Illinois Authors

Stephanie J. Scott 2024

I’ve been in love with my best friend’s sister most of my life. I never imagined I’d be asking her to be my fake fiancée. Even wilder, she said yes.Marcy:Some might call me a people-pleaser. A Type-A, stress baker with a bread obsession. I’ve followed my family’s path for me, checking off the right boxes, all to make them happy.Small problem. I’m not happy.I haven’t dared tell my parents or my Italian grandmother my dream to ditch my accounting job to open a bakery. A family legacy to honor my grandparents whose bakery shuttered after my grandfather passed. They worked too hard to provide my brothers and me an easier life.Now I have a real shot at my dream. Inheritance money my grandmother is offering (while alive) to set us up for our next phase of life. The hitch? I need to be thirty or married.With two years to go and not a fiancé in sight, I’ll be stress baking like it’s a full-time job.Patrick:Running for small-town mayor has turned small-time disaster. Now I’m doing the thing I swore I’d never do again: asking my parents for help.My mother sweeps in with a top-tier campaign manager on a mission to make me relatable to voters. Simply stated, I need a wife. A fake one will do, a fiancée for the run of the campaign.There’s no one I trust more for the role than Marcy. She’s my best friend’s sister, and one of my closest friends.My brilliant plan will help us both. She’ll unlock the money for her bakery. I’ll look like a stable mayoral candidate and make a difference in my town.One catch. I’m in love with her and she can never know.A Day in the Loaf is a sweet (and a little zany) fake engagement romantic comedy. This is the second book in a series about four friends who find their careers and love lives in need of a major reboot. This book can be read as a standalone.

Self Published 2021

Sometimes life doesn't go according to plan. My summer was planned from packing lists to trip itineraries. Or so I'd thought. It's the night before my trip abroad, and my boyfriend Matt showed up at a party with another girl. The boyfriend I'm supposed to spend seven weeks with in Brazil. No way can I board that plane. With my trip tickets ripped up and the money down the drain, I owe my parents big-time. The only job hiring is Teed Off!, the driving range that just-so-happens to employ Matt's trio of best friends. Matt's friends don't like my presence on their artificial turf, so pranking me becomes their second part-time job. They definitely don't want me winning the bonus money our boss is offering for an idea to improve the business. By chance on a summer night, Matt's head crony best friend Aidan is there for me when no one else is around. Turns out, he and Matt haven't been close for a while. Aidan begins to see through to the real me--the me I'd kept from Matt to be the person I've always longed to be--popular with a boyfriend, all according to plan. As the summer unfolds, our secrets unravel. --Back cover.

Stephanie J. Scott 2022

A young adult fake dating romance set in the world of competitive tennisMaisie Maxwell planned for a senior year of dazzling college scouts by playing her best tennis. Instead, her beloved tennis training academy is thrown into scandal—the academy founder and head coach, who happens to be her uncle—took off to Tahiti with the school’s tuition money. Her classmates label her a traitor, but she commits to graduate from the school she loves.Only her aim to lay low is thwarted by the school’s new partnership with reality show The Academy, their last ditch hope to stay open.Also not helping her stay-under-the-radar plan is when her forehand-gone-wild nails transfer student Shane Wagner in the face. Shane, obnoxiously gorgeous for starters, happens to be the number one nationally seeded player in junior boys’ tennis. Oops. Viewed by the students as an outsider and fame-seeker, Shane is just as much an outcast.While reality show producers push for chaos, Shane and Maisie band together. They can each get what they want if they play their parts—pretend to be together and control the narrative. Can Maisie and Shane save the school before they’re outmatched?

Self Published 2021

Sometimes summer is one wild ride.I’d set my heart and summer plans on working my dream job at Midwest Wild Adventure theme park with my friend Chelsea and my long-time crush KJ Keene. Only a day-one prank results in total humiliation, punchline: Me.Worse, Chelsea and KJ are in on the prank.Not only that, but after my big, loud mouth gets me in trouble with my new boss, I’m sent to work at the

