It’s finally here! Today is the release day for Tempt Me. This book has been percolating for a while as I figured out Jamila Jallow’s HEA.
Jamila started as a side character in the Synergy universe. Long-time readers will remember her as not only Jackson and Cooper’s bestie but also as Alicia’s mentor in my debut, Work with Me. So really, she’s the glue that brought them all together. She’s also a fabulous bisexual Black woman, and it took me a while to figure out that she deserved someone who’d pined for her forever.
Enter Jackson’s little sister Natalie, who first appears on page in Trip Me Up as a foil to ugly duckling Sam Jones. She seems to have it all together and to be the perfect daughter, but sharp-eyed readers will notice she’s more than she seems.
The blurb is below, and you can read the first chapter here and the second chapter here. Chapter 2 shows Natalie and Jamila’s delightfully awkward meet-cute. Of course, they’ve met before – this is a brother’s best friend trope, after all! – but this is the first time you, the reader, get to see them together.
Be sure to grab your copy today. And if you read it this weekend (or anytime, really), I’d love it if you’d post a review on your favorite retailer, Goodreads, or BookBub.
If you preordered, or if you buy it today, please email me your receipt (dated before June 17, 2023) to be entered to win the swag basket (or international equivalent)!
Her old crush is her new boss.
Socialite Natalie might suck at all the careers she’s tried (and she’s tried everything from fashion to flowers to food), but she’s good at one thing: helping other people. Now her older brother’s best friend, Jamila, needs her skills to get out of a public-relations predicament. Who better to help Jamila than someone who’s lived in the media spotlight all her life? She can ignore the pesky crush she’s had on Jamila for years, right?
Tech billionaire Jamila doesn’t need anyone’s help. She built her software company all by herself, and the media nonsense will blow over as soon as she launches her latest app. Except she can’t catch a break. Everything goes wrong, from bugs in the code to security flaws. The last thing she needs is her bestie’s off-limits little sister flitting around her company.
But another media slip-up later, Natalie is somehow Jamila’s employee. Between late-night media prep and temptation during a sexy photo shoot, the women grow closer. Could sunshiny Natalie be just what grumpy, controlling Jamila needs? What will happen when her bestie finds out about their forbidden romance?
You’ll swoon for this steamy sapphic brother’s-best-friend, age gap, forbidden-love workplace romantic comedy. It features a tech genius CEO who’s pricklier than her pet hedgehog and a socialite who might be more than she seems. Tempt Me can be read as a standalone.