A Smile in a Whisper
A SMILE IN A WHISPER is a dual timeline love story ideal for fans of Christina Lauren’s Love and Other Words, Chloe Liese’s With You Forever, and Carley Fortune’s Every Summer After.
NOT ALL FAREWELLS ARE FOREVER…
Evie Sutherland throws herself into everything. Like many on Scotland’s picturesque Orkney Islands, she works several jobs: managing her family’s shop, researching genealogy for tourists, and writing historical romance novels. Evie aces most challenges—except love. With a childhood diagnosis of Crohn’s disease and a disastrous dating history, Evie has convinced herself that guys won’t date the “sick girl” and the blame falls on the shoulders of her first love, a famous boy from London who spent his summers on her island.
To the outside world, Nikolai Balfour lives a charmed life. Starring in a popular British TV series as a teen, young Nick stole fans’ hearts from the Isle of Wight to Shetland. However, that was a lifetime ago, and the years since have been filled with “Didn’t you used to be…” moments, career wrong-turns, and empty relationships. Now finding success behind the cameras, Nick is still racked with regret and guilt over how things ended with the Orcadian girl he’d loved and left behind.
But when a television series filming in Orkney blows Nick back into Evie’s quiet life, they’re forced to face their heartbreaking past and revisit old secrets that should never have been kept.
Unfolding in alternating past and present timelines, A Smile in a Whisper is a touching story of first love and second chances, and the enduring summer memories that shape us.
Starred Industry Reviews:
Recipient of a PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BOOKLIFE EDITOR’S PICK and a BLUEINK REVIEW STARRED REVIEW.
Content note (may contain spoilers): This novel contains an own voices depiction of panic attacks, as well as coarse language, Crohn’s disease/chronic + invisible illness representation, hospital scenes, under age drinking, drug use, infidelity (parental backstory), and open- and closed-door love scenes.
Also available in paperback: A SMILE IN A WHISPER: ISLAND ESCAPE SPECIAL EDITION featuring an illustrated cover by Canadian artist Liz Parkes, travel tips for your own Orkney Islands adventure, and a sneak peek excerpt from Jacquelyn’s next romance, Love Wants Us to Win, which releases in October 2026.
A Smile in a Whisper: Island Escape Special Edition is available from Amazon worldwide, Barnes & Noble, Indigo, Waterstones, and Bookshop.
The Certainty of Chance
Featured by ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY as one of the ‘best holiday romances of 2021’.
THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT DECEMBER…
Madeleine Joy is feeling more meh than merry. When an Icelandic volcano erupts six days before Christmas, hazardous ash congests European airspace, canceling flights indefinitely—including the thirtysomething’s connection to Paris. Stranded alone in London, separated from her sister, and with the devastating one-year anniversary of her best friend’s tragic death just days away, Madeleine has never felt less festive. And as if things couldn’t get worse, the cute guy driving the cab to her hotel won’t shut up about carolers and tinsel…
Julian Halliwell is one of life’s sunny optimists. A former music journalist, he’s embraced his love for London by starting his own black cab business, enthusiastically ferrying passengers from one historic landmark to another. But life hasn’t always been easy for Julian. Having navigated several life-changing setbacks including a cruel betrayal by his former fiancée, Julian remains hopeful that he’ll meet somebody kind, who shares his love of music, his corgi named Winnie, and of course, the magic of Christmas time in London.
Despite being an unlikely match, fate seems determined to throw them together. But can the grieving American find joy again in a world where the lights have all but dimmed?
From Jacquelyn Middleton, the award-winning author of UNTIL THE LAST STAR FADES, comes a heartwarming Christmas story of love, loss, serendipity, and the belief that what’s meant for you won’t pass you by.
Starred Industry Reviews:
Recipient of KIRKUS and BLUEINK REVIEW STARRED REVIEWS.
Awards:
Outstanding Holiday Fiction from the 2022 Independent Author Network ‘Book of the Year’ Awards
Best Romance from the 2022 Indie Reader Discovery Awards
Content note (may contain spoilers): This novel contains an own voices depiction of disenfranchised grief, as well as anxiety and depression, coarse language, an unexpected death of a loved one (backstory), cheating partner (backstory), therapy, and closed-door love scenes.
Also available in paperback: THE CERTAINTY OF CHANCE: CHRISTMAS PUDDING SPECIAL EDITION (released November 2023) featuring an illustrated cover by artist Leni Kauffman and my grandmother’s authentic Christmas Pudding recipe.
The Certainty of Chance: Christmas Pudding Special Edition is available through Amazon worldwide, Barnes & Noble, and Indigo.
Say Hello, Kiss Goodbye
WILL HER FLING BECOME HIS FOREVER?
Leia Scott has sworn off love. Fresh from a messy, public divorce from her hockey player ex, the twenty-six-year-old fashion designer temporarily trades New York for London to heal and embrace her freedom. Her vow? To protect her heart, steer clear of relationships, and say yes to flings without strings. She throws herself into designing upcycled dresses and exploring London with her sister. But Leia’s carefully curated plan encounters a flirty complication with an irresistible British accent.
Wealthy, charming, and devastatingly attractive, Tarquin Balfour is tired of meaningless hookups and dates that go nowhere. For years, he has played the bon viveur with reckless abandon, throwing decadent parties, sleeping with a parade of women, and diving into extreme sports around the globe. But now the young property developer wants more. He craves love and commitment, to prove his kind heart matters more than the abundance of zeroes attached to his bank balance. Struggling with undiagnosed depression, Tarquin worries he’ll never find The One…until he meets his princess, a fashion designer named Leia.
