Carols & Caulk: A Grumpy/Sunshine, Forced Proximity, Small-Town Christmas Renovation RomCom (Caribou Ridge Renovations Book 1)

Running away was supposed to be the easy part.Nora Bellingham came to Peppermint Springs to disappear. After her business partner stole her designs and took the credit on national television, she lost her career, her reputation, and most of her nerve in a single humiliating week. Her late grandmother's mountain hometown seemed like a good place to get away from it all.The plan lasts forty-eight hours. Then she buys a cottage.It's a wreck — a derelict 1890s Queen Anne with a sagging porch, water-damaged ceilings, and enough structural problems to make a sensible person walk away.

But under the rot there are carved banisters, stained glass transoms, and hexagonal tile hiding beneath decades of carpet. Nora sees what it could be. A fresh start. Proof she can still build something beautiful.What she doesn't see coming is Jack Callahan.Jack is the only licensed heritage restoration specialist in the county — gruff, exacting, and deeply skeptical of city people with big ideas.

She needs his certification to keep her permits. He needs someone to stop this house from being butchered. Neither of them planned on the other.Then the mayor names the cottage the flagship of the town's restoration project, with one condition: it opens its doors on Christmas Eve.Seven weeks.

One derelict Victorian. A burst pipe, a termite problem, a snowstorm that strands them both — and something hidden behind the parlor wallpaper that neither of them expected to find.And just as Nora starts believing this life might be worth more than the one she ran from, her old partner comes calling with an offer: national exposure, her name on everything, the vindication she's wanted for two years.All she has to do is hand over the one thing she's finally built for herself.Carols & Caulk is Book 1 of Caribou Ridge Renovations — a warm, witty small-town holiday romance set in the historic heart of Peppermint Springs, where old houses hide secrets and the best things are always worth restoring.A warm, witty, sweet Christmas romance featuring:Forced proximity in a one-contractor small townSlow-burn chemistry and snowed-in tensionHidden treasures and old-house secretsFound family and meddling neighborsBook 1 of the complete three-book Caribou Ridge Renovation series. Each stands alone, and guarantees a happily-ever-after.