Praise

Mara Ellis needs a job, a place to stay, and a clean break from the man she just left.
Mere House offers all three.
The temporary archive position comes with decent pay, a staff apartment, and the chance to use the history degree Mara has spent years defending.
Then she meets her new boss.
Julian Vale is calm, capable, maddeningly attentive—and old enough to know exactly what he wants.
Unfortunately, he is also her ex-boyfriend’s father.
Mara tells herself the attraction is irrelevant. Julian is her employer. Connor is still angry. The hotel’s future is uncertain. And the archive she was hired to catalogue may contain proof that former employees were promised ownership shares decades ago.
There are too many reasons to stay professional.
But Julian listens when Mara speaks. He respects the boundaries she sets. And every ordinary conversation makes it harder to pretend the connection between them is only about work.
When attraction finally becomes impossible to ignore, Mara has to decide whether choosing Julian means repeating the mistakes she just escaped—or finally building a relationship in which her voice matters.
Julian has his own choice to make.
He can keep solving problems for the people he loves.
Or he can learn that love sometimes means asking first.
Praise is a slow-burn, emotionally grounded age-gap romance featuring an ex-boyfriend’s dad, workplace proximity, family tension, a competent heroine, a mature older hero, and a relationship built on choice, respect, and earned trust.