.
Benny looked at me and exhaled a slow breath through his nose. “Guess we’re not going anywhere for a bit.”
“Guess not.”
“Might as well get comfortable,” he said.
He pushed off the wall and sank to the floor, one leg stretched out, forearm resting on his bent knee.
I hesitated for a second, then slid down the opposite wall. The space between us felt smaller sitting like this, our legs only a couple of feet apart.
“I like Dane and Marin,” I said.
“Yeah, I think they’ll work out well.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m glad Dane recommended her. She’s not someone I would’ve normally looked at.”
“Because she’s a woman?” I asked, feigning a gasp.
“Partly,” he admitted, a half-smile tugging at his mouth. “But mostly because her résumé isn’t what I’d usually go for. Most of her experience is in travel ball and D3 college—not exactly the traditional path to the majors.”
“Then why’d you hire her?”
“Because I trust Dane. And after talking to her, I believe him when he says she’s the best.”
“She comes across calm and collected,” I said. “Like nothing shakes her.”
“That was true until you walked in.”
“She was sweet.”
Silence stretched for a beat before he spoke again.
“I take it that happens a lot.”
“More than I ever knew how to handle,” I admitted. “And it still feels strange. Underneath all of it, I’m just me.”
“You ever miss it? The stage, the spotlight?”
“Sometimes,” I said honestly. “I loved my fans and performing for them. I loved the feeling of a song connecting with a stadium full of people. The way a show can feel like everyone’s heartbeat syncing.” I scratched lightly at my wrist, searching for the right words. “But the noise, the scrutiny, the feeling that every breath had to be on display wore me down, and I needed a break.”
“Everyone thinks they want the spotlight until they realize how hot it gets.” His eyes met mine. “Still…walking away takes guts.”
“Or weak knees.” His brow lifted, amused. “I’m serious,” I said, smiling despite myself. “Those final tour workouts nearly killed me. Dancing in heels under stage lights at forty? That’s an Olympic sport.”
He laughed quietly, the sound low and easy. For a moment, it felt lighter between us, like the conversation had traded its weight for something simpler.
“You know, sitting here, it’s hard to picture you as the same person who used to be on all those magazine covers.”
“That girl had a whole team behind her,” I said with a small laugh. “The lighting, the styling, the editing—none of it ever felt like me. I just look more like myself now.”
“Looks good on you,” he said. “The real version.”
The words landed softly but lingered. His gaze held, not sharp, just…intent. Curious. Like he was trying to see all the parts of me I kept tucked away.
“Thanks,” I managed, though my voice came out thinner than I meant it to.
“You make it easy to forget you used to fill stadiums,” he said.
“Good. I just want to be plain old Quinn.”
His mouth curved, slow and sure.
“There’s nothing plain about you, Quinn.”
My heart did an unhelpful fluttery thing, and I tried to steady my breath. He didn’t look away, and I didn’t want him to.
“Benny—” I started, but whatever I meant to say vanished the second his knee brushed mine. Funny how something so insignificant could change the temperature of a room. Or, in this case, an elevator.
He leaned in, close enough that I could catch the warmth of his skin and the faint, clean scent of his cologne. His gaze flicked to my mouth, then back to my eyes, and for a beat the world felt balanced on that breath between maybe and almost.
“Quinn,” he said, my name coming out rough, like gravel and hesitation all at once.
The sound of it was enough to undo me a little. I shifted forward just a fraction, and for a heartbeat, the world went perfectly still. Then the elevator jolted hard. A metallic thunk echoed through the car as the lights flickered back to full brightness.
The jolt sent me off balance, and I caught myself against the wall. Benny blinked, then let out a short laugh.
“Perfect timing,” he said.
“Yeah.” My voice came out breathier than I wanted. “Impeccable.”
Wait until I tell Erin the elevator cockblocked me out of kissing Benny Reed.
