A ruined career. A mountain Christmas market. Anonymous letters to Santa that become the only place she can tell the truth. Maddie Lark didn't leave Florida for Winterbloom looking for love—but between the twinkle lights, a hothouse full of impossible flowers, and the infuriatingly charming man who tends them, her frozen heart is starting to thaw.

Merry Little Letters

Book One in the Winterbloom Series

The last thing she needs is a reason to stay.

Maddie Lark is living out her type-A dreams planning events for Miami’s elite—until a celebrity bride’s viral meltdown makes her an unemployed internet meme. Desperate for a job, she lands in the last place she’d choose: a Christmas market in the Colorado mountains, plagued by snow, sleigh bells, and one nagging thought: what if the disaster really was her fault?

But Snowdrop is a place that believes—in kindness, kinship, and the magic of being heard. For fifty years, the town has written letters to Santa, knowing Ford Bennett and the team at Winterbloom Market would always write back. Now Ford is gone, and his grandson Ben is fighting to save the market from developers who’d rather build condos than community.

Maddie didn’t come here to save anything, but Winterbloom gets under her skin—and so does Ben. He’s chaos in a cable-knit sweater—stubborn, scattered, and disarmingly kind. Somewhere between the arguments, their friction turns to flirting that hints at more. As the fight for Winterbloom becomes her own, Maddie must choose: return to the life she planned, or bet everything on a snow-covered town worth saving—and the man who made her want to stay.

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  • Fish Out Of Water

  • Merry Christmas Markets

  • Hothouse Blooms

  • Merry Little Neurodivergence

  • Letters to Santa

  • Ice Luminaries

Opening the book in a heatwave-ridden Miami the day before Thanksgiving was a fun way to introduce the "fish out of water" theme. Each chapter title is a play on a line from a Christmas carol. Starting the book off with "The Weather INSIDE is Frightful" set a fun, slightly chaotic tone that symbolized Maddie's stagnant, disappointing personal situation when the book opens. I also loved the idea of throwing my heat-loving main character into the snow - what better way to start the Christmas season?!

One of the best perks of writing a book set at a fictional Christmas market was researching all things that go along with these outdoor markets. My friend Erin actually went on a weeklong tour of German Christkindl markets while I was writing, and her stories and photos helped inspire the mood. Next time, I think I need to visit myself - for research purposes, of course!

The image of a hothouse in winter, full of twinkly lights and green growing things, was the anchor idea for the book when I first started writing. It just said hygge to me, which was a feeling I wanted to weave into the book. It also gives Maddie a warm refuge when the cold gets to be too much. Plus: a beautiful man who nurtures plants through the harsh winter? That's my kind of hero.

As one of the myriad women who has been diagnosed with ADHD later in life, it was vital to me to get this aspect of the story right. One thing that really resonates: Ben's claim that if he doesn't write something down where he can see it, it disappears. I'm not saying I have my own wild mess of sticky notes on the wall - but I am saying I probably should!

Maddie is so reserved that I knew she needed an outlet for processing some of the hurt she was holding. The Letters to Santa aspect of Winterbloom was a perfect fit to help her process some of what was holding her back. It had the bonus effect of shaping the character of Winterbloom and the town of Snowdrop. I want to live in a community that knows the power of writing letters!

The idea for the ice luminary ceremony came with some trial and error. The original version was actual a paper lantern ceremony that my mom quickly pointed out might have burnt the whole place down. It was a blow - I had written a really lovely description of the paper lanterns and even figured out how to make them eco-friendly to fit with Ben's focus on sustainability - but obviously Ben would never let the forest burn so I had to regroup. The ice luminaries were the perfect replacement. I love the visual of the whole frozen lake filled with flickering globes of light.

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