Spotlight & Giveaway: Last First Kiss by Julian Winters

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Julian Winters’s new release: Last First Kiss

Sparks fly in this second chance m/m rom com when an unlucky-in-love event planner realizes the man-of-honor at the high profile wedding he’s planning is the same man who broke his heart.

They say you never forget your first kiss. But Jordan Carter wishes he could forget the one he shared with Jamie Peters as teens. And the one they almost shared again last year before Jamie made it clear he wasn’t the “right” man for Jordan to be with while he’s figuring himself out.

Now, Jordan’s fully focused on his career at 24 Carter Gold, his family’s event planning company, and ready to move on – until his boss assigns him to plan a new client’s high-profile wedding. The bride’s man-of-honor? None other than Jamie.

As things ramp up the closer they get to the wedding, so does Jordan’s relationship with Jamie, with sarcastic asides turning into steamy hook-ups. But can Jordan afford to pursue Jamie if he’s still unsure of who he is? Or is knowing who he loves enough? Venue shopping, cake-tastings, and dress fittings with the man he can’t forget just might change the man Jordan Carter is meant to become.

Last First Kiss by Julian Winters is a second chance romance about finding yourself–and the love of your life.

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from Last First Kiss 

From Last First Kiss by Julian Winters. Copyright © 2026 by the author, and reprinted with permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

It’s the perfect backdrop. The perfect atmosphere. And, for exactly five more seconds, the perfect mood.

Until Jordan’s gaze strays to his right.

The long, sleek bar is jammed with friends and regulars and single diners poring over their phones while drinking. Two bartenders move around each other in a well-rehearsed dance. Jordan focuses on a third man.

His back is to everyone as he dries fresh glasses. The bar’s wall is a frosted mirror with rows of top-shelf alcohol. His face is hidden in the reflection. But Jordan knows those broad, muscled shoulders. The relaxed posture. A hint of tan skin peeking out of the collar of his white button-up. Deep brown hair falling in messy waves.

Reflexively, Jordan imagines the dark scruff lining a square jaw. He pictures white teeth biting a pink, plump lower lip. The wrinkles in his forehead as he overthinks everything and—

No, no, no.

There’s absolutely no fucking way that he works here.

Jordan would know. He’s met the Last Pour’s staff. Even when the restaurant outsources for the bigger events 24 Carter Gold hosts, Jordan’s made a conscious effort to memorize all the new helpers.

Fine. Maybe Jordan also maintains a running list of the places he bartends at. All the brunch spots, dive bars, and loud, noisy, generic restaurants to avoid around the city.

So they don’t run into each other.

So Jordan doesn’t experience a moment like this:

Where his face is blistering hot. Throat constricted so painfully he can’t swallow. His chest tight with a suffocating memory. It’s like being thrown into the deep end of a pool when you can’t swim.

Jordan is drowning.

And on the way down, he remembers this:

The cool snap of December air. Twilight settling purple in the sky. Notes of oak and amber body wash mixing with the heady sweetness from the cup of hot chocolate cradled between his hands. Their bodies so close. Breaths almost synced.

Jordan had spent far too long trying to name all the colors flecked in the other man’s light brown eyes. Too much time thinking about standing on his toes. Finally doing the thing that had run through his head for months and months—

Kissing him.

Jordan also remembers this:

The second he did lean up. The other man suddenly jolting backward. That sad, regretful look in his eyes.

His words like a sharp blade slipped right beneath Jordan’s ribs.

Maybe we shouldn’t. I don’t want to ruin our friendship. You’re still figuring yourself out and I—I don’t think I’m the right person for that. For you, while you’re on this journey.

Jordan remembers nodding. Laughing it off. Pretending he was okay.

Which he was. Is. Jordan’s fine.

He’s—

Jess clears her throat. “Jordan.”

He’s been staring at the bartender’s back so long he forgot about her.

Startled, Jordan twists to face her. But he’s too distracted to be coordinated. Too focused on the ghost behind the bar of the restaurant where he’s on a fucking date that he doesn’t pay attention to the little things.

Like the proximity of his flailing arm to Jess’s wineglass. How delicate and full it is. How easily it topples over when his hand makes contact.

“Shit!”

Jordan jumps up before anything splashes on him. But he’s still so rattled, he doesn’t see Asa walking by with a tray of drinks for a table of six nearby. Luckily, Asa’s reflexes are quick. They just barely find their balance. Though not before one of the shots spills onto the sleeve of Jordan’s blazer.

Fucking amazing.

Jordan’s pasta is swimming in a river of red wine. He stinks of Don Julio tequila. Jess’s eyebrows are high on her forehead as she stares up at him.

She’s not the only one.

Everyone at the bar is watching him too.

Including the shaggy-haired bartender. Who has very … green eyes, not brown. And one of those hipster beards. The kind you see on a white guy competing on a cutthroat Food Network cooking show. The kind no one likes but pretends to.

He looks nothing like the man Jordan was thinking of.

Nothing like Jamie Peters.

Excerpt. ©Julian Winters. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: (5) five finished copies of LAST FIRST KISS by Julian Winters. Open to US residents only.

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Meet the Author:

Julian Winters is the author of the award-winning young adult novels Running With Lions, Right Where I Left You, How to Be Remy Cameron, The Summer of Everything, As You Walk On By, and Prince of the Palisades, as well as his adult romance debut, I Think They Love You. A self-proclaimed comic book geek, Julian currently lives outside of Atlanta where he can be found swooning over rom-coms or watching the only two sports he can follow—volleyball and soccer.

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