Author: Emma Barry
Publication: Atria Books (November 10, 2026)
Description: Perfect for fans of Jo Segura and Rachel Grant, You, Me, & the Conspiracy is an academic adventure romance that finds two history professors trying to unmask a deadly secret society.
After a bruising book rejection, tenure-track history professor Jessica Wilson is scrambling for something new to publish to secure her spot at the top of the academic food chain. While researching in the archives, she discovers a coded message written by one of the founding fathers with the power to change her—and the world’s—understanding of American history forever. But first, she’s got to prove it’s real.
Desperate for answers, Jess searches out Calloway Morgan, a Harvard PhD student turned adjunct professor. Cal was forced to leave graduate school after presenting theories about a shadowy revolutionary organization. Jess heard his conference presentation and thought his findings were absurd, but now, she believes he was onto something.
With their fates intertwined by their discoveries, the two begin to work together, but danger lurks around every corner. The clandestine fraternity that they’ve uncovered still exists and is ready to kill. With it hot on their heels, the embers of Jess and Cal’s attraction grow. But unless they can make their findings public in this “perfect blend of chemistry, spice, and a historical mystery” (Adriana Anders, author of Whiteout), they’ll soon become the conspiracy’s latest victims...
My Thoughts: This romance gave me The DaVinci Code vibes though certainly updated to the present and with a lot more romance. Jessica Wilson has a doctorate and has a tenure-track position at a prestigious university. However, her book is rejected for publication which derails her. While searching for a new idea, she finds a coded message in a book of Alexander Hamilton papers that sends her life on a new track.
Cal Morgan already had his life derailed when he spoke at a conference about a mysterious group that is controlling the United States government - a group that began in Alexander Hamilton's time. Now he's a PhD dropout and an adjunct professor teaching History at a community college.
Jess tracks down Cal since she heard his conference presentation to find out if her coded note might be a fit with his conspiracy theory. The two find themselves on the run from a shadowy organization that started in Revolutionary times and has existed ever since.
The find themselves hiding out in a 1970s RV in the garage of a noted conspiracy theorist and prepper while they try to find evidence to support their beliefs and bring down this shadowy group. Along the way, the pair falls in love but neither believes it will last because both expect to be killed by the shadow group.
This was an engaging story that nicely mixed thriller and romance.
