Coffee Eyes and Little White Lies

A familiar coffee order, handwritten doodles on cups, and a carefully constructed lie bring two very different women closer than either expects in Coffee Eyes and Little White Lies, the first book in Claire Summers’s Blend & Brew series. Charlotte Davenport has built her life around discipline, ambition, and control. At thirty-six, she is a successful CEO who prefers keeping her emotions firmly in check. But her twin sister’s upcoming wedding creates an uncomfortable problem: her ex-fiancée will be there, and her family expects Charlotte to bring a date. Rather than face the questions alone, Charlotte decides to find a pretend girlfriend. Ali McCarthy has spent a decade moving between cities, embracing change, and avoiding the feeling of being tied down. Now working at a Boston coffee shop, she has developed a familiar routine with Charlotte, a regular customer whose coffee order she knows by heart. After six months of quiet interactions, Charlotte finally makes an unexpected request. Ali agrees to play the role of her girlfriend, setting a simple plan in motion. As the wedding preparations unfold, the arrangement becomes more emotionally complicated. Ali discovers the vulnerable person beneath Charlotte’s polished exterior, while Charlotte begins to question whether she can offer the kind of relationship Ali deserves. Their growing connection forces both women to confront insecurities, past experiences, and the difference between appearing confident and feeling worthy of love. Blending fake dating, age-gap romance, yearning, and found-family themes, this novel explores the courage required to be honest about what the heart wants. Its coffee-shop setting and wedding-centered premise provide a cozy backdrop for a relationship that develops through affection, uncertainty, and emotional discovery. Coffee Eyes and Little White Lies is suited to adult readers who enjoy contemporary sapphic romance, opposites-attract dynamics, emotionally layered characters, and stories about learning to accept love without pretending to be someone else.