Small, Boring Promises: Three couples. One southbound train. A lost ring, an old letter-and a wedding that needs saving. (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798264424472)

Three couples. One southbound train. A lost ring, an old letter-and a wedding that needs saving.

On the Paris-to-Sorrento night train, six strangers are squeezed into the same moving village: a photographer and the boatbuilder she once loved, a pastry chef drafted into a fake-dating scheme, and a linguist with a very practical Brit in pursuit of a swapped bag. When a simple gold ring and a 1966 letter go missing, Carriage Seven bands together to deliver both to a waiting grandmother-and to keep a lemon-bright Italian wedding from falling apart.

• Lena & Rafa (second-chance): the photographer and the craftsman who once talked in time zones now have to talk in person.
• Anaïs & Enzo (fake-dating): a pastry chef with rules and a charming chaos machine rehearse being a couple to outwit Nonna-and rescue dessert.
• Maya & Tom (opposites-attract): a linguist who believes in verbs and an engineer who respects voltage learn the art of being late but never absent.

From Paris to Sorrento-with dining-car strategy sessions, lemon-torte diplomacy, and a kitchen-table found family-Small, Boring Promises is a feel-good, closed-door ensemble romance about choosing each other in the small ways that last. First in the Carriage Seven series; each book follows a different couple toward a hopeful HEA.

Perfect for readers who love: destination romance, found family, multiple POVs, witty banter, "fake dating," second chances, and Italian sunshine without the jet lag.

Heat level: closed-door (PG-13; no on-page sex).
Tropes: second chance - fake dating - forced proximity - mistaken luggage - found family - wedding-week chaos - slow burn.