Flytrap

Contemporary Romance with strong New Adult crossover appeal

76,000

Cari Mercado has a rigorous plan for her post-college life. She has an exciting new job in the city, a detailed budget, and dreams of moving to the nicest town she knows: Demarest, New Jersey.

Before she gets there, she’s starting at the bottom. She moves back into her childhood home that’s way too loud, totally devoid of privacy and filled with people (and dogs) with an unwelcome number of opinions. She diligently starts at her new job, but encounters her infuriating neighbor Leo on her way home from work each night.

Leo Lopez, her brother’s best friend, has been torturing her since she was a kid. Leo is unserious, mocking, and worst of all, unemployed. He’s nothing she should want at this stage in her life, and yet he’s everywhere she turns, eating her food and showing up at parties unexpectedly. When an unusually sincere conversation ends in a brother-interrupted kiss, she realizes she’s in far deeper than she should be with a man she may have misjudged.

Cari wants to give in to her curiosity, but she’s stymied by her nosy family and an ex-boyfriend she left back at school. With every tentative move closer to him, she realizes Leo is suffering from a depression he hasn’t disclosed to anyone. As her first student loan bill shows up and Leo travels to Puerto Rico to seek recovery among family, Cari’s careful plans feel like they’re falling apart.

After a short separation turns into months, Leo withdraws from their long-distance relationship. He returns to a Cari who’s hurt by his choice, even though she understands he prioritized his health. They must prove to each other that they’ve found the balance they need for themselves to make their relationship work.