He's grumpy. He's shirtless. He's good with his hands… He's my best friend's brother and the bane of my existence. And now he's living in my house. What could go wrong?

My plan was simple. Career, marriage and kids by the big 3-0. Instead my stepfather’s company went bankrupt taking my career (and relationship) with it. Now I’m fixing up my grandma’s ramshackle house in Violet Ridge, Virginia, trying to find a handyman who doesn’t mind being paid in brownie bars and bless your hearts.

Unfortunately the only handyman who doesn’t require six months and a kidney is Hendrix Evers.

I’m searching “how to sell a kidney” when Rix proposes we help each other out. He’ll fix up the house if I let him stay rent-free. To everyone else he’s a hardworking, small town hero, but he’s also my best friend’s older brother, so I know the truth. He’s rude, juvenile and has a long history of ruining things for me.

But when my attempts at DIY end in a flooded bathroom and almost falling to my death through a rotting porch, I figure I don’t have much to lose. Somehow I’ve become the breadwinner for my mom and little sister and the adoptive mom to a pug with anger issues. I can use all the help I can get.

Surely we can co-exist for one summer without burning the house down or strangling each other, right?

This was so not in the plan.

From RITA® Award winning author M. Malone comes a hilarious new standalone romantic comedy about starting over and failing upward! You Ruin Everything is a steamy, small town romance featuring puppy hijinks, unconventional friendships, a cantankerous Victorian home and a zany family at the center of it all.