CreateSpace 2018

After a terrible day at her awful job, the last thing Mia Hammond expects is to see her ex at happy hour. On the floor. Unconscious, after falling over at the sight of her.They always did make a disastrous pairing.Aaron Stanek is humiliated to discover not only did he suffer a concussion, he wasn't even on the ice when it happened. Worse, Mia-freaking-Hammond, aka the love of his life who blames him for tanking her sports agenting career, is at his side in the hospital.Mia swallows her pride and asks Aaron for a favor to aid her beloved childhood camp. Recruiting a few notable hockey players from the team he manages to teach sports clinics could be just what the flailing camp needs. Surely, two mature adults who happened to have dated once upon a time (fiery break-up notwithstanding) can handle working together. After all, it's temporary.Partnering with a kids' camp is the golden good press opportunity Aaron needs to turn around his family’s expansion hockey team before the players' pranks result in losing more sponsors. (See there was this Zamboni...)And it puts him back in Mia's orbit, with the long-shot chance she just might forgive him.Falling Into Place is a sweet, closed-door contemporary romance about second chances.

Self Published 2022

Sometimes taking a risk keeps the wheels turning.Everyone seems to have life figured out but me. I’ve never been good at much, though I’ll give anything the old college try.Well, except for actual college. I’m not trying that at all. Not yet.So here I am, taking a gap year after high school, which I hear is a totally acceptable practice in many countries. In my high school filled with over-achievers, I’m the odd one out.Working my summer job and feeling my lowest, I accept an invitation to sub in on a roller derby team. I own skates and am okay at it, so why not? I never expected to love the feeling of racing the track. Of pushing my way to victory. For once in my life, I might actually be good at something.I even have a new guy to crush on—Rob, who I met at a derby match. Only it turns out, he’s affiliated with our rival team-slash-sworn enemies. The team split in two last year from a big blowout between the captains.And worse, Rob is the brother of our rival’s captain. Maybe worse than that, I kinda took a solemn vow when I joined the team that I’d never associate with any of them.The team means everything to me, but Rob is finding a place in my heart too. Just when I thought I’d figured out my life, I fall back down again.Free Wheeling Summer is a young adult secret dating romance and the fourth book in the Love on Summer Break series. It can be read as a stand-alone story.

Alcove Press2024 2017

A down-on-her-luck craft beer brewer and her privileged new boss clash as they work together to save a quirky brewpub in this enemies-to-lovers workplace rom-com, perfect for fans of Rachel Lynn Solomon’s The Ex Talk.Kat Malone is left cash-strapped after a job loss and a bad breakup (pro tip: never offer to pay living expenses for a freeloading poetry major) when she discovers a surprising new career path: craft beer brewer.When the brewpub is sold, the new owner places his light-on-experience son in charge of the pub. Ryan is as basic as a pale lager and aims to turn quirky Resistance into a run-of-the-mill sports bar. Worse, he won’t consider Kat for the position of brewer’s assistant—the job she’d been promised by the previous owners.Despite clashes between Kat and Ryan, he confides that Resistance is in financial trouble and that drastic changes will be needed if the pub has any hope of survival. Forced to collaborate, Kat realizes Ryan isn’t as bland as she assumed—he might even be exactly what she’s been craving.But just as Ryan promises Kat a true partnership in the face of his father’s opposition, Kat is offered the opportunity of a lifetime. “Marrying the beer” used to be Kat’s only goal, but can she craft a brew for her life that allows her to have it all?Fans of Kate Clayborn and Mariana Zapata will be raising a pint to this crisp, satisfying, slow-burn romantic novel.

Stephanie J. Scott 2023

He’s a low-tech grump who put his dream wilderness job on hold to run a children’s camp. She’s an always-online beauty influencer whose break-up just went viral. Forced to work together, they couldn’t possibly be more wrong for each other.Hudson:My life is a disaster and now the rest of the world knows it too.I thought I’d made it big landing a job as a spokesperson for a shiny new beauty brand, only to lose it all when I’m named in a federal investigation after authorities raid my billionaire boyfriend’s company.Make that my ex-boyfriend.In a leaked video, he blames me for his own fraud. Now his rabid followers gleefully attack me in every online space. With my reputation shredded like my ex’s shady bank records, I need to lie low. Fast.Thanks to quick efforts by trusted friends, I’m living off-the-grid as a counselor at a kid’s summer camp in a forced no-WiFi existence while my online life cools down.Only camp life is anything but cool with my hot but gruff boss. So what if he’s out-of-touch and anti-tech? I only need to make it a few weeks and then I’m back to my L.A. life.Lucas:I never imagined I’d end up the top guy running Camp Junebug. After all, this job was meant to be a stepping stone to bigger boulders—say to Boulder, Colorado.The camp is understaffed and I’m overwhelmed, and that’s when she walks in. Like she’s straight out of a fashion shoot, looking for a job. Thing is, I have to hire her. One: I’m desperate. Two: she’s my cousin’s best friend.This diva doesn’t know squat about the outdoors, but the kids love her. And now she’s set her sights on me. Asking questions. Like, what is a guy who dreams of leading expeditions in the Rockies doing at a worn-down kids’ camp without a mountain in sight?Worse? Every time she’s near, my world flips. Everything about her stands out in bright colors, and something in my heart gives way.Lady and the Camp is a heartwarming (and a little bonkers) grumpy/sunshine sweet romantic comedy. This is the first in a new series about four friends who find their careers and love lives in need of a major reboot. This book can be read as a standalone.

