The Cottages on Carletta Lake

By Ellie Bullock

A wounded woman. A guarded caretaker. A lake town with everything to lose.

After a devastating betrayal shatters her career, her engagement, and the life she thought she had built, Claire Thompson returns to Pine Ridge with one plan: disappear long enough to breathe.

Instead, she inherits a fight.

Her grandparents' beloved Carletta Cottages sit on the edge of a quiet mountain lake, beautiful, broken, and barely holding together. Claire means to restore the cottages, rebuild her future, and prove she can still make something that lasts. But the place is more fragile than she expected - and so is she.

Jack Monroe has spent years keeping Carletta alive, one fire, one roof patch, and one impossible repair at a time. He knows every cottage, every leak, every secret corner of the property. He also knows what it costs to love a place that does not technically belong to you.

Claire wants to do this alone.

Jack knows she can't.

As survey flags appear near the lake and a powerful resort developer sets his sights on Pine Ridge, Claire must decide whether to keep running from the past or stand with Jack, the town, and the fragile new life beginning to take root on Carletta Lake.

Full of small-town warmth, found family, emotional healing, and slow-burn romance, The Cottages on Carletta Lake is the first book in the Pine Ridge series - perfect for readers who love heartfelt small-town romance, lake-town settings, second chances, protective heroes, strong heroines, women's fiction with romance, and stories about the places that love us back.

Welcome to Pine Ridge, where old wounds, new love, and second chances meet on the shores of Carletta Lake.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H6R42F15
• ISBN13: 9798184463971
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"