Permits, Pies & Poor Life Choices: A Romantic Comedy

By Dalton Douglas

A zoning dispute should have been simple.

For Benjamin Black, land-use attorney and professional appreciator of rules, Dalton's annual pie festival is supposed to be a quick correction, a few stern words about permit boundaries, and a return to a life where systems behave themselves on paper.

Instead, he arrives in town to find the festival footprint has been "adjusted in spirit," the goat parade corridor is somehow a real planning concern, and Porter Perry-the warm, capable manager of Dalton Grocers-is standing at the center of the chaos looking entirely too pleased to see him.

Porter knows the festival is a mess. He also knows it matters. The pie auction funds Dalton's winter assistance program, half the town is emotionally invested, and canceling it is not an option. Even if that means working side by side with the one man in Highlands County least likely to approve a handwritten map revision in blue marker.

Benjamin and Porter clash immediately: rules versus practicality, structure versus flexibility, permits versus people. But as they race to save the festival, their arguments start sounding suspiciously like flirting-and their reluctant collaboration turns into something neither of them planned.

Now Benjamin is facing a problem no legal brief ever prepared him for: Porter Perry may be the best complication he's ever had.

Permits, Pies & Poor Life Choices is a warm, witty M/M small-town romantic comedy featuring a meticulous attorney, a beloved grocer, a town with no respect for boundaries, public meddling, pie-festival chaos, and a hard-won happily-ever-after.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GW61K5NG
• ISBN13: 9798255027385
• Release Date: April 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"