DRAWN TOGETHER

A rival children's book author and illustrator become reluctant friends over their mutual need to advance in their careers in this heartwarming, character-driven, slow-burn romcom set in fall NYC.

In a city that never sleeps, Flora is desperate to wake up and finally land her first big break. But if your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life, Flora's off to a terrible start. Five months into her move, she's barely scraping byher closest companion a silent roommate, and her first major freelance job slipping through her fingers. Her best chance at making it is surviving the one commission no illustrator before her could: a notoriously impossible-to-please author who (quite rudely) rejects every single draft she submits. Flora's timeline is shortand she's running out of chances.

To nail this project, she'll have to lean into the dark, moody themes of his writing no small task for someone known for illustrating woodland creatures in top hats. When she's on the brink of giving up, a chance encounter with a surly stranger changes everything. Fletcher Harding, neighbor, a friend of her roommate, and a dark literature connoisseur, needs help writing a column on romance novels to achieve an advance in his career. Flora, a firm believer in happily-ever-after's, he decides is the perfect tutor.

On a hazy walk home, the two strike a deal: she'll teach him about love stories, and he'll teach her how to embrace the shadows in her work. As their creative boundaries blur, so do the ones between their growing friendship and something far more. But with both of them carrying the weight of their pasts and the futures of their careers hanging in the balance can they really trust a story where love is the final chapter?

Especially when Flora realizes the author critiquing her work is the very man she's falling for.

Juliana Smith is an author in a small town in Alabama. When she is not hanging out with her book characters, she is with her family. Juliana writes heartfelt, tender romcoms with high tension and yearning and low angst. She can usually be found in a Chic-fil-a drive-thru or listening to Star Wars theory podcasts, often at the same time.