Restoration

Two wounded hearts. One historic Craftsman house. A second chance at love.

After escaping a toxic, thirty-year marriage to a manipulative narcissist, psychotherapist Diana Cameron is ready to reclaim her identity and career in the peaceful town of Port Russell.

Paul Johal, a Punjabi-Canadian patriarch and widowed former business owner, spent eighteen months shrouded in the heavy fog of grief following the sudden loss of his wife. He is content to retreat into nature photography and stay out of his adult children's way—until a chance encounter on a local beach brings Diana back into his world. A simple agreement to attend her son's wedding "strictly as friends" deepens into a comforting, steady connection. But stepping into the light means facing the shadows of their past. Diana must navigate the lingering threats and legal games of her bitter ex-husband, while Paul must brave the protective pushback of his grieving daughters and his own fear of opening his heart again.

As Diana's boys restore her grandparent's historic Craftsman house for her, Diana and Paul realize that true healing doesn't mean erasing the past. Like the gold that restores the cracks in Kintsugi pottery, their scars make the relationship they are building beautiful. To claim their happily ever after, they must dare to forge a custom-built partnership that honours both their independence and their hearts.

Restoration is a 70,000-word small-town, later-in-life, friends-to-lovers romance set on Vancouver Island, featuring healing from trauma and grief, multi-generational drama, and living apart together (LAT).

Can two guarded souls risk stepping out of the storm to build a custom-made love, or will old ghosts tear down their fragile new foundations?