GOOD BOYS DESERVE TREATS AND BOY DO I HAVE SOME FOR YOU!
ANNOUNCING!! Hold Me Like a Grudge’s official INTERNATIONAL preorder campaign ❤️🔥
so thrilled to be teaming up with my lovely friends over at @alwaysherebooks & @wanderingquillsbooks in the US, and @lovestoriesbookshop in the UK to bring you some gorgeous goodies! if you preorder your copy of Grudge from these indie bookstores, you’ll get lots of freaky fun stuff, including:
✨ a signed bookplate
✨ the sweetest art print by the iconic @feluart
✨ 2 random character trading cards (6 in total)
INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS—simply fill up the form in my bio with your receipt from any bookstore and you’ll get all these goodies too!!
+ i will be matching each preorder with the donations to the Trans Youth Emergency Project & Muscular Dystrophy Association Singapore 💕
and i’ll blow a kiss into each envelope!
📚 Hold Me Like a Grudge (out June 30, 2026)
♥︎ 𝒊𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔:
- rivals to idiots to (forbidden) lovers
- grumpy black cat world champion x sunshine golden retriever himbo underdog
- “archenemy” ok what is he arching? his back?
- hurt/comfort
- p*ssing on cybertrucks
- a frankly mortifying amount of yearning
- a mile long praise k*nk
…and more!
SHE’S FREAKIER THAN EVER! SHE’S ANGSTY AND BRUTAL YET DEFIANTLY TENDER! SHE’S VIBRANT AND CAMPY AND GAY AS HELL. MAKING HER WAY TO THE RING: HOLD ME LIKE A GRUDGE ❤️🔥
so jazzed to be teaming up with the iconic @masondeaver to reveal the brand new cover of Hold Me Like a Grudge—a steamy queer sports romance where a fierce rivalry between two professional wrestlers heats up beneath the spotlight.
beyond the bruised knuckles and blinding lights, pro wrestling, if you think about it, is so earnestly intimate and inherently homoerotic, and @feluart absolutely SMASHED IT. at long last, the cover of my dreams. the bisexual, girlypop energy and sparkly tights because wrestling is basically drag! asher’s slutty flame shorts! the vein on caleb’s arm! the scars on his face! the leg between asher’s thighs! and—ya, the collars.
i’m so proud of how hard i’ve pushed myself with this book, from asher’s struggles with being a person of color chasing a dream in a predominantly white industry, to his chronic pain and the way his knees give out, the same way mine do. in a time where it feels like the world wants to write us out of its history books, i hope asher and caleb take your hand as you throw your middle fingers up and keep defiantly forging a home for yourselves.
HOLD ME LIKE A GRUDGE will officially be yours worldwide on 30 june, 2026.
♥︎ 𝒊𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔 ♥︎
- rivals to idiots to (forbidden) lovers
- grumpy black cat world champion x sunshine golden retriever himbo underdog
- “archenemy” ok what is he arching? his back?
- hurt/comfort
- playing with hair
- p*ssing on cybertrucks
- a frankly mortifying amount of yearning
- religious trauma and imagery
- a mile long praise k*nk
…and more!
PRE0RDER
Ebook & KU: https://a.co/d/0de0JUPy
Paperbacks: B&N and your fave bookstores!
🔗 in bio!
Join us for a virtual event for Celine Ong's highly-anticipated MM pro wrestling romance HOLD ME LIKE A GRUDGE!
Celine will be in-conversation with Mason Deaver, taking audience questions, and discussing the queerness of professional wrestling with us.
📹 This event will be livestreamed via Instagram with an opportunity to participate in audience Q&A! Find the event listed under our bio to be reminded when it starts, or RSVP via our events page! 🌐
Celine Ong (she/they) is a bisexual author based in sunny Singapore. Graduating with a B.A. in Psychology in 2021, by day, she works with her local queer community. By night, she’s just a little court jester. Presently, she is battling yet another mosquito (and is losing horribly).
Mason Deaver (they/them) is the bestselling and award-winning author of young adult books like I Wish You All the Best, an NPR Concierge pick with a movie adaptation; and The Feeling of Falling in Love. Born and raised in a small town in North Carolina, Mason now calls San Francisco home, with three feline roommates.
🤼♂️ ABOUT THE BOOK ⛓️
When a fierce rivalry between two professional wrestlers heats up beneath the spotlight, neither man can fight the attraction burning between them, in this steamy sports romance.
