Ashley Winstead is the author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, The Last Housewife, Midnight is the Darkest Hour, Fool Me Once, and The Boyfriend Candidate. Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages worldwide and optioned for film/television. Ashley holds a Ph.D. in contemporary American literature and lives in Houston. You can find her at ashleywinstead.com.

A simmering, sizzling second-chance romcom from Ashley Winstead, author of TikTok sensation In My Dreams I Hold a Knife.

'A simmering slow burn bursting with banter. This is a romance for anyone who's ever felt too messy to be loved.' ROSIE DANAN, author of The RoommateIn this fierce and funny battle of the exes, Ashley Winstead's Fool Me Once explores the chaos of wanting something you used to have.Lee Stone is a twenty-first-century woman: she kicks butt at her job as a communications director at a women-run electric car company (that's better than Tesla, thank you), and after work she is 'Stoner', drinking guys under the table and never letting any of them get too comfortable in her bed...That's because Lee's learned one big lesson: never trust love. Four major heartbreaks set her straight, particularly grad-school boyfriend Ben Laderman - who wasn't actually cheating, but she could have sworn he was, so she reciprocated in kind.Then Ben shows up five years later as a policy expert for the Texas governor, just as Lee is trying to get a clean-energy bill rolling. Tension builds as old sparks reignite when they're forced to work together, fanning the flames for a romantic dustup the size of Texas.Don't miss The Boyfriend Candidate, Ashley Winstead's next laugh-out-loud rom-com about learning to embrace living outside your comfort zone!'A hilariously sharp-tongued romance with an unforgettable, unapologetic heroine.' RACHEL LYNN SOLOMON'A love story for every truly hot mess. A romance with bite, wit, and heart.' KIRKUS'Fool Me Once delivers a wild, sexy ride from start to finish!' TRISH DOLLER'Fresh, funny, and chaotically wonderful... Winstead weaves an undeniably sexy tale of will-they/won't-they.' KATE BROMLEY'Sparks fly and laughs abound.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY