First-Time Caller

October 1, 2024

Borison, bestselling author of the "Lovelight" series, pens a Sleepless in Seattle-inspired love story. Aiden Valentine is the radio host of Baltimore's romance hotline, but he's over love for himself. When a young girl calls in looking for dating advice for her mom, Lucie, the interview goes viral. Suddenly, everyone is invested in Lucie's happily ever after, including Aiden. Prepub Alert.

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December 9, 2024
Borison (Business Casual) enchants in this delightful contemporary that pairs a burned-out radio host and a luckless-in-love single mother. Mechanic Lucie Stone’s precocious 12-year-old, Maya, decides that her mother is lonely and calls Baltimore radio host Aiden Valentine’s dating advice show, Heartstrings, hoping to find her a date. After Maya passes the phone to a blindsided Lucie, she and Aiden have a frank on-air discussion about love that immediately goes viral, leading to a radio cohosting gig for Lucie. Soon, half of the eastern seaboard is rooting for Lucie to find her happily ever after, with many of the show’s callers trying to set her up. After a few disastrous dates, however, Lucie begins to understand that the love she seeks may be right in front of her. Lucie and Aiden are perfectly imperfect together and will have eager readers rooting for their romance. Quirky supporting characters—especially Lucie’s dramatic ex-husband, Grayson, and his new husband, Mateo—add depth, while Borison’s skillful plotting keeps the pages flying. This first-rate tale will resonate with true romantics.

Starred review from January 1, 2025
In Borison's charming rom-com inspired by the 1993 film Sleepless in Seattle, the daughter of single mom Lucie Stone calls the romance-advice radio show Heartstrings, hosted by the jaded Adrian Valentine, hoping to find love for her mother, a mechanic. Her raw, honest thoughts strike a chord with Baltimore listeners, prompting Adrian's boss to quickly concoct a plan for Lucie to join Adrian's broadcast so the radio station can help her look for her perfect match. Adrian is initially reluctant, but soon plainspoken Lucie has won him over, breaking through all of Adrian's carefully constructed walls. As Adrian helps Lucie sift through a bevy of uninspiring candidates, Lucie is realizing the person sitting next to her in the booth might be the one she wants. The first outing in Borison's new Heartstrings series is adult, both in the spice department and in the refreshingly frank way the characters talk to each other; there's no cloying sidestepping here. Warmhearted and thoroughly delightful, Borison's winning latest will likely expand the fan base that fell for her Lovelight series.

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