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 Ghostingcomes 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 and illustrated by Amy Perez!
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.
Today on the site I’m delighted to reveal the cover of Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore, a trans and Jewish m/m contemporary releasing August 20, 2024 from Dell/PRH! Here’s the story:
To save his family’s failing funeral home—and his own chance at a queer love story—a reluctant clairvoyant must embrace the gift he long ignored in this poignant and tender debut, for fans of the swoonworthy romance and queer community of One Last Stop and the macabre humor and family dysfunction of Mostly Dead Things.
Rule #1: They can’t speak.
Rule #2: They can’t move.
Rule #3: They can’t hurt you.
Ezra Friedman sees ghosts—which made growing up in a funeral home absolutely miserable. It might have been better if his grandfather’s ghost didn’t give him stabbing looks of disapproval as he went through a second, HRT-induced puberty, or if he didn’t have the pressure of all those relatives—living and dead—judging every choice he makes. It’s no wonder that Ezra runs as far away from the family business as humanly possible.
But when the ceiling of his dream job caves in and his mother uses the family Passover seder to tell the family that she’s running away with the rabbi’s wife, Ezra finds himself back in the thick of it. With his parents’ marriage imploding and the Friedman Family Memorial Chapel on the brink of financial ruin, Ezra agrees to step into his mother’s shoes and help out . . . which means long days surrounded by ghosts that no one else can see.
And then there’s his unfortunate crush on Jonathan, the handsome funeral home volunteer who just happens to live downstairs from Ezra’s new apartment . . . and the appearance of the ghost of Jonathan’s gone-too-soon husband, Ben, who is breaking every spectral rule Ezra knows.
Because Ben can speak. He can move. And as Ezra tries to keep his family together and his heart from getting broken, he quickly realizes that there’s more than one way to be haunted—and more than one way to become a ghost.
And here’s the gorgeous cover, illustrated by Amy Perez!
Shelly Jay Shore (she/they) is a writer, digital strategist, and nonprofit fundraiser. Her writing on queer Jewish identity has been published by Autostraddle, Hey Alma, and the Bisexual Resource Center. She lives with her partner in New York, where she attempts to wrangle two large dogs and two small children while single-handedly sustaining her local Dunkin’ Donuts with year-round iced coffee orders. Rules for Ghosting is her debut novel.
Shelly Jay Shore (she/they) is a writer, digital strategist, and nonprofit fundraiser. Her writing on queer Jewish identity has been published by Autostraddle, Hey Alma, and the Bisexual Resource Center. She lives with her partner in New York, where she attempts to wrangle two large dogs and two small children while single-handedly sustaining her local Dunkin’ Donuts with year-round iced coffee orders. Rules for Ghosting is her debut novel.