Hate and Other Acts of Fiction

Sadie Stockton can handle almost anything—except Ryan Pearson showing up to ruin her perfectly curated professional life.

As the lead tour guide at Wilmont House, Sadie has spent years protecting the legacy of her literary idol, the brilliantly reclusive author Hazel Wilmont. It's meaningful work, even if she has to constantly battle the sensationalized rumors that Hazel poisoned not one but two of her husbands. So when the estate's owners announce plans to cash in on those very rumors—launching an overnight murder mystery event set in a brand-new cocktail lounge—Sadie is furious. And when they bring in Ryan Pearson, local mixologist, charming pub crawl entrepreneur, and the one man Sadie has spent three years actively avoiding, to co-host the whole spectacle? She's absolutely livid.

Ryan and Sadie have history. The complicated, unfinished, still-too-warm-to-touch kind. Working together means navigating old tension that never quite cooled, stolen glances across a candlelit bar, and arguments that crackle with something dangerously close to attraction. But when guests start turning up clues that suggest Hazel's story isn't just fiction—and that someone very much alive wants it buried—their rivalry becomes the least of their problems.

Sharp, steamy, and wickedly fun, *Hate and Other Acts of Fiction* proves that the line between enemies and lovers is thinner than a poisoned cocktail glass—and twice as intoxicating. Some histories refuse to stay unsolved.