Ashwood's Secret Whispers

A Café-Brewed Mystery of Fae Magic and a Second-Chance Romance What if your greatest inheritance wasn't a house, but a hidden war? Burned-out and disillusioned, Elara Vance escapes her high-pressure life in the city when she inherits her grandmother's quaint bookshop café in the picturesque seaside town of Ashwood. She expects a quiet life of scones and paperback novels—a charming, cozy respite. But from the moment she arrives, Elara feels the town is whispering to her. The books hum with a life of their own, the locals guard ancient secrets, and a hauntingly handsome historian seems determined to keep her from uncovering the truth about her grandmother's past. When a local fisherman vanishes without a trace from his boat on a calm sea, Elara is drawn into the investigation by a series of cryptic clues—a missing map, a recipe for a magical ingredient, and a portrait of her grandmother with a mysterious silver-eyed man. Forced into a reluctant alliance with the brooding town archivist, Alistair Crowe, Elara discovers that Ashwood is a sanctuary built on a precipice. It is one of the "thin places," where the barrier between our world and the treacherous, enchanting realm of the Fae is perilously weak. As a darker pattern of disappearances emerges, Elara learns she is the last in a line of Story-Spinners—women who can weave magic from emotion and narrative. Her arrival has triggered an ancient prophecy, awakening a lonely, powerful Fae lord, the Tide-Weaver, who plans to use her power to tear the worlds apart and claim a throne. To stop him, Elara must embrace her magical legacy and learn to spin stories into weapons. But the greatest threat may not be from the magical realm, but from a betrayer hidden among the town's friendly faces—a harbinger of the coming storm. A captivating blend of romantasy, cozy mystery, and supernatural thriller, Ashwood's Secret Whispers is a spellbinding tale of finding your purpose, unlocking hidden magic, and discovering that the right love can be the strongest ward of all. Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Travis Baldree, and Heather Blake.