About Tina Gallagher
Tina Gallagher grew up and continues to live in Northeast Pennsylvania. As a tween, she and her best friend would create happily ever afters for their favorite soap opera couples. Eventually, the soap operas lost their appeal, but the writing never did. Before living her dream as a full-time author, she worked a spectrum of jobs ranging from baking and cake decorating to marketing and project management. In between creating memorable characters, traveling, and taking pole dance lessons, Tina enjoys spending time with her two grown children and Golden Irish named Thea.
Two weeks. One villa. A dangerous game of seduction and lies.
My job is simple: get close, get the intel, get out.
Then Locke Maris walks into my op.
He’s cold. Controlled. Heir to a billion-dollar shipping fortune. And so aggressively straight he doesn’t even look at me twice…
Until he does.
Locke makes me an offer: play his assistant by day, be his secret lover by night, at a house party where the world’s elite will gather to sip champagne, enjoy the Italian sun… and play a dangerous game called Paxis.
In this ancient variation of chess, humans are pawns and each coded move could start or stop wars. I should report this to my agency immediately. Walk away clean.
But I can’t walk away.
Because in the privacy of his suite, the moves Locke makes are just as dangerous, the words he murmurs in my ear as devastating, and the growing devotion I feel as destructive as any global war.
At the end of this, I’ll have to disappear like I always do.
I don’t get to want things that could ruin my cover—or my career.
But Locke Maris is ruthless about protecting what’s his, and as far as he’s concerned he owns me.
When everything falls apart, I’ll find out exactly how far he’ll go to keep me.
Lucy Lennox is a USA Today bestselling author and winner of the A.C. Katt Gay Debut Novel Award.
After enjoying creative writing as a child, Lucy didn’t write her first novel until she was over 40 years old. Her debut novel, Borrowing Blue, was published in the autumn of 2016. Lucy has an English Literature degree from Vanderbilt University, but that doesn’t hold a candle to the years and years of staying up all night reading tantalizing novels on her own. She has three children, plays tennis, and hates folding laundry. While her husband is no shmoopy romance hero, he is very good at math, cooks a mean lasagne, has gorgeous eyes, looks hot in his business clothes, and makes her laugh every single day. She writes gay romance with heart, humor, and heat!
Tropes: Unconventional Love Triangle, Protective Hero
Strong Heroine, Amnesia, Secret Love, Starting Over
Release Date: February 13, 2026
BLURB
Identical twins London and Lennon Tyler have always lived as mirror images—one a fearless race car driver, the other a quietly brilliant chef. Their secret talent? Switching places whenever life demands it. It’s always been harmless…until one switch ends in tragedy.
One twin wakes in a hospital bed with no memory.
The other never wakes at all.
Doctors tell the surviving sister who she is. They tell her who she loves—a charming physician who claims to be her boyfriend. She tries to settle into the life she’s supposedly lived…until a shaken race car driver storms into her room, calling her by a different name.
Her sister’s name.
Hospitals don’t make mistakes this big…right?
As her body heals, fragments of the accident—and the life she might have lived—start surfacing. Someone isn’t telling the whole truth. Her heart tugs her one direction, her mind another, and every step forward blurs the line between memory, desire, and what is real.
Is she falling back in love with the man she had before?
Or are there new feelings for the man who loved her sister?
A.B. Medley lives in Tennessee with the love of her life and three sons. Her husband stole her heart when she was sixteen and their relationship is one of those meant to be love stories you find in magazines and novels.
She is a dental hygienist who loves to read and has always dabbled in writing. When she’s not making people’s smiles shine, she enjoys belting out songs with her boys, dancing, raspberries, baseball, and anything vintage. Like any proper Tennessean, Sundrop is her drink of choice.
She loves her family and friends fiercely and believes in always chasing your dreams.
