The Lake House: A Slow Burn Small Town Romance

By Alice Reid

Some love stories are loud. This one is a whisper.

She traded Oslo deadlines for a cabin at the edge of the world.
He's been hiding there for years.
Some silences are louder than others.

Lea was once called "the engineer of truth" - an illustrator whose precise lines made her agency's fortune and nearly cost her sanity. After a collapse that left her unable to lift a pencil, this single woman flees to Vinterhavn, a cozy small town of eighty-seven souls tucked into a Norwegian fjord, with one rule: no art, no deadlines, no feeling. Just silence and survival.

Eirik carves wood the way other men breathe - or he used to, before the accident that took his wife. Now the widower builds fences and fixes docks, his hands busy with tasks that require no soul. The last thing he needs is a burned-out city artist who looks at his abandoned workshop like it's a wound she can heal.

But Vinterhavn is a place where nothing stays hidden - a village that notices quiet beautiful things, like the way a stranger's fingers trace mountains in dust, or the way an old craftsman's eyes linger on wood he swore he'd never touch again. When Lea's hands betray her, sketching in secret, and Eirik's old tools resurface alongside memories he's buried for years, they begin to create again - together.

The last ferry before winter is coming. Lea has a prestigious job waiting in Oslo. Eirik has a legacy he's been running from. And both of them face the same question: is this a second chance at life, or just another way to break?

A healing love story about two wounded artists who discover that putting yourself back together isn't a solo act - it's something you create with someone else.

A character-driven novel for readers who love atmospheric Scandinavian settings, emotional depth, and love that unfolds like a long exhale. Standalone with HEA.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GM2Z7RQ1
• ISBN13: 9798246667071
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 190 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"