Runaway Girl by Tessa Bailey (Paperback)

A warm, funny contemporary MF romance from Tessa Bailey, and the second book in THE GIRL series. It’s Naomi Clemons’s big day. Her dream wedding. And she’s out of here.

One moment is all it takes — a chance meeting of gazes through the church window with someone familiar, someone who radiates intrigue and independence. It’s the final push Naomi needs to realise something uncomfortable: she’s boring. A blonde, cookie-cutter, well-mannered trophy-wife-to-be. How can she possibly expect a fulfilling married life when she’s never actually lived? So she runs.

Special Forces diver Jason Bristow needs a beauty pageant coach — not for himself, though the tattooed bruiser could certainly use some charm, but for his little sister, whom he’s returned to St Augustine, Florida to raise. So when a beautiful southern debutante lands on his doorstep, she awakens a hunger he can’t ignore. If only she weren’t planning on winning back the ex-fiancé she left at the altar. Despite the very real potential for ruin, the heat between Naomi and Jason keeps building beneath the sultry Florida sunshine, consuming them both. But they’re on borrowed time, and it’s about to run out. Charming, steamy and full of grumpy-sunshine banter, it’s an opposites-attract romance with a runaway-bride twist.

For mature readers.

Perfect for readers who love a grumpy-sunshine romcom, a runaway-bride premise, a gruff military hero softened by an unlikely match and plenty of southern heat.