Love stories for people who had to rebuild their lives.
I write romance for the reader who stayed too long, walked away anyway, and had to learn who they were without the life they planned. These stories come from betrayal, family damage, and the moment you realize your standards changed because you did. If you want chemistry that costs something and love that shows up when it matters, you are in the right place.
This is for the reader who kept choosing everyone else and still found the courage to start over. The feelings are real. The consequences stay. The love is worth it.
A score for late night chapters and slightly ruined hearts.
Books by Samantha Zamora
Contemporary Los Angeles romance for readers who care about recovery, chosen family, and chemistry that earns every payoff.
If you like messy heroines, tension that builds for a reason, and Los Angeles written like a living place, Drawn Together is the one that leaves a mark.
“Drawn Together masterfully balances love, trauma, and emotional recovery. Laina’s story is raw, beautiful, and unforgettable.”
Rabia Tanveer, Readers’ Favorite
Start with Drawn Together →
A Koreatown love story about betrayal, starting over from nothing, chosen family, and the relief of finally being seen.
For readers who love broken engagement fallout, he falls first energy, and a hero who is done being anyone’s lesson.
Preorder a signed copy →Drawn Together: What Happens When You Finally Choose Yourself
Laina Bennett arrives in Los Angeles with a suitcase, a sketchbook, and the kind of heartbreak that forces you to grow a new spine overnight. She knows she should have left long before she did, but it takes one final blow for her to walk away from the life that nearly erased her. LA feels enormous and unforgiving, which is exactly why she stays. If she can make it here, it means she did not survive everything for nothing.
Then she meets Adrian Pierce, the last person she expects to run into in a tiny art store. Everyone else sees a Hollywood legend. Laina sees someone exhausted by being everyone’s idea of perfection. Their first conversations run longer than they should. Their chemistry builds faster than either of them planned. LA pulls them into late night drives, rooftop moments, and a connection that feels like momentum instead of escape.
Their lives look nothing alike. He has fame, pressure, and a career that belongs to millions of strangers. She has talent, fire, and nothing left to lose. Somehow they still fit. Not because he rescues her or she rescues him, but because they both stop pretending they are fine with a life that feels half awake.
Drawn Together is a romance about second chances, ambition, and falling into a love that feels impossible in every way except the one that matters. It is for readers who want passion, chaos, tenderness, and two people who refuse to shrink for anyone ever again.
Inside the world of We Were Always Headed Here
A Koreatown love story with ruined wedding plans, rescue pets, chosen family, and holiday nights in Los Angeles. Romance rooted in real fallout.
Readers’ Favorite Five Star Award
Readers’ Favorite is an international book review site that connects everyday readers, librarians, and reviewers with indie and traditionally published authors. Their reviewers read the full book and give a true rating rather than a quick skim.
Drawn Together received a full five star review, along with praise for its honest portrayal of heartbreak, healing, and family history. The quote above is from that editorial review, not a paid pull quote.
In book world language, that tiny silver circle means this story hit a nerve in the best way. It is for readers who see themselves in the girl who keeps giving one more chance and finally learns she deserves better.
We Were Always Headed Here: A Love Story That Begins On The Worst Day
On the day Zara Whitmore is supposed to watch her sister marry the man she once trusted with her entire twenties, she walks out. She leaves the dress, the speeches, the guests, all of it. One step becomes two. She ends up in a Koreatown bar and takes the only open table.
Julian is already there with a book and the kind of focus you earn when life stops offering shortcuts.
Julian notices her like an artist notices things, the kind of beauty that comes from someone who has been through it and still shows up. She notices the way he skips the performance and goes straight to what is real. Neither of them means to stay long. Neither of them leaves when they say they will.
Zara has no idea that Julian already lived through the kind of night that splits a life into before and after. His apartment is filled with color, rescued animals, and the small rituals that keep him anchored. Letting someone new close asks for more courage than he planned to spend, right up until the girl who walked in acting like she was fine sits across from him and refuses to treat him like a tragedy.
What begins as strangers trading honesty over watered cocktails turns into late night messages, inside jokes, accidental traditions, and a pull that keeps bringing them back to each other. Family storms, old grief, and the secret that changed Julian’s life all wait for their moment, but so does the possibility that this time, neither of them runs.
We Were Always Headed Here is a contemporary romance for readers who want emotional chaos, chosen family, and a relationship that feels earned. Think city lights, rescue pets, holiday nights, and the relief of realizing the right person showed up on the day your life cracked open.
Launching Winter 2025, built for holiday reading, gifting, and the romance reader who wants their heart wrecked and rebuilt in one book.
Every story starts with surviving the first chapter
Some of mine began with a notebook, others with a cat who showed up at my doorstep and decided to stay. His name is Teddy, and like most rescues, he didn’t just find a home. He reminded me what love looks like when it chooses you back.
If you ever have the chance, adopt. Rescue. Feed a stray. The smallest act of kindness can change the whole story for someone with fur.
🐾 If you’d like to support the rescues doing the real work, these groups could use some love:
Kitten Rescue LA ·
Best Friends LA ·
Stray Cat Alliance
🐾 Written with love, late nights, and a cat who refuses to share the keyboard.