The Next Round by Eva Frances

Awards:

• Winner - 2025 IndieReader Discovery Award for Romance
• Winner - 2025 Passionate Plume Award - Contemporary
• Winner - 2025 HOLT Medallion Award - Best First Book
• Finalist - 2025 HOLT Medallion Award - Long Contemporary
• Finalist - 2025 American Fiction Awards - Romance
• Finalist - 2025 Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards - Romance
• Finalist - 2024 Copyright Reader Views Reviewer's Choice Literary Awards - Romance
• Honorable Mention - 2025 Beach Book Festival - Romance
• Honorable Mention - 2025 New York Book Festival - Fiction

Blurb:

Shaken and stirred.

Five years is a long time between drinks for old friends.

Shaken by a series of heartbreaks, Andie Herrera’s fear of jumping into new relationships leads her to run away and keep her distance from the possibilities of love, even with restaurant and bar entrepreneur, Chris Vaughn.

After five years apart, Andie and Chris are unexpectedly thrown together in a mix of professional and personal circumstances, as they work on the launch of a new bar establishment.

Is this their chance to re-ignite their friendship and heal the rupture from the last time they saw each other?

The heady cocktail of familiar warmth, heated conversation, and undeniable chemistry in their shared moments has Andie questioning what she really wants: friendship—or maybe even more, this time around. 

Can Andie face her demons and move beyond her deep-seated fears to finally take the leap of faith and meet Chris halfway? Is it possible that the person who knows her best might be the love she’s been missing?

Tropes:

• Second chance

• Friends to lovers

• Slow burn

• Forced proximity

• Found family

• Spice