The Saudade Season

She planned everything. She laughed through everything. Lisbon undoes them both.

Sloane doesn't get lost. She has spreadsheets for vacations, color-coded itineraries, and a marriage held together by logistics. Being in control isn't a personality trait — it's a survival strategy. But when the Rosé Rescue Protocol lands her in Lisbon, she's stripped of every structure she's ever used to hold herself together.

Then she meets Tomás — a Portuguese restoration architect who spends his days repairing cracked azulejo tiles with gold. He doesn't fix things by replacing them. He fixes them by making the fractures beautiful. And he looks at Sloane like her cracks might be the most interesting thing about her.

Meanwhile, Tess — the squad's resident comedian, the one who always has a joke ready before anyone can look too closely — walks into a fado bar in the Alfama and hears a sound that bypasses every wall she's built. Then she meets Declan, an Irish ex-pat who owns the bar and sees through her performance in under ten minutes. He's not charmed by the act. He's interested in what's underneath it.

The Portuguese call it saudade — a longing for something you've lost, or maybe never had. For Sloane, it's the woman she might have been without the spreadsheets. For Tess, it's the grief she's been outrunning since her husband died.

The Saudade Season is the final book in The Rose Rescue Protocol, a mid-life romance trilogy about the women who hold the glass, the signal that started it all, and what happens when you finally stop performing your life and start living it. Perfect for readers who love Lisa Kleypas's sophistication, Kristan Higgins's found family, and Rainbow Rowell's emotional authenticity.

💌 Join the VIP Club for new release announcements and the chance to join the ARC Team.