The Cormorant Inn: A Mercy Cove Second-Chance Romance

By Dr. Amenda Hawkins PhD

Ten years ago, Clara Bennett left Mercy Cove without a single word of explanation and broke the heart of the only boy she ever loved. Now a successful Boston attorney, she returns to the wind-swept Maine coast for one reason only: to settle her late grandmother's estate and sell the crumbling Cormorant Inn before anyone notices exactly how long she has been gone.

She does not expect to find Dane Whitfield waiting on the gravel drive, all grown up and still quietly furious about the way she vanished. She does not expect a town-wide restoration grant tying the inn's future to a six-week deadline. And she certainly does not expect the buried family secret that finally explains why she really left all those years ago, a secret that could either destroy what is left between her and Dane, or finally set both of them free.

As Clara and Dane work side by side to save the inn before the harvest festival deadline, old wounds reopen even as old feelings quietly rekindle. But someone does not want the Cormorant Inn restored. Burst pipes. Bogus inspections. A smooth-talking developer circling with an offer too generous to be entirely honest. As the sabotage escalates toward something far more dangerous, Clara must decide exactly how much she is willing to risk, her heart, her inheritance, and maybe her safety, to keep a promise to a grandmother who never once stopped believing her granddaughter would find her way home.

The Cormorant Inn is a heartwarming, clean second-chance romance wrapped in small-town suspense and family drama, perfect for readers who love sweet contemporary romance with emotional depth, found-family warmth, and a slow-burn reunion that earns every page of its happy ending. Readers who love Hallmark-style small-town love stories, coastal inn romance settings, and clean romantic suspense will fall hard for Clara and Dane's story of second chances, hard truths, and the courage it takes to finally stay.

Inside this clean romance novel, readers will find:

A slow-burn second-chance romance with a steady, swoon-worthy heroA cozy small-town coastal setting full of warm, memorable charactersA page-turning suspense subplot with genuine stakesA heartfelt family drama rooted in a decade of buried secretsA satisfying, closed-door happily-ever-after, complete with a proposal worth waiting for

Settle in at the Cormorant Inn, where the tide always comes back in, old love is given a second chance, and home turns out to be exactly where the heart was waiting all along.

Set against the salt air and lighthouse views of a small Maine fishing town, this contemporary clean romance blends the comfort of a cozy small-town love story with the tension of a genuine suspense plot and the emotional weight of a multigenerational family drama. Perfect for fans of second-chance romance, coastal town romance, sweet contemporary fiction, and clean romantic suspense looking for their next unforgettable, feel-good read.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H6XPJS53
• ISBN13: 9798184784564
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 104 Pages
• Weight: 0.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"