My Love Language Is Denial (Until It Isn’t)

A sweet, clean, small-town, grumpy sunshine romance.

Her life is color-coded. His is off-the-grid. All they have in common is a rental car mix-up—until small-town magic (and a few overly friendly squirrels) turns one disastrous weekend into the best love story neither of them planned.

Type-A Chicago marketing exec Cassie Hale arrives in Cricketfield Falls armed with a bullet-proof schedule for her sister’s wedding—only to discover that her reserved compact has already been handed to “a nice guy with a killer beard.” That nice guy is Jace Carter, globe-trotting wildlife photographer and professional improviser who thinks granola bars constitute a food group.

One airport mix-up, one forced road-trip, and one cold-water cottage that comes with its own chorus line of ceiling-dwelling squirrels later, Cassie’s five-year plan is officially in flames.

Between a meddling family determined to matchmake (“Temporary friends? That’s like saying you’re temporarily breathing.”), a pie-obsessed aunt who’s already designing their wedding cake, and a bouquet that refuses to hit anyone but Cassie, denial gets harder by the hour. The fake-date-to-avoid-family-interrogation plan spirals into:

✨ Wildflower emergency rescues (with color-coded picking zones)
✨ Pie shop matchmaking schemes involving whipped cream and relationship wisdom
✨ Meeting the ex-fiancée (awkward level: British period drama)
✨ Squirrel roommates and other cottage “amenities”
✨ Catching bouquets that seem magnetically attracted to reluctant hands

Jace isn’t just charming cranky uncles and catching perfect sunrise shots; he’s catching Cassie—slipping past every spreadsheeted defense she’s ever built. But his dream assignment will send him back into the wild, and her dream promotion is an ocean away. Love was never on her itinerary...so why does saying goodbye feel like the one catastrophe she can’t project-manage?

A swoony, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy about perfectly imperfect timing, the magic of small towns, and discovering that sometimes the best adventures are the ones that ruin all your spreadsheets.

Perfect for readers who love:

• Clean rom-coms with heart and humor
• Opposites-attract grumpy-sunshine & forced-proximity hijinks
• Meddling families, runaway squirrels, and pie as a love language

A clean, heartfelt binge-read about letting go of the plan and falling for the unexpected.