Summer in the City (Standard Edition): A Novel

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

“This was a fun, stay-up-late-to-finish read! Elle and Parker have chemistry from the jump, but a combination of forced proximity and her hatred of him is fuel for witty banter, a long, slow burn and plenty of steam! I loved how Elle’s true enemies-to-lovers journey is with New York City itself. Aster pays tribute to so many special NYC landmarks and experiences making the setting every bit a living character as the people in it.” — Abby Jimenez, #1 New York Times bestselling author

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Alex Aster comes her adult debut novel Summer in the City—a swoony, fast-paced second chance billionaire romance and rom-com set in New York City in which a screenwriter and a sexy tech CEO go from lovers to enemies and back to lovers again…

Twenty-seven-year-old screenwriter Elle has the chance of a lifetime to write a big-budget movie set in New York City. The only problem? She’s had writer’s block for months, and her screenplay is due at the end of the summer. 

In a desperate attempt at inspiration, Elle ends up back in the city she swore she would never return to, in an apartment she could never afford (floor-to-ceiling windows, skyline views, and a new coffee shop to haunt included). It’s the perfect place to write her screenplay…until she realizes her new neighbor is tech "Billionaire Bachelor" Parker Warren, her stairwell hookup from two years ago. It’s been a lovers-to-enemies situation defined by forced proximity ever since. 

When seeing him again turns into a full night of hate-fueled writing, Elle realizes her enemy/twisted muse might just be the key to finishing her screenplay... if she can stand being around her polar opposite. She writes anonymously, and he’s on the cover of every business magazine. He frequents fancy red carpeted events, and she doesn’t like leaving her emotional support five block radius. 

One summer. One wall apart. He needs to enter a fake dating agreement during his company’s precarious acquisition. She needs to write a movie around a list of NYC locations. Both need a break from their unrelenting schedules, and a chance to rediscover the skyscraper glimmering, pizza crusted, sunlit charms of the city.  

Summers always end, and so will this agreement. It’s all pretend. Promise. 

Until it isn’t.

• Enemies to Lovers: She needs inspiration. He is inspiration. Too bad Elle can’t stand her tech billionaire muse, Parker Warren—and the feeling is mutual.
• Witty Banter: Their chemistry started with a disastrous stairwell hookup. Now, their hate-fueled arguments might be the only thing that can break her writer’s block... and his resolve.
• Slow Burn Romance: They’re just neighbors, and it’s just a business arrangement. But with one thin wall between them all summer, their fake relationship is starting to feel dangerously real.
• Spicy Rom-Com: A New York City summer full of sizzling chemistry, laugh-out-loud moments, and plenty of steam as these two opposites discover they can’t keep their hands off each other.