Choosing You by Linny Mack

Melanie Glick is 41, happily “single on purpose,” and not interested in being anyone’s second choice. She pours drinks at The Ugly Mug, writes songs she’s too scared to perform, and keeps moving forward the only way she knows how—one quiet night at a time. Ever since her best friend Cara died years ago, Melanie’s world has never fully clicked back into place… until Cara’s brother blows back into town and flips the volume on memories she’s tried hard to keep muted.

Josh Cote is a country singer chasing inspiration for his first solo album, and Cape May is the one place he swore he’d never return to. The 25th anniversary of his sister’s death pulls him back anyway, and his first stop is The Ugly Mug—where he comes face-to-face with Melanie, the girl who once meant everything. When he notices the tattoo on her wrist in Cara’s handwriting, it hits him: this isn’t just nostalgia. This is unfinished.

A spare room turns into late-night talks, shared grief turns into heat, and what was supposed to be temporary starts feeling dangerously like home. But Josh has a deadline, Melanie has walls, and a long-buried secret threatens to wreck what they’re building before it even has a chance. If they want a future, they’ll have to face the past—together.

Linny Mack grew up a voracious reader and writer. She spent her days of adolescence up in her room writing her own stories and cutting her characters out of the Delia’s catalog. Now, Linny is a debut author of contemporary romance. When she isn’t writing your next book boyfriend, she is spending time with her real-life romantic hero and their three children in New Jersey.