Nikki Cummings: 2025 A Year in Review
2025 was the year I created Luxury Romance. 2026 is the year I take over your TBR. Three trilogies. Three same-day drops. Nine books designed for neurodivergent readers who need more than the algorithm can give them. The Caviar & Crimes 2026 Three Trilogy TBR Takeover starts January 27.
🎵 Pop the Prosecco. Pour your flute of bubbly. I'll pour mine. 🍾
"Just Like Magic" Ariana said it best. Sometimes you manifest what you need by being unapologetically yourself. By believing in the vision even when it doesn't fit the mold. By creating your own lane instead of fighting for space in someone else's.
Cheers!
This song became the anthem of 2025 for me. The year I stopped trying to fit in and started building something that's purely, completely mine.
Let's talk about 2025. No filter.
I got my ass handed to me by my book coach.
I told Amazon to fuck off.
I had the nerve to create my own genre from scratch (and create its own tropes).
And... some things I can't talk about (yet 🤭) sips Prosecco
Yeah. We're doing this.
Let's get into it...
Caviar & Crimes: Seduction, Surrender, & Serenity by Nikki Cummings.
2025: The Year I Created Luxury Romance
"You're selling yourself short."
That's what she said. My book coach. (I'm gatekeeping her. #notsorry)
"You don't need better stories. You need better positioning."
She was not wrong.
The session was far more brutally honest than that, and it was exactly what I needed. I was doing the worst things possible: bad covers, confusing titles, wrong approach to the books altogether.
I took a few days to reflect and study the notes she gave me. Then the grueling work began. Research. Design. Decision fatigue. Weeks of trying to figure out how my stories fit in.
Then the lightbulb: They didn't fit in.
Bigger lightbulb: They didn't need to fit in.
Rewriting and revising old blog posts helped me understand how to describe my books. It's not billionaire romance. It's not dark romance. It's not mafia romance. I pull from my favorite parts of those genres and throw in external drama to keep my MCs constantly choosing each other.
Amazon doesn't offer "NOT LIKE" category options.
So I did what any other author (who has no fear) would do: I pulled my books off Amazon and from wide distribution. No Amazon. No Barnes & Noble. Just me, you, and the books.
Caviar & Crimes: Pursuit, Protect, & Preserve by Nikki Cummings. The Cassie Norman Series. Release date: June 9, 2026
My Favorite Caviar & Crimes Blog Posts of 2025
Before we talk about 2026, let me show you the three posts that defined this year:
Nikki Cummings
This one hits different. Because we're NOT the same. This post is my line in the sand. If you're still here, it's because you get it.
Nikki Cummings
I'm so tired of reading about men whose entire personality is "dark and brooding." This post is me saying: grown men with emotional intelligence are sexy. Men who communicate? Even sexier.
Nikki Cummings
This is the thesis statement. The women in Luxury Romance couldn't care less about your table or the chairs. They're not fighting for a seat. They're building their own damn empires while falling in love with men who rise to meet them.
Allegra. Cassie. Stella. They don't need permission. They need partners.
Caviar & Crimes: Disguise, Devotion, & Decree by Nikki Cummings. The Stella Norman Series. Release date November 11, 2026.
The Waitlist: The Struggle & The Joy
Let me be real about the waitlist for a second.
Building a direct-to-reader model in 2025 was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Because here's what nobody tells you about "just publish on Amazon":
It's a myth.
Unless you're writing to market—hitting the same tropes, the same beats, the same predictable plot points that the algorithm rewards—Amazon doesn't care about you. And even if you DO write to market? You're competing with 4,000 other books that dropped the same day, all using the same keywords, all hoping for the same visibility.
I don't write to market. I write Luxury Romance. I write for neurodivergent readers who need multiple plot threads, layered characters, and stories that reward hyperfocus. I write for readers who want entire series dropped at once because waiting 6-12 months between books is torture when your brain works like ours does.
Amazon doesn't have a category for that.
But YOU do.
The joy of the waitlist? It's autonomy. It's knowing that every single person who signs up WANTS to be here. You're not stumbling across my books because the algorithm decided to show them to you for 48 hours. You're here because you chose to be. Because the genre I'm building speaks to you.
That's worth every moment of struggle.
THE WAITLIST IS NOW CLOSED!
Join the Waitlist (If You Haven't Already)
If you're reading this and you're not on the waitlist yet...
