Pumpkin Butter

Lyla Woods spent thirty years being somebody's wife. Uprooted by the sudden ending of her marriage, she finds herself at her grandmother's farm near the small town of Applewood, a place she hasn't set foot since she was a little girl.

Just for a few weeks, she tells herself. Just long enough to get her bearings.

But she's not the only one keeping an eye on the place. The rancher next door is quiet, steady, and better looking than a man his age has any business being. He keeps turning up whenever the work is heaviest, never asking for a thing in return. Lyla's not buying it. She spent thirty years learning that men like that always end up wanting something, eventually.

And then there's her Grandma Rue. Ninety-one, sharp as a tack, and in no way interested in Lyla's help, thank you very much.

Still, autumn in Applewood has a way of changing a person's mind. Crisp mornings. Turning leaves. A pumpkin patch too big to ignore, and a farmers market stand she never meant to be running.

If only picking up the pieces of her heart were as easy as picking pumpkins off the vine.

Turns out, it's not far off. 

Clean and wholesome, small-town, slow-burn romance with a quiet rancher love interest, a grumpy grandmother, and a found family worth coming home to. Happily ever after, guaranteed. 

Pumpkin Butter is book one of  Darci Balogh's Applewood Series. If you love titles like Snow Angel Cove, All is Bright, and Dakota Born you will adore Darci's heartwarming, small-town tale.