A feud between the most powerful families in society.
Ruin. Lies. Murder. Kidnapping. Love.
In a world where reputation is everything, choosing yourself might be the most dangerous act of all.

Utterly Ruined

The debut novel in the Heirs and Enemies series available Fall 2025.

About Me

Hailee Golden writes emotionally charged Regency romance with a twist of mystery, slow-burn tension, and strong heroines who rise from ruin. Her debut novel, Utterly Ruined, launches readers into a world of dueling families, mistaken identities, and love forged through fire.

By day, Hailee is an attorney in Texas, where she wrangles legal filings with the same passion she brings to crafting emotionally layered stories. But long before the law, there was the dream—to write stories like the ones she grew up devouring, the kind that kept her up past midnight and never quite let her go. That dream never faded. It just waited.

She lives with her husband, three kids, and two deeply judgmental cats who think all her heroes should grovel more. When she’s not writing or lawyering, she’s coaching her kids in little league, rereading Lisa Kleypas with coffee in hand, or dreaming up morally gray men worthy of redemption.

If you love angst, banter, longing glances, and endings that make you cry just a little, you’re in the right place.

Utterly Ruined

Book 1: Heirs and Enemies Series

Fall 2025

Utterly Ruined Book 1: Heirs and Enemies Series Fall 2025

A kidnapping. A scandal. A mistake that could destroy them both.

Emma Chandler has always known her place: not quite an Ashton, not quite a commoner. She’s the ward of a duke who knows better than to step out of line.

But when she’s mistaken for someone else and abducted by Sebastian Darby, the infamous second son of her family’s fiercest enemy the Duke of Whitmore, Emma is thrust into a scandal so complete, there’s no salvaging her name. Or her future.

He leaves her ruined. She leaves him believing she was never worthy to begin with.

But Emma won’t fade quietly into the shadows. She sets out to uncover the truth behind the latest betrayal at the heart of the Ashton-Whitmore feud, and, in doing so, becomes a threat to secrets far more dangerous than reputation.

As enemies close in and masks begin to crack, the man who broke her may be the only one who ever truly saw her.

But that doesn’t mean he deserves her.
And loving him might be the one mistake she doesn’t survive.

Starring…

Emma Chandler — poised, perceptive, and done pretending to be someone she's not. Raised in the Ashton household, but never truly one of them.

Sebastian Darby — charming, reckless, and not nearly as heartless as he pretends. The second son of the Whitmore duke, and heir to a century’s worth of enemies.

Utterly Ruined is the debut novel in *Heirs and Enemies*, a Regency romance series about love, legacy, and the high cost of choosing yourself.

Coming November 2025

Preorder link coming soon