First-Time Caller
B.K. Borison, 2025
A Baltimore call-in host who has fallen out of love with love, and the caller who makes her want to try again.
Feels like hope and wonder. About love, war and family.
A page from the book
The strange joy of watching someone you almost lost be happy again.
They keep sending me pictures of themselves in front of various state signs. Beaming on the beach in Delaware, wrapped in parkas. Matching threadbare baseball caps in New York. My mom clutching a bag of gummy worms to her chest in front of a half-bent sign in New Jersey, a knit beanie over the hair that’s just started to regrow. Their faces lined with untethered joy. B.K. Borison.Before this, Borison wrote the Lovelight series — small-town romances she first published herself, before a major publisher picked them up.
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Questions readers ask
- What is First-Time Caller like?
- Feels like hope and wonder. About love, war and family.
- What should I read after First-Time Caller?
- If you liked First-Time Caller, try The Dead Romantics (Ashley Poston), The Soulmate Equation (Christina Lauren) and The Happy Ever After Playlist (Abby Jimenez).
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The Dead Romantics · Ashley Poston
The everyday things someone asks for when they mean forever.
I want to be here to bring you coffee. I want to take you out to dinner and order the same food and hear you recite the odds that we would have met. I want to hate-attend fancy social events together.” Jess laughed, a surprised burst of sound, and his tone softened. “I want you to call me for help—without an apology already on the tip of your tongue. I want to feel like I can kiss you again by your car at the end of the night.” He swallowed. “I want you in my bed.
The Soulmate Equation · Christina Lauren
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