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START WITH EMMA & LIAM...

...and the Hartgrave Tellers Series.

Think slow-burn, wounded rockstars, found family, fame, forbidden love, and two people who can’t stop choosing each other.

Get Ready for an emotionally intense contemporary romance saga with music industry intrigue and prestige-drama energy.

Start with Through the Glory and the Mess
→ Dive into the prequel series if you want more HGT
→ Continue with the Legacy Series

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Fall In Love Here

ENTER THE HGT WORLD NOW!

Under the relentless glare of fame, rock stars Emma Hartgrave and Liam Teller lead the iconic band, The Hartgrave Tellers, a cultural phenomenon often compared to the greats before them.

For years, they’ve orbited each other, through breakups, scandals, and the ruthless machinery of the music industry. But when old demons resurface, and the past refuses to stay buried, they must decide whether their love is worth the cost of survival.

The Hartgrave Tellers Series is a gripping story of passion, power, and the price of life in the spotlight.

The HGT Legacy Series

Book One: Legacy Series

Through the Glory and the Mess

The love story that started it all. Fame, heartbreak, and finding your voice in the chaos.

FREE ON KU

Book Zero: Legacy Series

Breaking Point

Forgiveness isn't easy. And second chances cost more when you’ve already spent everything.

FREE ON KU

Book Two: Legacy Series

Close Enough To Break

One wrong move could destroy everything.

Coming May 2026

FREE ON KU

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING

Aya Winter doesn’t shy away from the dark stuff, manipulation, media pressure, broken trust but still gives us slow-burn tension and found-family feels we eat up every single time.

Reader Review

Reading Through the Glory and the Mess felt like witnessing a masterpiece in motion. Aya Winter captures emotion with breathtaking honesty, creating a world where music, love, and healing collide. Her storytelling is powerful, her voice unforgettable, and her words linger long after the book ends. Truly a brilliant achievement.

Reader Review

Aya does a great job of luring you into the world of rock and roll mixed with high fashion. It's sexy, seductive, and the chemistry is spot on.

Reader Review

Aya Winter crafts a world filled with late-night creativity, viral breakthroughs, and the intoxicating promise of becoming something more. This is not just a music-driven novel; it’s a story about chosen family, ambition, love that steadies rather than saves, and the cost of chasing greatness. A powerful, immersive start to a legacy readers will want to follow.

Reader Review

Welcome

Hi, I'm Aya Winter.

I write emotionally charged romance about the people who find their way back to each other when life, heartbreak, fame, family, and a hundred bad decisions try to pull them apart.

If you love slow burns, found family, wounded heroes, strong heroines, emotional angst, unforgettable friendships, and happily-ever-afters that feel earned, you're in the right place.

My stories are filled with music, hope, healing, second chances, and characters who fight fiercely for the people they love.

When I'm not writing, you'll usually find me with a coffee in hand, a playlist on repeat, and entirely too many fictional people living rent-free in my head.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you find a story that feels like it was written just for you.

Welcome! I'm so glad you're here.

Aya

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Happy Pride Month 🌈💜

In honour of Pride, I'm going to be resharing some of HGT's most Pride-filled moments throughout the month.

One of my absolute favourites is the Rainbow Stampede, when the Hartgrave Tellers responded to public backlash and hate the best way they knew how by going completely and unapologetically, full-on rainbow.

Emma and the PR team organize a massive rainbow flash mob for their Calgary Stampede finale, turning what was supposed to be a controversial performance and band choice for the stampede into a celebration of love, inclusion, and being exactly who you are.

It's up on the blog and my substack.

https://www.ayawinterromances.com/post/the-rainbow-stampede
https://substack.com/home/post/p-190526110

#romancebookrecs #romancebooks #authortok #indieauthorbooks #romanceauthor #romanceseriesbooks #musicfiction #rockstarromance #CelebrityRomance #RomanceReader #daisyjonesandthesix #ContemporaryRomance #romancereads #fleetwoodmac #romancewriter

BEHIND THE SCENES CONTENT:

In the earliest draft of Breaking Point, the first third of the book unfolded through alternating viewpoints across the band.

While it worked structurally, it quickly became clear that, paired with the intensity of the later chapters, the story left very little room to breathe. Everything felt relentless, with no pause between emotional hits.

I also knew I wanted Susie, and the band’s collective healing, to be the true heart of the novel. So instead of starting at the beginning of the fracture, I chose to begin closer to the middle and let those early moments surface through flashbacks.

This shift creates more ebb and flow, and it avoids the feeling of starting a story at the point where everyone is already at their breaking point, racing toward collapse.

The result is a book that reads less like a descent and more like a second-chance love story, except the love story isn’t just romantic. It’s about the band itself.

At its core, Breaking Point is about the Hartgrave Tellers as a unit, and how they lose, and slowly, painfully, beautifully, find their way back to each other.

Want to read more head on over to the blog or my substack.

https://ayawinter.substack.com/p/behind-the-scenes-of-a-romance-writers

https://www.ayawinterromances.com/post/breaking-point-alternate-beginning

#CelebrityRomance #romancebookrecs #musicfiction #authortok #romanceauthor #rockstarromance #romancebooks #romancetropes #sapphicromance #romanceseriesbooks #romancebook #indieauthorbooks

Happy Pride Month 🌈💜

This year feels a little different for me because I recently came out as bi.

In many ways, it helped me understand something that has always been true about my writing. Every story I create is filtered through my own experiences, perspective, and lens. The worlds I build have always been inclusive because that’s what my real life looks like. My friends, family, communities, and experiences include people from all walks of life, cultures, identities, and backgrounds.

