The Salt and the Stars
Elena Marchetti steps off the ferry into Whisper Hollow with her grandmother's satchel and a grief she's not ready to name. The Cape Cod village is a postcard of salt-weathered docks and stubborn lighthouses, and the crumbling inn she's just inherited should feel like a burden. Instead, it feels like a beginning, until Callum Briane, the sharp-tongued local who helped raise her, makes it clear she's not welcome. He's spent years resisting the Town Council's grip on Whisper Hollow, and Elena is a complication he didn't ask for. As Elena pours herself into restoring the inn, she draws the attention of Mr. Harwick and the powerful Vance family, whose scheming threatens to tear the village apart. When a travel blogger's post sends outsiders flooding in, the tensions boil over, and Elena is forced to choose: return to the safe life she fled, or stand beside the man who never wanted her, and fight for a place she never expected to love.