Sunshine in the Winter

When Nora Quinn arrives in Cedar Hollow with nothing but a set of keys she didn't earn and a letter from a great-aunt she barely knew, the last thing she needs is the gruff woodworker across the lane.

The Copper Kettle isn't a business, her aunt's letter says — it's a promise, to a small cold town and the lonely people who warm their hands in it. But keeping that promise means crossing paths, again and again, with Elias Vale: the frost-hearted craftsman who has spent three winters trying to freeze himself solid so grief can't reach him.

He's gruff. She's stubborn. The café is leaking, the roof is his late father's work, and her meddling aunt seems to have arranged the whole thing from beyond the grave. As one snowbound season unfolds — a whiteout, a confession by firelight, a box with a hidden sun carved into its base — two people who've each lost the thing they built must decide whether it's braver to stay safe, or to stand in the sunshine knowing everything, someday, ends.

Warm, wintry, and full of heart, Sunshine in the Winter is a slow-burn small-town romance for anyone who's ever needed a place to thaw.