For readers 18+ only!
Coming July 7, 2026
Vera Stein is Fine
A Novel
Age range: 18+
From #1 New York Times bestseller Julie Murphy comes a heartfelt and hilarious tale of a woman who thinks life and love have passed her by until she’s thrown into her grandmother’s quirky world of octogenarian free love and gets a second chance with the one man she never expected to see again. Perhaps it’s never too late to play the opening credits…
Welcome to Starlight Palms, a favorite retirement facility among Hollywood actors and industry professionals tucked away just outside of sunny Palm Springs. Filled with forgotten scream queens, eccentric screenwriters, and heartthrobs of the past, it has a brand-new resident: Vera Stein, age forty.
Vera knows she’s missed her chance at a life worthy of the silver screen, just like she missed her chance at ever finding true love. But Vera isn’t one to take chances. She’s spent most of her adult years caretaking for her dying mother and her movie star boss’s ego. Now abruptly houseless and jobless, Vera has nowhere to land, so to grandmother’s house we go!
The Starlight Palms Senior Living Center is midcentury Hollywood down to its pastel-painted bones. This desert gem isn’t lacking in saucy plot twists (swinging seniors, anyone?) or a leading man: Elias Buckley, the on-site doctor and Vera’s former ill-fated college fling and—for reasons that will stay in Vegas—legally her ex-husband according to the state of Nevada.
It’s not long before Vera falls into a job as the activities coordinator and under the spell of a certain smart-mouthed doctor… Suddenly all those empty years in LA look less like mistakes and a lot more like backstory. With a fresh start at her fingertips, Vera begins to see that even with all the detours she’s taken, there’s still a Hollywood ending (and maybe even a happily ever after) in sight…
Tropes!
Second Chance Romance
Workplace Romance
Multigenerational Family Drama
Forced Proximity
New Lease on Life and Spice
Please note: This is a spicy adult romance novel and is intended for readers 18+!
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Praise for If the Shoe Fits
Colleen Hoover, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Hopeless
"If The Shoe Fits encompasses everything I love about rom-coms. I laughed, I swooned, I smiled. Another hit for Julie Murphy!"
Booklist
"In Murphy's breezy and fun rom-com, there's enough of Cinderella in the story to be charming, yet overall it sparkles like an exciting new tale. indy is immensely lovable, and readers will root for all her dreams to come true. Murphy brings the wit, sensitivity, and imagination that has made her a YA star to the start of her adult romance Meant to Be series.”
Farrah Rochon, USA Today best-selling author of The Boyfriend Project
"If the Shoe Fits is so much more than a modern retelling of a classic tale. It’s a swoon-worthy slow burn romance that’s filled with heart and humor."
Publishers Weekly
“[An] inventive Cinderella retelling, Murphy cleverly blends the conventions of fairy tales and reality TV to create an incisive commentary on both…readers interested in a smart exploration of the intersection of romance and reality TV will be overjoyed.”
Katharine McGee, New York Times best-selling author of American Royals
“Forget the animated Cinderella! If the Shoe Fits brings a fresh, charming, and deeply empowering perspective to the classic fairy tale.”