“A knock-out of a debut, Ong delivers a sweet and steamy romance as a heated rivalry that turns into a tender love story… Trust me when I say this book will have you more than just a little hot under the collar.”—Mason Deaver, author of The Build-a-Boyfriend Project and I Wish You All the Best
“Heated Rivalry lovers, this one’s for you.“—Marie Claire
👉 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆 + 𝗥𝗦𝗩𝗣 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀! 👈
📍Where: Virtual via Instagram Live
⌛When: June 29th @ 6p PST
Image description: At the top, a horizontal bar logo of Always Here Bookstore + "Virtual Event!" "Celine Ong" "X Mason Deaver" On the left, a 3D-effect cover of Hold Me Like A Grudge by Celine Ong. On the right, Celine's author portrait. Below, Mason's author portrait. A mock wrestling ring is in the background. Spotlights are at the top. At the bottom, the text "6/29 @ 6P PST"
ASHER & CALEB — BY THE NUMBERS ✨
+/- 1 year to all of these figures the author probably doesn’t know how to count and is very tired
when the underdog with the mile-long praise k*nk squares up against against the touch-starved world champ, it’s collision both men won’t soon forget !!
📚 Hold Me Like a Grudge (out June 30, 2026)
- rivals to idiots to (forbidden) lovers
- grumpy x sunshine
- “archenemy” ok what is he arching? his back?
- hurt/comfort
- forbidden love
- playing with hair
- p*ssing on cybertrucks
- nuclear grade yearning
…and more!
PRE0RDER
Ebook & KU: https://a.co/d/0de0JUPy
Paperbacks: Anywhere you love to shop for books!
y’all… we’ve been GAGGING over this book since we first found out about it and now, WE’RE PART OF @readwithcel ’S OFFICIAL PREORDER CAMPAIGN?? ❤️🔥🤩😍 i mean, we’re living the DREAM ☁️
it’s now time for you to get your grubby little hands on the next best work of enemies to lovers excellence!! HOLD ME LIKE A GRUDGE *will* be your next obsession! 🩷💜💙💪
and supporting local means you get EXCLUSIVE freaky goodies with your preorder!!
🩷 an incredible art print
💜 (2) random character trading cards
💙 signed custom bookplate
scan the QR code on the last slide or follow the link in our bio to snag your copy AND all the free goodies that come with supporting local 🤭
preorders close 6/9 and the book releases on 6/30!!
and just for a lil snippet of what’s to come…
- rivals to idiots to (forbidden) lovers
- grumpy black cat world champion x sunshine golden retriever himbo underdog
- “archenemy” ok what is he arching? his back?
- hurt/comfort
- p*ssing on cybertrucks
- a frankly mortifying amount of yearning
- a mile long praise k*nk
and even more 🤭🤭🤭❤️🔥
🖤april wrap up🖤
aka if anyone sends me another dean winchester x noah kahan edit i am going to jump
it’s been a while huh! where to even begin?
reading has taken a bit of backseat lately as i went back to the basics of refinding scraps of whimsy outside of my grief. to my surprise turns out there was a fair bit of joy! but first—i did read claire oshetsky’s evil genius and had a bonkers time.
highlight of the month was impulsively going to a fantasy festival! i’ve been trying to force myself to live a little more and honestly? i love d&d! the community is so kind! i love the sweetest weirdos! there was sword fighting (v sweaty & homoerotic) and corsets and so much sapphic art! i got the gayest tattoo of a vampire tiefling because fuck it we ball! my brother in christ this body is temporary so i will decorate accordingly!
turns out if i’m not actively writing, my hands must be occupied at all times or risk The Big Sad™️, so i made many crafts and also fell back in love with junk journaling. maybe it’s my desire to hoard scraps like a dragon. maybe it’s my vague klepto tendencies. or maybe i just like to press memories like flowers into pages so i can fondly look back at the day @folkloreandfiction@yeahimreading@effiereads & i clocked out of da pitt or *checks journal* the time racing bulls made a piss livery for the miami grand prix?
anyway.
for the fourth month in a row, cel’s white boy of the month goes to christian hubicki!! i remain deeply brainrotted after mainlining all 49 seasons of survivor. he is earnest and nerdy and free and i am deeply charmed (if anyone else is watching survivor 50 are you also going through hell or—)
and now we’re a third of the way into may! my birthday month! the weather is getting hot, slutty shorts summer is upon us, and i am cautiously shrugging off my grief and feeling the sun on my skin!!
that’s all from me drink some water love y’all
what is pro wrestling if not just forcing the world to witness your foreplay? 🤡
y’all always come through for me and i am so floored to see grudge on netgalley’s most requested lists less than 12 hours after it went live!!! a billion times, thank you. as a little treat, please accept a snippet of one of my fave interacts from asher and caleb’s first in-ring encounter!! did i craft an entire book around these two lines? uh. yes.
𝒔𝒏𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒕:
Ross meets him in the middle of the ring, eyes on fire. He’s got that troublemaker smile, and Caleb hates the way it makes the corner of his eye crinkle.
“Make me.”
“You think you could take me, pretty boy?” Caleb asks. A taunt. He lets his voice go syrupy sweet, and the flush that creeps up Ross’s neck feels like a victory in itself.