Stephanie J. Scott 2023

A Christmas tree farmer meets his match when his holiday-despising childhood crush returns to town with a favor to ask...Marlowe Holly:Me and Christmas aren’t on the best of terms. I’ve only ever wanted to make a name for myself apart from my family, but my holiday-loving town can’t see past the traumatic event that rocked the Holly clan all those years ago.When a summons from my strong-willed grandmother has me hightailing it from California back to my Midwest blip-on-the-map hometown, wow is there news.The beloved Holly family home is up for grabs, with a wild contest to compete for inheritance. The criteria? Participating in the month-long holiday festivities in town, with points tallied by my grandmother’s hand-plucked judges.Ethan Sawyer:I can hardly believe my eyes when she walks into the local watering hole the night before Thanksgiving. Marlowe Holly. The girl I grew up with. The girl I grew to love, but never made a move on to preserve our friendship.Now she needs my help to invoke holiday cheer, which I’m never short on working at a Christmas tree farm. And I need something from her: land acreage tied to the Holly estate. If she wins the house, our family business can pull off the farm expansion we desperately need.Now if I can only manage not to fall for her all over again…Miss Humbug is a sweet, small-town, grumpy sunshine, holiday romantic comedy. Get ready for:Return to hometownLarger-than-life familyA secret contest to win an inheritanceChildhood friends to moreSlow burn romanceMandatory carolingPublic shenanigans**no actual holiday displays were harmed in the making of this book

Self Published 2021

Three nights before Christmas, and all Megan Campbell needs to do is to pick up a Christmas tree. Never mind she's a city girl who has never bought a real live tree. The biggest and best tree in the lot should make her mom and her new stepdad happy-and forget how she's neglected to visit them in their tiny town. Three nights before Christmas, and all Nick Bennington needs to do is to pick up a Christmas tree. The tree he should have picked up weeks ago for the charity event at the historic mayor's mansion on Christmas Eve. The task his mother, Mayor Bennington herself, entrusted him with. Now the biggest and best tree in the lot is gone. After a slip off the icy roads sends Megan, her car, and her prized tree into the ditch, a rescuer in the form of Nick Bennington arrives. A rescuer with ulterior motives, Meghan discovers, as he angles to take the pesky tree off her hands. Falling for the country boy is not part of her holiday plans. But for Nick, stumbling upon this city girl might be just the wake-up call he needs.

Self Published 2021

Sometimes being the good girl means everyone loses.When my parents sentenced me to geriatric exile in a sleepy beach town for the summer with my grandparents, I tried everything to stop it. I’m the good girl. The straight-A student and the newly elected co-captain of my high school track team. Only my sister Grace ruined everything. Grace, a rebel with a party girl reputation, insisted I join her at a party on her graduation night. All to be her designated driver. Too bad I only had a learner’s permit—and crashed her car. Oops.Now, I’m in deep trouble with my parents and the court. My punishment means I’m trading team runs for scrubbing toilets at my grandparents’ Lake Michigan coastal inn. Any free time is used up working service hours at the local community center to show the court I deserve a driver’s license.Then I meet Will. He’s cooler than I could ever hope to be with dyed black hair and piercings. He finds me on the beach and we talk through sunset. I need a friend right now and Will is here, listening. Only he’s a bad boy and that spells trouble.But Will isn’t as he seems. His bad boy image hides deep hurts I’m only beginning to uncover. Time with Will feels like an escape. I might actually make it through this summer.The trouble is, I’m falling for Will, and I have secrets of my own. If Will finds out what really happened the night of the party, we’ll lose everything we’ve built.Sunset Summer is a young adult summer job romance and the second book in the Love on Summer Break series. This book can be read as a standalone story.