Deception in the Truth is her debut novel—but as she nurtures her love for writing romance stories, her list of released books continues to grow.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ from Sexy Sirens & Cajun Heat Book Blogs – “Another great addition to the Club V series. Ms. Haining has given us a very hot, sexy storyline (please be wary of triggers) with Ryder and Aspen’s story.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazon “Booknerd” Review – “Been waiting for this story…definitely was worth the wait!! It had everything I love in a book!! If you love BDSM type books then please read this one!!”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazon Review – “Excellent read by a brilliant author.”
When it comes to love and kink, the lines are blurred, tensions are high, and there is everything to lose.
Ryder Stevens is the golden boy of Manhattan’s fine dining.
A Michelin star chef with very distinct tastes, and a regular at Club V, Ryder finds himself newly single and jaded as a Dom.
Brought into the lifestyle at nineteen, Ryder promised himself he would never willingly introduce a woman to kink. It’s not until he discovers one of his waitresses is a promising, potentially amazing chef, who also calls to his dark side, that his carefully constructed plans start to crumble.
“Naughty little thing. I’m in control here.”
Aspen Struthers is an aspiring chef.
Working as a waitress in the hottest restaurant in Manhattan for a glimpse of the great Ryder Stevens, Aspen is given a chance to learn from him. She is all in, until her feelings for the enigmatic chef threaten to ruin her shot. She’s been saving to buy her own restaurant, and it could all come tumbling down when she pushes to know more about the elusive Club V.
Will the allure of Ryder and Club V derail her life, or will she find everything she never knew she needed?
She wanted the parents who didn’t divorce when she was a kid and make her life a living nightmare. She wanted the sisters who actually liked her. She wanted to live in a town where everyone loved her and didn’t have a single bad thing to say about her.
That was not the life Birdee was given.
She had the exact opposite life. The kind of life where she slunk through the grocery store with a hoodie on so no one would recognize her. The kind of life where men like Creed Daugherty didn’t give her a second look.
After years of abuse and heartache, she built walls. Big, huge, thick ones that no one could ever breach. If she didn’t put forth the effort to get to know someone, she couldn’t be hurt.
At least, that was the theory.
She never counted on Creed Daugherty hitting her with his truck. Then, deciding that once he entered her life, he would never leave it.
Though Birdee should’ve known that Creed was too good to be true.
All it takes is one mistake on her part, and Creed freezes her out. Then forces the rest of the town to make it almost impossible for her to live in Sawtooth, Montana, anymore.
Birdee only thought it couldn’t get worse.
But Creed makes sure to show her that it can and will.
The thing about rock bottom?
Once you’re there, you have nothing else to lose.
And Creed Daugherty just made himself enemy number one.
Lani Lynn Vale is an American author of humorous romantic suspense novels. Born in the Great State of Texas, she has lived the majority of her adult life in East Texas where most of her novels are based. She’s married to her high school sweetheart whom her readers refer to as “LLV’s Bearded Half.” She published her first novel, Boomtown. in the summer of 2013 after the birth of her third child. She’s gone on to publish over 100 novels, with most of them going on to become USA Today Bestsellers.
Inkslinger PR is excited to announce the release of Barry S. Richman’s new Pride & Prejudice retelling, Doubt Not, Cousin. Check it out and be sure to read in Kindle Unlimited.
Title: Doubt Not, Cousin
Author: Barry S. Richman
Genre: Regency Romance
About Doubt Not, Cousin:
Darkness, in many forms, must be conquered to emerge into the light and embrace one’s happily-ever-after.
Fitzwilliam Darcy. Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam. Two cousins, closer than brothers. One finds love despite his inner demons; the other resists love because of them.
Elizabeth Bennet. Kitty Bennet. Two sisters, strengthened by adversity. One willingly yields to love; the other pridefully misinterprets it.
An epic saga steeped in intrigue and gift-wrapped in romance, Doubt Not, Cousin chronicles the trials and tribulations of three extraordinary families during England’s Regency era.
Barry S. Richman combines his background in the armed forces and expertise with a passion for Pride and Prejudice retellings.
