The Home We Made (Millie & Hayden’s story) - PRE-ORDER - Signed Paperback

The Home We Made - previously titled Millie and the bad boy

Sleeping with her best friend was supposed to change nothing.

Then Millie got pregnant, Hayden pulled away, and everything changed.

Four months after their son’s birth, Millie is trying to reclaim her place on the soccer pitch while keeping up with university and surviving on broken sleep. She’s also sharing a house with the boy she still wants—and no longer knows how to reach.

Hayden knows he’s letting her down. He hears her getting up at night. Sees how tired she is. Wants to help, even when his own head makes the smallest things feel impossible.

Learning to parent together means talking about more than bottles and bath time. And as Hayden begins letting Millie in, the feelings they once agreed to ignore become harder to hide.

Millie wants him beside her. Hayden wants to stay.

This time, wanting it will have to be followed by showing up.



The Home We Made is book one in the New Hope Found Trilogy - part of The New Hope World.

Genre

• New Adult Contemporary Romance

Tropes

• Friends to Lovers
• Accidental Pregnancy/Young Parents
• Roommates to Lovers/Forced Proximity
• Slow Burn/Mutual Pining
• Co-Parents to Lovers
• Mental Health Representation/Healing Journey
• Found Family
• Mutual firsts (each was the other's first sexual partner)
• Emotionally unavailable hero learning to open up
• Protective but emotionally vulnerable MMC
• Strong, independent FMC
• He shows up when it matters
• Best friends finding their way back to each other
• Hurt/Comfort
• Emotional second chance (at friendship and the possibility of romance)
• Single-night intimacy with lasting consequences
• University students navigating adulthood
• Athlete FMC / soccer scholarship
• Postpartum body image and identity
• Learning to accept help
• Breaking generational patterns
• Family reconciliation and boundaries
• Parenthood changes everything
• Love through actions rather than grand gestures

🌶️ Zero spice

Mental health and emotional wellbeing

• Depression, including emotional withdrawal, low self-worth and difficulty functioning
• Mental health treatment, therapy and prescribed medication
• Emotional distress, anger and unhealthy coping behaviours
• Alcohol use as a coping mechanism
• Self-directed physical aggression, including punching a wall
• Relapse or setbacks during mental health recovery

Family and relationship themes

• Emotional neglect and harmful family dynamics
• Difficult father-son relationships and fear of repeating parental behaviour
• Parental substance misuse and the death of a parent, referenced in backstory
• Family estrangement, conflict and reconciliation
• Relationship difficulties, emotional withdrawal and arguments

Pregnancy and parenting

• Unplanned teenage pregnancy
• Teenage parenthood
• Postpartum body-image struggles and physical recovery
• Breastfeeding difficulties
• Parental exhaustion, guilt and feelings of inadequacy
• Judgement and derogatory comments about young motherhood
  

Violence, illness and medical emergencies

• Physical altercation and punching
• An infant experiencing a life-threatening allergic reaction (anaphylaxis)
• Emergency medical treatment involving an infant
• Hospitalisation and parental fear for a child's safety

Other mature content

• Strong language
• Alcohol consumption
• Sexual references and intimacy

• Chase and the girl who came back (Chase and Yasmin)
• Arden and the girl downstairs (Arden and Ella)
• Chad and his not Harem (Mady, Chad, Lachlan, Caleb and Isaac)
• Vada and the boy next door (Vada and Roman)
• Isabelle and the new guy (Isabelle and Dominic)
• Brad and the girl off limits (Brad and Dylan)
• Rhys and the girl across the hall (Rhys and Ally)

New Hope After Dark

• Caught on Camera (Savannah and Wesley)
• Tempting Mr Blakely (Alexus and Benedict)