Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome back Shelly Jay Shore to reveal the cover of their upcoming Romance, Love Me Like a Rock Song, releasing August 25, 2026 from Dell! Here’s the story:
Delilah is a lyricist looking for a muse. Emmett is a golem ready to be unmade.
From the bestselling author of Rules for Ghosting comes a soul-stirring, romantic novel about a jilted singer-songwriter, her unexpected hitchhiker, and the road trip of a lifetime.
When Delilah Cohen’s much more famous fiancée leaves her at the altar right before Delilah is supposed to start recording her first solo album, she finds herself with a notebook full of love songs that no longer make sense. Picking up a hitchhiker two hours into the road trip that was supposed to be her honeymoon seems as good a way as any to get her groove back. The last thing she expects is to start falling for her mysterious new passenger, but what’s more inspiring than a rebound with a built-in expiration date?
But there’s more to Emmett than meets the eye. Emmett is a golem, a human-ish being of Jewish mythology who was created from clay to serve a now-deceased master. No longer needed, their final task is to make their way back to the California cave where they were made in order to undo the magic that brought them to life in the first place. But the longer Emmett spends with Delilah—who has plenty of secrets and insecurities of her own—as they cross the country to visit historical queer locales from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, the more their ending feels like something to fight, rather than something set in stone.
As the California coast brings Delilah’s writing deadline—and Emmett’s fate—closer with every passing mile, Delilah has to decide just what song it is she wants to write…and whether writing the album of a lifetime is worth losing a love she never expected to find.
Part road trip romcom, part epistolary exploration of America’s vibrant queer culture, and all a love letter to the phrase “it’s about the journey, not the destination,” Love Me Like a Rock Song is a glorious love story about discovering who we are and what we want, and what it means to be human.
And here’s the killer cover designed by Amy Perez and illustrated by Divine Brujeria!
Shelly Jay Shore is a writer, digital strategist, and nonprofit fundraiser. She writes for anxious queer millennials, sufferers of Eldest Daughter Syndrome, recovering summer camp counselors, and anyone struggling with the enormity of being a person trying to make the world kinder, softer, and more tender. Her debut novel, Rules for Ghosting, was a national bestseller and was named one of the New York Times Book Review’s Best Romances of the Year.
Isabel Sterling writes stories about queer love and resilience with a witty magical twist. She is the author of several novels, including: These Witches Don’t Burn, The Coldest Touch, and With All My Haunted Heart. Isabel is also a master certified life coach, the founder of The Confident Author Academy, and the host of The Author Burnout Cure podcast. Connect with Isabel at 
