What’s your almost? The real novel

A tiny book machine by Maria Nightingale

Almost rested, Almost Me.

Every life story has an almost. Answer seven quick questions and get the novel of yours: the title, the cover, the tropes and the spice level, sized for your Story.

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Almost There, Almost MeMaria Nightingale
Drawn in the style of the novel’s copperplate etchings

The novel behind the machine

Almost There, Almost Me

A burnout recovery romance about long-distance love, travel, and finding home.

Spoiler alert: this is a love story with a happy ending.

You’ve seen her before, or perhaps you have been her: a millennial woman climbing the corporate ladder, accumulating flight miles and calendar invites, sustaining a long-distance relationship on optimism and Wi-Fi, always almost there.

Almost successful enough. Almost settled enough. Almost herself.

Until exhaustion becomes her baseline and burnout finally catches up with her. She leaves the grey Chicago winter in search of new skies: Morocco, the Himalayas, Dubai. In the air, paragliding over glowing horizons, she feels closer to who she used to be. But grounding doesn’t come from altitude alone. It comes from choosing differently.

There is a man she loves: flawed, devoted, still learning. There is a marriage that finally ends. There is a second chance that doesn’t arrive neatly, but arrives anyway.

You’ll love this if

  • you’ve ever felt “almost there” in a life that looks perfect from the outside
  • you want a long-distance love story for grown-ups, with a true happy ending
  • you like a travel romance that actually takes you places: Chicago, Istanbul, Morocco, the Himalayas, Dubai
  • you’re recovering from burnout, or quietly worried you’re heading there
  • you read Carley Fortune or Christina Lauren and want something a little more introspective

What early readers said

“This was not just a romance to me. It was a story about burnout, rediscovering yourself, learning how to breathe again, and finding love that grows with you instead of against you.”

Bella · Goodreads, advance copy · May 2026

“It leans into the realness, and that’s exactly what pulled me in from the start.”

Teresa Trencher · Goodreads, advance copy · May 2026
Genre
Contemporary romance
Spice
Low, closed door (about 1 of 5)
Ending
Happy, and earned
Places
Chicago, Istanbul, Morocco, the Himalayas, Dubai
Formats
Paperback and Kindle, currently on Kindle Unlimited
Content notes
Burnout and exhaustion; therapy and medication mentioned; the end of a marriage
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I spent seven years in strategy consulting across the Gulf, Europe and North America: the titles, the airport lounges, the calendar that never ended. It looked like success. It also looked a lot like burnout, and eventually it was. So I wrote my way through it.

— Maria

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I’d love to see yours. — M.

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  3. Tag @maria_nightingale_writes
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