Backward Motion

Crossroads: Book 1

Advance Reader Copy

Genres

Sweet Romance, Small Town Romance, Friends To Lovers, Mental Health, Office Romance, M M Romance, and Novels

Trigger Warnings

Sex and Profanity

Type of Ending

Series

Crossroads — Book 1

Author Prefers A Review On

Goodreads, Amazon, or BookBub

Reader Spots Remaining

Number of days to read

Publication Date

Aug 1, 2026

Page Length

295 pages

Available Formats

ePub and PDF

Backward Motion

Crossroads: Book 1

Advance Reader Copy

Blurb

When a career flameout and crushing breakup deliver the perfect one-two punch, Sam Bryant finds himself back where he never wanted to be: his sleepy hometown of Oakdale, Nebraska.

Mourning his old life, he takes a job working for a local electrician, former classmate and reformed burnout Connor Finnegan. Unlike Sam, Connor never made it out. He’s resigned to the fact that he’ll spend the rest of his life in Oakdale, working for the family business and passing as someone he’s not.

That all changes when Sam reappears and the two discover a shared connection from their high school days. But when a family crisis upends Connor’s world, he must choose between revealing who he really is and giving up Sam to continue living a lie.

Details

Genres

Sweet Romance, Small Town Romance, Friends To Lovers, Mental Health, Office Romance, M M Romance, and Novels

Trigger Warnings

Sex and Profanity

Type of Ending

Series

Crossroads — Book 1

Author Prefers A Review On

Goodreads, Amazon, or BookBub

Reader Spots Remaining

Number of days to read

Publication Date

Aug 1, 2026

Page Length

295 pages

Available Formats

ePub and PDF

Author

Sydney Rutherford is fond of travel, a morally ambiguous protagonist, and the fragility of the human condition. She writes contemporary queer romance with a penchant for noir, and currently resides in Aotearoa New Zealand.