That Kind of Guy

Avery Adams manages The Arbutus, a seaside restaurant in Queen's Cove, a small town on Vancouver Island. She has organised her whole life around it and wants to own it one day, but the money to buy it is far out of her reach.

Emmett Rhodes is the town contractor, a charming man who avoids commitment. He announces a run for mayor on impulse, and from the first meeting he and Avery clash.

Then each of them runs into a problem the other can solve. Emmett's campaign needs a steadier public image. Avery needs a co-signer for her loan. They agree to a bargain: she poses as his devoted fiancée, and he backs her bid for the restaurant.

This is a fake-dating, enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy with a spicy heat level and a happily-ever-after. As the act goes on, each learns what sits beneath the other's reputation, and pretending gets harder by the week.

It is the first book in the Queen's Cove series and can be read on its own. The question driving it is whether a deal built on a lie can hold once the feelings in it stop being pretend.