Loving Romeo

Demi Crawford belongs to the first family of Magnolia Falls. Her neighbor is a boxer from the wrong side of the tracks, a brooding rebel who has spent years treating her family as the enemy. Because she carries their name, he decided to despise her long before he met her.

Then Demi moves in next door. He sees her on every side of his day and cannot stay out of her way, however hard he tries. She turns out to be honest, sweet and warm, exactly the kind of person he has told himself he should not want.

This is a contemporary romance told in the boxer's first-person voice, built on an enemies-to-lovers dynamic. Opposites in class and temperament are pushed together, and the hatred he chose as a defense starts to give way to something he cannot control.

Secrets between the two threaten to pull them apart just as the feelings take hold. The tone leans on boxing imagery and small-town rivalry, with a protagonist who treats love as a fight he intends to win.