Her Rival Hero by Shanae Johnson
She came home to Valor with a pink food truck, a camera, and absolutely zero plans to fall for the grumpy farmer next door.
Ivy Lopez left her small Midwestern hometown chasing culinary stardom — two runner-up finishes on national cooking competitions later, she’s back in Valor with her Sugar & Spite dessert truck, a popular food vlog, and enough determination to turn her homecoming into a second act. What she didn’t plan for? The brooding, impossibly handsome veteran parked right next to her with his farm-to-table food truck and a deeply held opinion about sugar.
Finn Hargrove found his footing at the Purple Heart Ranch; a veterans’ rehabilitation program that gave him land, purpose, and a reason to stay in Valor. His Boots & Roots food truck is everything he’s built since coming home from war. It’s orderly. It’s healthy. It makes sense. Then Ivy Lopez pulls up next to him in a pink truck that smells like brown butter and chaos, and nothing is quiet anymore.
When their viral argument turns them into Valor’s most beloved couple, the town committee sees an opportunity. One fake dating scheme, a little strategic hand-holding, and a shot at the State Harvest Prize could make Finn’s dream restaurant a reality and launch Ivy’s influencer career. Except Ivy keeps putting her camera down when she’s with him, because some things aren’t meant for an audience.
Her Rival Hero is a sweet, slow burn small town romance featuring fake dating, opposites attract, a grumpy veteran farmer and his sunshine food blogger nemesis, and all the cozy small town charm of the Purple Heart Ranch world. Perfect for fans of sweet kisses, enemies to lovers, and found family romance.
If you love these romance tropes and themes, Her Rival Hero is for you:
Enemies to Lovers — they started as rivals and the internet watched every step of the way
Grumpy/Sunshine — a brooding farmer with opinions about sugar vs. a food blogger who runs on brown sugar
Fake Dating — the town committee had a plan; neither of them expected it to feel so real
Slow Burn — the tension builds from the first argument and isn’t satiated for chapters
He Falls First — Finn was a goner long before he admitted it to himself
Forced Proximity — six inches of shared market space, a mandatory competition partnership, and nowhere to hide
Found Family, Small Town Romance — the residents of Valor know everything before they do, and they’re rooting for them
Viral Romance — two million strangers saw it coming before either of them did
Wounded Hero — a veteran who rebuilt himself from the ground up, and the woman who made him want to risk it again
Career vs. Heart — a cooking show, a dream restaurant, and the question of whether you can actually have both
Food as Love Language — a Cherokee Purple tomato shows all you can do with a single fruit masquerades as a vegetable
Her Rival Hero is a standalone sweet romance novel and part of the Purple Heart Ranch romance world. No cliffhangers. No open door scenes. Full HEA guaranteed.
