Plus One is technically still a work-in-progress, but where it is in that process? Abstract no more. I have a typeset galley. A real one. With my name on it.

I don’t like saying “I can’t believe it” because I absolutely believed it. I prepared for this. Now’s not the time to be humble. I did not, however, plan to feel quite this much about it.

Plus One started as a goofy, smut-filled wedding guest romp. Then it became something entirely different.

So let’s talk about who’s in this book, because this is really the first time I’m introducing you to them.

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Monique Moore hadn’t been interested in love for almost twenty years. At forty-seven and recently in remission from cervical cancer, she’s doing all that she can to maintain her status by keeping her life small, quiet, and predictable. Her routines comfort her and rankle her nineteen-year-old twins.

So, when her extended family presses her to attend a New Year’s Eve destination wedding in Puerto Rico, Monique plans to show up, smile, and disappear back into her life without making the gathering about her and her illness. What she never planned for was Maurice Martin—a quiet, disciplined man, whose steady attention feels anything but uncomfortable.

They both came to keep promises and retreat back to their separate lives. Neither of them RSVP’d for a plus one. Their lovingly loud mutuals, however, had already checked that box.

As the wedding week unfolds, Monique and Maurice are drawn together, connecting over a shared nickname and familial bonds that neither had been aware of before: her through distance, him through long-time incarceration. The scars they carry—some buried and others visible—have trained them to survive.

But surviving isn’t the same as living. This is a story for the people who know the difference and are still figuring out which one they’re doing.

Plus One is set in Puerto Rico, built on second chances, chosen family, and the terrifying courage it takes to want something again. Because sometimes the greatest act of bravery is letting someone see you exactly as you are. It’s got forced proximity, late-in-life romance, and feelings you didn’t budget for.