A Novel Proposal: A sweet, bookish, grumpy-sunshine romance

Novelist Sadie Goodwin is forced to abandon writing westerns and instead write a contemporary romance novel to improve her struggling sales. The problem: she has never been in love. To research the genre, she rents her friend's beach duplex in North Carolina for the summer, bringing her maltipoo Rio. Sadie finds numerous ways to avoid writing. She spends time at the nearby beach, builds a free library on her back deck stocked with romance novels, and socializes with beach regulars. Her activities irritate Sam Ford, her grumpy neighbor in the adjoining duplex. When Sadie discovers an engagement ring hidden inside a novel left at her free library, she becomes determined to find its owner and prevent a proposal from failing. She enlists Sam's reluctant help. As they work together on the mystery, Sadie and Sam's connection deepens. Sadie begins to wonder if the feelings developing between them represent the love she needs to write about, and whether Sam could be the perfect character for her novel. By summer's end, Sadie must solve the ring mystery, find her subject for writing, and complete her career-saving romance novel.