Ruby Landers’s Goldie-winning debut pairs a fading country star with the woman pretending to be her co-writer’s wife. A stunning slow burn first half, a second half that splits readers, and 4/5 heat.
An award-winning small-town enemies-to-lovers romance with the sharpest dialogue in this category and a genuinely dark undertow, let down by a last stretch that resolves too fast for what it has raised.
Updated on October 8, 2026 Verdict: One of the best-loved sapphic mafia romances of the past year — an actor gets close to the Melbourne crime boss she plays on TV — with a magnetic ice-queen lead, a slow burn that readers stay up until 4 a.m. to finish, and a feminist anger that gives … Read more