Madison Jones didn’t mean to curse her ex. But when Grady f*****g Broussard cancels on taking their young son trick-or-treating at the last minute—the same day he was profiled in a magazine as a devoted single dad—it’s the last straw. So when a Halloween party psychic tells Madi that the dead are willing to grant her deepest desire, she wishes he would be incapable of lying, tired of seeing the disappointment in their son’s face. She doesn’t expect it to work. And she certainly doesn’t expect Grady to show up on her doorstep later that night, or for his first confession to be that he’s still in love with her.

An honest Grady is a nightmare—now that the cork’s been popped on his feelings, he can’t stop admitting all the ways he cares—but it’s also wildly inconvenient; as campaign manager for the current Louisiana Senatorial election, Grady’s Democratic nominee actually stands a chance at defeating the incumbent Republican, so long as the curse doesn’t make Grady confess anything incriminating. Even worse, the curse has rebounded to affect Madi as well (to be fair, that psychic did warn her), and Madi’s inability to lie puts her at risk of confronting her boss with how much she hates working at their big corporate law firm. 

To prevent each other from nuking their respective careers, Madi and Grady team up to break the curse and save each other from ruinous oversharing. In the frenzied leadup to Election Day, as Madi and Grady hit the campaign trail, they can’t help reminiscing on their past relationship and where they went wrong. But if Madi can’t break the curse, she risks falling for this more mature, emotionally open version of Grady—or revealing the one secret that could put her custody of their son in jeopardy.

PANTS ON FIRE is a laugh-out-loud, kicking-your-feet-in-glee romcom full of hope: the hope of making amends and receiving forgiveness for past mistakes; the hope of risking your heart, knowing it could be broken again; the hope of fighting for better leadership and a brighter tomorrow. Coming August 2027 from Union Square, PANTS ON FIRE will have readers believing in love—and local elections.