The Hartgrave Tellers universe and my other series are filled with LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC characters because those stories deserve to exist, and because representation matters.

I fully support and champion own voices storytelling. At the same time, as a bi creator, I do my best to approach every character and community I write with authenticity, nuance, care, humility, and respect. That means listening, learning, collaborating, and being open to feedback when I get things wrong.

Stories have the power to help people feel seen. To create empathy. To remind us that we’re not alone.

That’s the kind of world I want to create, both on and off the page.

Happy Pride Month to everyone celebrating. You deserve joy, safety, visibility, and a story where you get to be the hero. 🌈✨#romanceauthor #indieauthor #romancewriter #writerlife #writersofinstagram

One of my favorite storylines in Breaking Point is the sapphic romance at the heart of Susie Hartgrave-Kang’s journey 💜🎹

Susie is the keyboardist of HGT, Emma Hartgrave’s adopted sister, and one of the most talented musicians in the band. During the band’s break, she finds herself far from her found family, searching for answers about her biological family in Seoul.

Instead of finding clarity, she finds complications.

A charming translator named Sara.
A rising K-pop star named Tae.
And feelings she can no longer ignore.

The only problem? The person she can’t stop thinking about is Salima Chari. Her best friend. Her musical soulmate. The woman who refuses to acknowledge that what exists between them might be something more.

While Susie is trying to figure out who she is, where she comes from, and what she wants, Salima is fighting battles of her own.

It’s messy. Emotional. Full of longing, missed chances, found family, music, and all the beautiful complications that come with loving someone who isn’t ready to admit they love you back. 🎸✨

And honestly? Their story might break your heart before it puts it back together. #romancebookrecs #sapphic #queerbookstagram #pridemonth #happypride

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By joining the street team, you'll:

Get early access to books
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Latest From Aya Winter

Ready to Feel Everything?

Exciting New Releases Coming Soon

There’s so much new stuff on the way — freebies, new books, exclusive scenes from tours, and first chapters from upcoming works-in-progress. Plus, HGT Universe spin-offs and more surprises. Stay tuned!

The Aether and Ash Cycle

Into The Stratosphere

Brie Emerson didn’t sign up to live in a city that doubles as a super-powered warzone, but that’s Mercer City for you. Between chasing deadlines as an investigative journalist, managing a chronic illness, and dodging alien debris, she’s just trying to keep her life mostly intact.

Coming July 31 2026

Book Four in the Prequel Series

Heart Breakers: Part One

The Hartgrave Tellers are the music industry’s darlings.
With an eight-album deal from the biggest label in the world, the mission is simple: become the next iconic band.

But for Liam and Emma?
Just staying whole feels impossible.

Their one rule has always been clear: don’t cross the line.
But when Henry Mac walks into the studio, every boundary blurs, and everything they’ve tried to protect begins to unravel.

Coming November 25 2026

Book Five in the Prequel Series

Heart Breakers: Part Two

As the band soars to global fame, Emma and Liam are torn between their feelings and their future, forced to sacrifice one for the other. But when the label brings in Henry Mac, a celebrated producer with a sinister grip on the industry, Emma finds herself trapped in a world that’s more than just smoke and mirrors.

It’s a gilded cage.

Coming January 2027

HGT Spin-off

Temptation

Ashley Sanchez is the sharp and cunning Social Media, Marketing, and PR Manager for the Hartgrave Tellers. But when her career, her passion, her past, and her present collide, she finds herself caught in a high-stakes race to stop the scandal to end all scandals.

Coming March 2027

HGT Spin-off

Unravel

Olivia Rose is Hollywood’s newest obsession, fresh off a messy public breakup with her Crossfade co-star and determined to focus on her rising career. When she hosts Saturday Night Live alongside the Hartgrave Tellers, one night of backstage chaos, and rockstar mayhem with bassist Dan Teller turns into something neither of them expected. Olivia swears it’s just a fun rebound and a way to make her ex jealous, but the more time she spends with Dan, the more she realizes the reckless rockstar reputation hides someone loyal and determined to prove he can be more than just a one-night stand.

Coming July 2027

Book Three in the Legacy Series

Break Me Open

HGT is up against it, three albums from freedom and four tours away from completing their eight-album contract, the band is caught in Titan’s unraveling as the old guard tightens its grip.
A looming trial, mysteries around the new brat pack, and Henry Mac’s play for a new label and Titan’s roster push the industry to the edge.
The war is on. The players are in motion. And Emma is at the center of it all.
As truths surface, one question remains. Can HGT hold the line?
The plan is to burn it all down, but not if it destroys them first.

Coming November 2027

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START WITH EMMA & LIAM...

ENTER THE HGT WORLD NOW!

The HGT Legacy Series

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING

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Latest From Aya Winter

Whispers and Wind: A Tale of Gods and Ghosts from the Scroll of the Raithsworn, Chapters 1 - 4

HGT Drag Queen Karaoke (Chaos in Bloom: Part One - Chapters 36-38)

The Hero’s Journey Beat Sheet

Ready to Feel Everything?

NEW HERE? START WITH EMMA & LIAM...

ENTER THE HGT WORLD NOW!

The HGT Legacy Series

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING

Welcome

Signup

Follow Aya

​

Latest From Aya Winter

Whispers and Wind: A Tale of Gods and Ghosts from the Scroll of the Raithsworn, Chapters 1 - 4

HGT Drag Queen Karaoke (Chaos in Bloom: Part One - Chapters 36-38)

The Hero’s Journey Beat Sheet

Ready to Feel Everything?

NEW HERE?
START WITH EMMA & LIAM...