The E.M.M.A. Effect: A Spicy STEM Romance of Sports, Artificial Intelligence, and a Forbidden Best-Friend's-Brother Love Story

The E.M.M.A. Effect: A Spicy STEM Romance of Sports, Artificial Intelligence, and a Forbidden Best-Friend's-Brother Love Story

Jane Austen meets Ali Hazelwood in this steamy, friends-to-lovers, STEM rom-com! He’s her best friend’s little brother and NHL forward. She’s a computer scientist used to being in control. The E.M.M.A., her elite AI training program, claims optimizing his performance requires one thing: the perfect match. According to its calculations, that’s her… Will Harriet discover that The E.M.M.A. knows best? Harriet Smythe’s AI was supposed to create sports legends—not encourage her crush on her best friend’s totally off-limits, hot younger brother. But when funding runs dry, she has no choice but to enlist Gale Knight as her test subject. The same Gale she’s been secretly crushing on for years. The player who follows her every instruction with a knowing smirk that threatens to short-circuit her carefully maintained system. Everything changes when The E.M.M.A. determines that finding Gale’s perfect match is essential to his peak performance. Even worse? According to its data, that match is Harriet. Determined to keep things professional, Harriet makes it search for new candidates. But as Gale dutifully endures awkward outings with pop stars and athletes, the chemistry between them only intensifies. And his willing cooperation during their sessions definitely isn’t helping her stay focused. With her deadline approaching and The E.M.M.A. still playing cupid, Harriet must choose: trust in pure logic, or admit that sometimes taking control means letting go. Maybe The E.M.M.A. knows something they don’t—even if they’re not ready to compute it yet. “Riley peppers the tale with spicy scenes and handles heavy emotions with empathy. Sports romance fans will devour this well-crafted contemporary.” - Publishers Weekly Riley (Puck & Prejudice, 2024) cleverly takes on another Jane Austen novel by ingeniously reimagining Emma for the twenty-first century, effectively marrying the abundantly amusing results in her latest sexy sports romance. - Booklist "Riley’s second loosely Jane Austen–inspired hockey novel (after Puck and Prejudice ) will appeal to audiences who appreciate the combination of STEM and sports romance." - Library Journal “A romance featuring a hockey pro who time travels and enters into a marriage of convenience with Jane Austen’s bestie sounds like a wild concept, and Riley delivers all the fun that readers would expect in this playful, trope-filled diversion.” - Library Journal on Puck & Prejudice “Sexy, sweet, and so damn funny! Mister Hockey is the perfect beach read.” - Jennifer Blackwood, USA Today bestselling author of The Rule Book “Riley launches her Hellions Angel series with this addictively readable sports romance written with a deliciously zesty sense of humor that will have fans of Susan Elizabeth Phillips cheering... the chemistry she crafts… is so red-hot that readers will need to don hockey gloves while turning the pages.” - Booklist (starred review) on Mister Hockey “Sexy parts hot enough to melt ice.” - Kirkus Reviews on Mister Hockey “Mister Hockey is as sexy as he is funny and sweet. And Breezy Angel is a wonderful heroine for my book-loving, fangirling heart. A perfect debut for Lia Riley’s new Hellions Angels series!” - AJ Pine, author of the Kingston Ale House series Lia Riley  is a contemporary romance author. She loves wandering redwood forests, beach fog, procrastinating, and a perfect pour over coffee. She is 25% sarcastic, 54% optimistic, and 122% bad at math (good thing she writes happy endings for a living). She and her family live mostly in Northern California.  You can also find her co-hosting the weekly  Afternoona Delight  Podcast, exploring the wonderful (and trope-filled) world of Korean Dramas through a writer’s lens.