At First Spite

When Athena Greydon's fiancé calls off their engagement, she's stuck living in the spite house she impulsively bought him, an absurdly narrow building constructed generations ago purely to annoy a neighbor. Her ex's home is attached to one side; on the other, only a few feet away, is Dr. Matthew Vine, the uptight, judgmental brother who talked her ex into leaving her in the first place. Petty payback should be easy. It isn't, because Matthew keeps showing up to help, listens more than she expects, and is, infuriatingly, kind of hot. Book one of the Harlot's Bay series, this is a small-town contemporary rom-com that pairs a grudge-fueled slow burn with a genuinely tender treatment of body image, grief, and depression.