Asher pauses, visibly letting his eyes roam over Caleb’s body before he grabs Caleb’s mic and lifts it up to his lips. “Oh, sweetheart,” he says. “I know I can.”
📚 Hold Me Like a Grudge (out June 30, 2026)
it has:
- rivals to idiots to (forbidden) lovers
- grumpy black cat world champion x sunshine golden retriever himbo underdog
- “archenemy” ok what is he arching? his back?
- hurt/comfort
- playing with hair
- p*ssing on cybertrucks
- a frankly mortifying amount of yearning
- a mile long praise k*nk
…and more!
PRE0RDER
Ebook & KU: https://a.co/d/0de0JUPy
Paperbacks: Anywhere you love to shop for books!
You guys simply aren’t ready for this one ❤️🔥
We are SO excited to offer this delicious pre-order for Hold Me Like a Grudge by @readwithcel . Along with your book, you’ll receive a signed bookplate, an exclusive art print, and two randomly selected character trading cards!
Link to pre-order is in our bio, I promise you do not want to miss this one!!
SURPRISE! GRAB YOUR TICKET TO SLUTTY FLAME SHORTS SUMMER & REQUEST YOUR VERY OWN ARC OF HOLD ME LIKE A GRUDGE ON NETGALLEY! ❤️🔥
this one’s for those who throw bricks, sticks, and scrap messily for the family they choose with dirt beneath chipped nails. handing my heart over to y’all. tell asher he’s a good boy and flip caleb off for me.
♥︎ 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔:
- rivals to idiots to (forbidden) lovers
- grumpy black cat world champion x sunshine golden retriever himbo underdog
- “archenemy” ok what is he arching? his back?
- hurt/comfort
- playing with hair
- p*ssing on cybertrucks
- a frankly mortifying amount of yearning
- a mile long praise k*nk
…and more!
♥︎ 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 ♥︎
When a fierce rivalry between two professional wrestlers heats up beneath the spotlight, neither man can fight the attraction burning between them, in this steamy sports romance.
From death-defying stunts to campy character gimmicks, everything in the world of professional wrestling is an act. Asher Ross’s hatred for Caleb Knight, however, is not. When Asher finally gets drafted to Global Elite Wrestling’s main roster and is thrown into a feud with Caleb for the World Championship title, he’s hell-bent on making Caleb’s life a living nightmare. But as both men trade barbs and blows across arenas, they’re each surprised to find their chemistry is so electric, it can’t be just for show.
Through rehearsals, training sessions, and injuries, Caleb’s icy walls begin to thaw, revealing the real man hidden behind the cruel person GEW has molded him into. An unlikely truce blossoms into feelings neither want to deny, but, set in old ways, the company won’t let them be seen as anything more than bitter rivals, both in and out of the ring.
With the risk of their forbidden romance upending their lifelong dreams, Asher and Caleb grapple with what they truly want in an industry known to erase queerness from its history, and square up against the hardest challenge yet: how much of their hearts they are prepared to give up, and if they are willing to fight to leave a legacy of their own.
i asked my besties what 4 things remind them of me and got absolutely read for filth! and adored every second of it!
if you’ve ever had a conversation with me, you would probably gather that i just. love being obnoxiously loud about my friends. i love the worlds we build for ourselves with shitty jokes and bullying (affectionate). love the insane lore we trade like it is the morning paper and not the most soul crushing, daddy issues-inducing thing ever, and how it allows my affection to grow backwards, loving every version of my friends that has ever existed and knowing i am loved in return.
that said, too many of you answered “being horny on main” and as punishment i simply will not elaborate about the time i went to magic mike and had the Worst Time Of My Life !!! suck it!!
(pics are either mine or from dupe/pinterest)
“they’re still there, straddling that delicate space between peace and panic. they’re still them.”
when you think of pro wrestling, the first thing that comes to mind is how grizzly is. there’s blood. stitches. barbed wire and battered bodies jumping off ladders and crashing through tables.
but what makes me go feral is what the audience doesn’t get to witness. what happens when the fireworks fade and the smoke clears? what happens behind the glitz and glamor?
asher and caleb are vicious in the ring. they scratch, they bite, they make each other bleed. but when the lights go out, they tend to each others’ bruises. they fit so perfectly around each others’ jagged edges that the sports entertainment industry breaks them down into. they hold onto their humanity and remain kind in a ruthless industry. and though they might fail, they try again.
i talk a lot about Grudge being freak4freak, but at the end of the day it is my warm hug to you, especially when the world feels like Too Much 💕
HOLD ME LIKE A GRUDGE is yours june 30th, 2026.
PRE0RDER NOW
Ebook & KU: https://a.co/d/0de0JUPy
Paperbacks: B&N and your fave bookstores!
🔗 in bio!