Afraid of falling in love and fearful of being alone, Leia and Tarquin enter into an entanglement that threatens to hurt them both.
From Jacquelyn Middleton, the award-winning author of UNTIL THE LAST STAR FADES, comes a sexy story of love, second chances, gratitude, and finding beauty in the broken and the forgotten.
Starred Industry Reviews:
Recipient of a PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BOOKLIFE EDITOR’S PICK and a BLUEINK REVIEW STARRED REVIEW.
Content note (may contain spoilers): This novel contains an own voices depiction of depression & anxiety, as well as PTSD, coarse language, a cheating spouse (backstory), alcoholism (parental backstory), therapy, and open- and closed-door love scenes.
Coming soon in paperback: SAY HELLO, KISS GOODBYE: RASPBERRY MACARONS SPECIAL EDITION featuring an illustrated cover by Canadian artist Liz Parkes, and exclusive extras.
Special edition purchase links coming soon.
Until the Last Star Fades
Touching, heartfelt and passionate, UNTIL THE LAST STAR FADES blurs the line between slow-burn romance and women’s fiction, and is a must-read for hopeful romantics, devoted daughters, and the moms they cherish.
COULD YOU BE THE ONE WHO CHANGES EVERYTHING?
In her senior year at NYU, Riley Hope appears to be on top of the world. With a loving mother who makes Lorelai Gilmore look like a parenting slacker, ride-or-die friends, and a long-time boyfriend destined for the National Hockey League, she puts on a smile for the world. But behind it, she’s drowning. Racked with fears for the future, she battles to stay afloat amid life in the shadows of her mother’s heartbreaking illness.
And then, Ben Fagan comes crashing into her life. Twenty-three-years-old, British, and alone in the Big Apple after a disastrous pilot season in LA, the struggling actor is looking for an escape: booze, mischief, sex—minimum commitment, maximum fun—anything to avoid returning across the pond.
As they form an unlikely bond, Riley keeps her reality from Ben so that he remains a happy refuge. But how long can she hold back the truth…and is Ben keeping his own secrets, too?
From the award-winning author of LONDON BELONGS TO ME and LONDON, CAN YOU WAIT?, comes a bittersweet story about love, loss, sacrifice, and the life changing decisions we make.
Awards:
Best Canadian Author from the 2019 Northern Hearts Awards, Toronto Romance Writers
Best Romance from the 2019 Independent Author Network ‘Book of the Year’ Awards
Content note (may contain spoilers): This novel contains an own voices depiction of smiling depression, as well as a parent with cancer, hospital scenes, anticipatory grief, dyslexia, coarse language, open- and closed-door love scenes. Since one of the main characters lives with dyslexia, some texts and web searches in the story contain spelling errors. These mistakes are intentional and shouldn’t be reported as errors.
Also available in paperback: UNTIL THE LAST STAR FADES: LOVE HEARTS SPECIAL EDITION featuring an illustrated cover by Canadian artist Liz Parkes, and the novella, Invisible String.
Until the Last Star Fades: Love Hearts Special Edition is now available from Amazon US, Amazon Canada, and Amazon UK, and coming soon to Indigo Barnes & Noble, and everywhere else!
London, Can You Wait?
Alex loves Mark. Mark loves Alex. But is love enough?
Since moving to London from the US, twenty-four-year-old Alex Sinclair seems to have it all: a coveted job writing for the theatre, supportive friends, and the man of her dreams gorgeous Irish actor, Mark Keegan. But in the year since the acclaimed debut of her play, Alex and Mark’s lives have been turned upside down.
Thanks to his role on a smash-hit British TV show, Mark is catapulted to stardom. Alex couldn’t be happier until her boyfriend’s popularity and insatiable drive to succeed means they’re apart more than they’re together. Forced to share Mark with showbiz heavy-hitters, intrusive press, and unrelenting fangirls, Alex’s hopes for a stable and committed life with him start to fade. Her struggles with panic attacks, career uncertainty, and Mark’s increasingly worrisome behaviour make her wonder: how much more can she bend before she breaks?
A passionate tale of secrets, loss, and ambition, London, Can You Wait? is the eagerly-awaited sequel to Middleton’s debut novel, London Belongs to Me.
Awards:
Best Women’s Fiction from the 2019 Indie Reader Discovery Awards
Best Romance from the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards
Content note (may contain spoilers): This novel contains an own voices depiction of an anxiety disorder and panic attacks, as well as coarse language, heartbreak, death of a loved one (backstory), therapy, open- and closed-door love scenes.
London Belongs To Me
A New City. A New Start. Same Old Demons …
Meet Alex, a recent college graduate from Tallahassee, Florida in love with London, pop culture, and comic cons. It’s not easy being twenty-one-years-old, and Alex has never been the most popular girl. She’s an outsider, a geeky fangirl … with dreams of becoming a playwright in a city she’s loved from afar, but never visited.
Fleeing America after a devastating betrayal, she believes London is where she’ll be understood, where she belongs. But Alex’s past of panic attacks and broken relationships is hard to escape. When her demons team up with a jealous rival determined to destroy her new British life, Alex begins to question everything: her life-long dream, her new friends, and whether London is where she truly belongs. London Belongs to Me is a coming-of-age story about friendship, following your dreams, learning when to let go … and when to hang on.
Awards:
Was chosen as one of eight honourable mention winners in the mainstream/literary category of the 25th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.
Content note (may contain spoilers): This novel contains an own voices depiction of an anxiety disorder and panic attacks, as well as coarse language, bullying, cheating partner (backstory), and closed-door love scenes.
