Thorndale Hearts: Book 1
Publication Date: June 24, 2026
One broken camera. One billionaire playboy. One football season that breaks every rule they have about falling in love.
Skylar Hartley hasn’t needed anyone since a fire took her family when she was twelve. Nine years later, she’s surviving on a scholarship, four jobs, five hours of sleep, and the stubborn belief that self-reliance is the only thing keeping her alive. She didn’t come to Thorndale College to fall for anyone. She came to finish what her sister never got the chance to start.
Charlie Carnell has two lives. The public one belongs to his billionaire father: the playboy quarterback, the camera-ready grin, the son who has never once chosen something for himself. The private one lives in the stories he writes at three in the morning on his phone, a secret he has never told a single soul. Graduation is closing in, and with it, his last few ounces of freedom are slipping away.
When a blackmailing dean forces the freshman and the quarterback into a PR partnership for the football program, every event pulls them closer to the one thing neither can afford. She thinks his money makes him careless. He thinks wanting her makes him dangerous.
But Skylar’s camera keeps finding the version of Charlie nobody else bothers to look for. And
Charlie keeps showing up in all the places she swore she didn’t need anyone. The closer they get, the more it costs, because the same wounds that draw them together are the ones that could shatter them both. And this football season is about to ruin everything.
Next Play is Book One in the Thorndale Hearts Series, a steamy, high-angst New Adult college football romance with a guaranteed HEA.
Perfect for readers who love Kandi Steiner’s emotional sports romance, Abby Jimenez’s heart-and-humor balance, and Emily Henry-style banter with big feelings.
Forced proximity. Billionaire quarterback. Scholarship heroine. Roommate’s ex. He falls first. Slow burn. Dual POV.
Charlie Carnell dreams of a future far away from the family business and being used as another content opportunity by his father.
Skylar Hartley works three jobs just to scrape by at Thorndale College. The last thing she has time for is a relationship with a spoiled rich quarterback.
Author DL Croisette introduces the first installment of the Thorndale Hearts series, Next Play. This may be the first romance started over a roommate’s digestive system, but the forced proximity works incredibly well.
When they are blackmailed into a PR campaign, money threatens to derail their connection. Ultimately, it becomes a matter of two strong people letting their emotional walls down.
Next Play delivers engaging characters brought together by chance…and then their hearts take over.
DL Croisette writes contemporary slow burn romances where tenderness meets banter, characters earn their second chances, and cinnamon-roll men fall first. Reviewers call her books “heartfelt, steamy, and swoony romantic.” Collector of international friends, avid traveller and always up for a new experience, she snaps photos to remember each escapade, and peppers the best into her stories. She’s probably at an outdoor café right now, dreaming up a bold new heroine to stir up trouble.
