The road to love is bumpy in a sexy, heartwarming contemporary romance filled with fake-dating hijinks, delicious forced proximity, and top-tier banter.

Daisy Emmett has been enemies with famous romance author Caleb Miller since they were in college together, and time hasn’t lessened their mutual loathing. So when she agrees to maneuver him through a PR disaster of his own making, she knows it’s not going to be easy. She just doesn’t realize how not easy it is until they somehow end up trapped in the same truck, on an endless road trip from one book tour stop to another, bantering and butting heads along the way.

Then, even more horrifying: people appear to be mistaking her for the woman he dedicates all his books to. The love of his life, his adored beloved—the one who doesn’t actually exist. Now they’re trapped into pretending she does, and that Daisy is her, each fake kiss and phony embrace ratcheting up the tension to the point where enemies suddenly seem a lot closer to lovers than either of them would like.

Or so they’re telling themselves.

But sometimes it’s hard to be sure, when seething turns into something so much more…

~Standalone~

This story may contain language, violence, and/or sexual situations intended for an adult 18+ audience.

Title:  While You Were Seething
Series:  Standalone
Author:  Charlotte Stein
Published:  April 14, 2026
Publisher:  St. Martin’s Press
My Rating:  3 stars

While You Were Seething is a standalone title by an established, but new-to-me, author. The premise was intriguing, but the story delivered was not for me.  I wish I could have liked Daisy and Caleb, but in the end, I just couldn’t.  It’s an okay story… but I do not, and never will, enjoy a “romance” with a lead character who is not only grumpy toward his supposed love… but also downright mean and, at times, cruel.  Caleb’s turnaround was, for me, far too late and way too little.

It’s well-written; it has nothing to do with the author’s talents.  It’s about my reaction to a couple I could not believe really had that *spark* that would have told me they were really in love.  The banter between them was real, yet oftentimes felt mean and cruel on Caleb’s part.  The truth is that While You Were Seething was not for me, yet because it was an e-ARC, I powered through… if I’d purchased or borrowed it, well, I would not have finished it.  The fact is that no two people ever read the same book… your reaction might be far different than mine, and that’s okay.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley, and I sincerely thank the author or publishing house for their trust. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

 

This title is available at Amazon