The Caviar & Crimes 2026 TBR Takeover
Here's what I'm announcing early: In 2026, I'm publishing nine books. Three complete trilogies. Same-day drops. No waiting between books.
Most people don't read nine books in ten years. You're about to read nine in one.
If you're an avid reader who knocked out 100 books this year? I'll be nearly 10% of your TBR.
January 27, 2026: The Allegra Norman Series
Caviar & Crimes: Seduction, Surrender, & Serenity
If the movie The Bodyguard starred Allegra Norman (COO, billion-dollar empire) and Nick Battino (ex-SWAT, private security, tactical genius) who fall in love on the Amalfi Coast. He's obsessed with her and she lets him strip off her clothes and her dignity. And, yes, she thanks him for both. Stalkers, kidnapping, corporate espionage, and Nick's retired K-9 cop, Ace. It's a spicy romantic suspense trilogy that evolves this power couple from lovers to legacy across three books.
It's giving: Opulence. Orchids. Obsessions.
But Allegra's story is just the beginning of the Norman family saga.
June 9, 2026: The Cassie Norman Series
Caviar & Crimes: Pursuit, Protect, & Preserve
Scandal meets Sons of Anarchy when Cassie Norman (corporate attorney, billion-dollar legal strategist) meets FBI Agent William Ryder Kross—who's actually an undercover biker sent back to destroy his own brother, Chase Kross (MC president and Cassie's ex). She's fighting the DOJ to defend her family's empire while falling for a federal agent investigating everyone she loves. When they're out of the courtroom, he makes her breathless, boneless, and babbling. Mafia, cartels, federal investigations, and the deadliest strip club in town.
Serving up: Bikers. Brothers. Betrayals.
And then there's Stella, the youngest Norman sister with secrets of her own.
November 11, 2026: The Stella Norman Series
Caviar & Crimes: Disguise, Devotion, & Decree
Succession meets Power with black-ops intelligence and presidential scandals. Stella Norman plans dream weddings for the world's elite—events that glitter on the surface but hide the sharpest secrets. Pierce "Mack" McCray (black-ops intelligence broker, real estate investor) has one last mission that collides with her carefully curated world. Masquerade balls, a cartel wedding massacre in Brazil, and a game of IICYIFY where he flips her like a coin—heads and tails up—and she's never been more alive. Politics, power, secrets, and a man who burns it all down to earn her love.
Dishing out: Champagne. Carnage. Claiming.
Why Trilogy Drops Work (Especially for Neurodivergent Readers)
Same-day trilogy drops mean hyperfocus-friendly reading. No waiting 6-12 months when your brain has already moved on. Multiple plot threads running simultaneously—romance, suspense, family dynamics, corporate intrigue. Every thread gets resolution, just not all at once.
Binge-worthy by design. Clear your schedule. Pour the wine. Settle in for 12-15 hours in the Caviar & Crimes universe.
This is the only genre that requires PTO days.
Nikki Cummings
A Final Note: About Transparency
I told you this would be transparent, so here it is:
Building Caviar & Crimes in 2025 was hard. There were nights I questioned everything. Moments I wondered if creating my own genre was ambition or delusion. Days I wanted to give up and just do what everyone else does.
But I didn't.
Because I believe you're out there. And you've been waiting for exactly this.
The waitlist is growing. Slowly, steadily. Not viral numbers. It's those of you who chose to be here. That's what matters.
So thank you for trusting me. For letting me build this genre one blog post, one trilogy, one direct-to-reader relationship at a time.
2026 is going to be unforgettable.
And by the end of it? Your TBR will belong to Caviar & Crimes.
Caviar & Crimes: 2026 TBR Takeover
Because Luxury Romance deserves a soundtrack as unforgettable as the stories.
🎵 Every blog post this year had a song. Every song lives on the official Caviar & Crimes Spotify playlist.
From Christina Aguilera's "Not Myself Tonight" setting the mood for dimensional female characters, to Sia and Kendrick's "The Greatest" defining what Luxury Romance actually is. From Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" capturing character obsession, to Doja Cat's "Streets" explaining the psychology of why you can't stop reading at 2 AM.
And now, Ariana's "Just Like Magic" for the year that changed everything.
These songs aren't just vibes. They're the soundtrack to building a genre from scratch. The rhythm behind every blog post, every trilogy, every moment that led to 2026.
Nikki Cummings is the creator of Luxury Romance and Caviar & Crimes. She writes high-heat, high-stakes romantic suspense that ruins you for everyone else.
