Camping, Chaos & Questionable Footwear: A Romantic Comedy

By Dalton Douglas

Mitchell McQueen thought "team-building retreat" meant a catered lunch, a name tag, and exactly enough nature to post about later.

Instead, it means rural Maine, zero cell service, and the humiliating realization that his "hiking boots" still smell like the box they came in.

Lost, overdressed, and aggressively over-cologned (to the point of attracting bees), Mitchell stumbles straight into Bodhi Burke-calm, grounded, and so competent it should come with a warning label. Bodhi grew up off-grid on a Maine hippie commune, navigates by moss and stars, forages like it's basic manners, and wears Birkenstocks like they're functionally part of his body. He's also the kind of man who asks before he touches, holds steady through panic, and makes survival skills feel suspiciously... romantic.

As Bodhi teaches Mitchell how to exist in the woods without negotiating with reality, Mitchell discovers something worse than bears: the terrifying comfort of being cared for without strings attached. Between open-fire dinners, relentless trash-safety lectures ("Black bear, to be exact."), and a handmade hemp bracelet that becomes a quiet emotional anchor, Mitchell's "funny anecdote" turns into a life-changing detour.

Camping was never the plan.

Falling for the forest man in sentient Birkenstocks definitely wasn't either.

But in Dalton-and in the woods-sometimes the best kind of love is the one you choose on purpose.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GMCMRWM8
• ISBN13: 9798247416609
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"