Whiskey Chaser (Bootleg Springs, 1) by Lucy Score and Claire Kingsley

A spicy, funny small-town romance set in Bootleg Springs, West Virginia, where the moonshine is strong, the neighbors are loud, and the town’s biggest mystery won’t stay buried. Whiskey Chaser pairs a hell-raising tomboy heroine with a fallen golden boy hero and adds a side of scandal, secrets, and a cold-case disappearance that keeps creeping into the present.

Scarlett was raised by three overbearing brothers and grew up into a tool-belt-wearing tornado: hard-drinking, two-stepping, and absolutely not interested in love. She’s only being “neighborly” when she decides her sexy next-door neighbor is her new pet project.

Devlin is at rock bottom. His marriage, political career, and carefully mapped five-year plan to Washington, D.C. all got wrecked with one well-placed jab. Now the former golden boy is the black sheep, stuck back in Bootleg Springs—a tiny town known for two things: moonshine and the cold-case disappearance of a teen girl. Dev just wants to lick his wounds… but Scarlett has other ideas for his tongue (and the rest of him).

Scarlett is determined to bring Dev back to life, even if helping him get back on his feet means losing him. But when the old mystery becomes new news, Scarlett may need Dev’s help to survive the scandal—and what started as a “pet project” starts looking a lot like the real thing.