Summer in the City

By: Alex Aster

Published by William Morrow Paperbacks, 2026-05-05

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! This deluxe paperback edition features special stenciled edges and interior cover art. "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 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 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 fake a buzzy relationship 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.