After two decades of exploring countless stories from the JAFF universe, his wife challenged him to try writing one. During a trip to Istanbul, Barry wrote four pages that wove his real-world experiences into alternate-universe stories inspired by Jane Austen’s characters. He continued from there.
He published his first novel, Doubt Not, Cousin, in 2023, followed by The Scarred Duchess in 2024. Follow The Drum continues his military-influenced alternate universe populated by characters familiar and new.
Barry and his “Jane Bennet” divide their time between Los Angeles and a seaside town in southwestern
Taj Blackman knows a thing or two about responsibility. As the new CEO of Blackman Boards, he intends to carry on the legacy his father built with dignity.
It’s that mindset that leaves him unable to neglect the duty he feels in other aspects of his life. Like with a specific someone.
Olivia Thomas.
Taj never expected to see the supermodel in his small hometown, especially not in her wedding gown.
But when Olivia appears, desperate for his help, Taj can’t turn her away.
Using everything he’s learned from the man who entrusted a multi-million-dollar company to him, Taj is honored to take on a new responsibility that’s worth far more than money could ever buy.
A.K. Evans is a contemporary romance author of over seventy published novels. While she enjoys writing a good romantic suspense novel, Andrea’s favorite books to write have been her extreme sports romances. That might have something to do with the fact that she, along with her husband and two sons, can’t get enough of extreme sports.
Before becoming a writer, Andrea did a brief stint in the insurance and financial services industry and managed her husband’s performance automotive business. That love of extreme sports? She used to drive race cars!
When Andrea isn’t writing, she can be found homeschooling her two sons, doing yoga, snowboarding, reading, or traveling with her family. She and her husband are currently taking road trips throughout the country to visit all 50 states with their boys.
Kaylene Winter is a best-selling author of steamy, contemporary romance.
Each character-driven novel is filled with snappy dialogue, pop-culture references and enough steam to make you fan yourself. Kaylene weaves authenticity, emotion and angst into a turbulent rollercoaster ride of love, passion and soul-searing romance always ending with a delicious HEA.
Kaylene lives in Seattle with her amazing Irish husband and her Pomsky, Phalen. She loves creating art of all kinds.
NYT and USA Today Bestselling author Kaylee Ryan brings you a new standalone series surrounding the Nashville Rampage football team. Change the Play is a found family, forced proximity, workplace, sports romance.
Foster
I learned early how to survive on my own. Keep my head down and my past locked away.
My childhood taught me that nothing lasts and no one chooses you forever. So I built a life free from love—and pain.
Football gave me discipline. Success gave me distance. Silence kept me safe.
Then Eden walked into my house.
My new housekeeper. Someone meant to clean my messes and remain on the edges of my life.
Except she didn’t stay on the edges. She saw me—really saw me—and didn’t look away. Her laugh somehow turned my empty house into something that felt like a home.
With her, the walls I spent years building began to crack.
Loving her means risking everything. It means believing I’m worth choosing. She makes me want to stop hiding… and change the play.
Eden
I know what it’s like to grow up unwanted. To pack your life into boxes and pretend it doesn’t hurt when no one ever unpacks them for you.
Loneliness taught me independence and resilience, to build a family from the people who stay. I never expected more.
Then I met Foster.
He’s quiet and guarded, carrying the weight of a past he refuses to name.
Working for him was supposed to be simple—do my job, keep my head down, don’t cross lines.
But the more time we spend together, the more I see the man beneath the armor. The one he hides from the world.
We weren’t looking for love. Yet somewhere in the stolen moments, we chose each other.
And for the first time, I’m not just building a family—I’m finally home.
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Kaylee Ryan has been crowned the Queen of Swoon by her readers. With nearly fifty romance books under her belt, she’s known for penning happily ever afters with heart. When she’s not writing, you can find her with a book in her hand or hanging out with her family where she resides in her home state of Ohio.
In fisherman tales, there’s always talk about the one that got away… This is that story.
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