Two best friends. One fake romance.
A Christmas where the clock is always about to strike midnight.

Rock star Ollie Templeton has spent his career giving the tabloids exactly what they want. What he doesn’t plan to give them is the truth about Samantha Bamford, his best friend long before the fame ever showed up. But one impulsive word at a charity gala, and Sam isn’t just his oldest friend anymore. She’s his girlfriend. Fake obviously. Except nothing about the way he says her name sounds fake at all.

Sam doesn’t have the headspace for a pretend romance—not with Ollie’s panto run stealing his evenings, weekends at his country house stealing her resolve, and his co-star who’s determined to steal him for herself. But every fake date feels a little too easy, and Sam is starting to suspect she’s the one with everything to lose when the clock strikes midnight.

With his mother circling, and thirty years of calling it friendship collapsing scene by scene, Ollie has one December to convince Sam this was never pretend at all—before it’s too late to make it real.

While this is the third book in the Stellar Riot Christmas series, it can be read as a standalone.