Stories by @hayleemueller

Variation

Variation is a contemporary romance novel by Rebecca Yarros, author of Fourth Wing, about an injured ballerina, Allie Rousseau, who returns home and reconnects with a past love, Coast Guard rescue swimmer Hudson Ellis, while uncovering family secrets, complicated by the arrival of Hudson's niece who is searching for her birth mother. Published in late 2024, the book explores themes of second chances, family drama, and the complexities of love and regret, becoming an instant bestseller

Worth Fighting For

On track to make partner at her father's private equity company, Mulan has had to work twice as hard, be three times as smart, and have infinitely thicker skin than any of the finance bros she works with. And with her parents, who she fears always wanted a son, she's had to play the part of the perfect daughter. So when her father unexpectedly collapses in the middle of a critical acquisition, she promises she'll close the deal. There's just one problem: Wutai Gold, the small whiskey company known for its outsize macho branding, and the family who runs it refuse to do business with anyone other than her father—and certainly not a woman. So Mulan does the only sensible thing she can think of: She pretends to be him. The lie is easy enough over email, but then she's invited to spend a few days at the Li family ranch and distillery. She knows how to close a business deal in her sleep, but pretending to be a seasoned rancher like her father? Not so much. To make matters worse, Mulan must endure this humiliation in front of Shang, the company's stoic-and scorchingly hot-CEO. The more time she spends falling for Shang and his family (and not only in the mud), the more she wishes she could just be herself. But who is that, really? Caught between family, business, and her own heart, how can she choose just one worth fighting for

The glass girl

The Glass Girl is a young adult novel by Kathleen Glasgow about 15-year-old Bella, who uses alcohol to cope with family stress, a breakup, and grief, leading to a life-threatening blackout and a mandatory stay in rehab, chronicling her difficult journey to sobriety and recovery. The book explores teenage addiction, self-destruction, and the challenges of finding healthy coping mechanisms, following Bella through rehab and her return to a life where her problems still exist but she must learn to face them constructively

Woman Down

Woman Down is a 2026 psychological thriller novel by Colleen Hoover about a bestselling author, Petra Rose, who, facing writer's block and public backlash, retreats to a cabin where she meets a mysterious detective, Nathaniel Saint, who becomes her muse, blurring the lines between her fiction and a dangerous reality. The book explores themes of creativity, obsession, and the consequences of losing oneself in a story, with a plot that involves a fictional cop character mirroring the real-life detective

You’d Be Home Now

In this raw, deeply personal story, a teenaged girl struggles to find herself amidst the fallout of her brother's addiction in a town ravaged by the opioid crisis. For all of Emory's life she's been told who she is.

Firefly Lane

Firefly Lane is a historical fiction novel by Kristin Hannah, published in 2008. The story follows the friendship of Tully Hart and Kate Mularkey over the years. Hannah described the book as her most complex and important novel to date, and said she enjoyed writing about the memories it evoked

Love You, Mean It

A playful romantic comedy featuring dueling delis, fake dating, a shockingly awesome ex, and just the right amount of amnesia

It Had To Be You

When Eva and Jonathan hook up on the sleeper train from Florence to Paris, they think they'll never see each other again. Which is too bad, because neither has ever felt a spark like this for another person. But love isn't on the agenda in their line of work. Six months later, they run into each other in Versailles. This encounter is not by chance, because Eva has been hired to kill Jonathan. She's a contract killer, but what she doesn't know is that he is too. Their meeting kicks off a high-stakes adventure across Western Europe. As the two get closer to completing their assignments, it becomes clear they are being hunted by something even more dangerous than love.

The Storyteller

The Storyteller revolves around a troubled young baker, Sage, who meets an old man, Josef Weber, in her grief group. After they become friends, he tells her that he was an SS soldier and asks her to not only forgive him for his sins, but to kill him so that he doesn't have to keep living a lie

Keeping 13

Following a devastating injury that has left him sidelined and stripped of his beloved number 13 jersey, Johnny is struggling to hold onto his dreams. Lost, insecure, and desperately seeking comfort, he sets his sights on unraveling the mystery of the girl with the midnight-blue eyes.