The Backslide
A steamy novel set in Chicago in the 2010s, The Backslide riffs on the classic love triangle, putting at its center a woman navigating the onset of Crohn’s disease amid her best friend’s engagement.
Eloise Belinski has a lot of secrets: She never finished college. She prefers horror novels to acclaimed literary fiction. She blows off work for secret trysts with her ex. Sometimes she gets so lonely, she steals her neighbor’s cat. Worst of all, she has embarrassing digestive issues that frequently send her running to the bathroom.
When she meets Simon Andrews, a fellow horror buff and cat lover, it feels like she’s finally found someone she can confide in. Someone who accepts her just the way she is, embarrassing digestive disorder and all. But when her ex-boyfriend Kyle shows up on her doorstep, finally ready to commit, she has no idea how to choose between the love she always wanted and the one she never expected.
With The Backslide, I set out to cover topics I want to see more of as a romance reader: characters who look like regular people. Health concerns that can impact your sense of desirability. Sexual discovery and learning how to share your preferences with new partners. The possibility that you can have more than one true love.
I’m actively pitching The Backslide to agents, and I have several spinoff books planned about this novel’s secondary characters.
The Notebook Fanfiction
A contemporary reimagining of the 2004 film directed by Nick Cassavetes. This retelling questions whether Noah Calhoun and Allie Hamilton were really right for each other and whether their volatile relationship would actually work. Lon Hammond, who is playful, funny, and endlessly supportive, gets more serious consideration as a love interest.
Read my blog post on what inspired me to write this fanfiction, or read the story on Wattpad.
Untitled Forced Proximity Novel
This book focuses on Michelle Kinsey, a transplant to Boulder pursuing graduate school, and Ray Scmidt, a phlebotomist going through a divorce, who are trying to ignore their budding attraction when they find themselves living together.
Untitled Romance Thriller
My newest book project came to me in a dream about half the global population losing their memories. In this novel, the main character Laura is one of the unlucky people to have forgotten the entire past year. The book explores how this impacts every aspect of her life, from her job to her romantic relationships, and the way other people in her life who haven’t lost their memories exploit this situation. It’s The Leftovers meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets Wicker Park.
Melissa Rose 