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by Annie Seaton (Author)
Sometimes the coldest season brings the warmest beginnings...
Joanna Hartwell arrives at Hawthorn Cottage with nothing but a battered suitcase and a lifetime of wounds. After a decade of caregiving and a marriage that ended in betrayal, she's forgotten who she is beyond being useful to others. The cottage should be temporary-just somewhere to hide while she works out what comes next.
But Hawthorn Cottage has other ideas.
Fires that light themselves. Warmth that defies winter's grip. An amaryllis that blooms impossibly fast. The cottage is trying to heal her, but Joanna has spent so long being broken she's not sure she remembers how to be whole.
Then she meets Hugh Morrison, the quiet bookshop owner with kind eyes and his own carefully hidden grief; he knows what it's like to feel guilty for wanting happiness again.
As January deepens and the village works its gentle magic, Joanna must decide: will she keep hiding behind her walls, or will she allow herself to bloom-even in the coldest season?
Sometimes healing isn't about forgetting the past. Sometimes it's about having the courage to reach for the future.
