The Orchard on Carletta Lake

By Ellie Bullock

She built a life no one could knock down. Now her daughter is leaving, her past is circling, and one quiet stranger may be the risk that changes everything.

Ashley Mills knows how to survive.

For twenty years, she has run her family's cider orchard above Carletta Lake, raised her daughter alone, and kept Pine Ridge at a careful distance. The town loves her cider. It does not get the rest of her.

That was the arrangement.

But this summer, everything Ashley has held together is shifting. Her daughter is counting down the days until college. Her new tasting room on Main Street is about to open. The water rights beneath her orchard are suddenly under threat. And Travis, the ex-husband who left her to carry the weight alone, is back in town asking for a place in the life he walked away from.

Then Graham Sutter arrives at Carletta Cottages.

A famous novelist who has stopped writing, Graham came to Pine Ridge to hide from the story that ruined him. He has no business noticing Ashley Mills. He has no business seeing past her sharp humor, capable hands, and carefully guarded heart. But Graham has always been dangerous with the truth.

As harvest season draws closer, Ashley must decide whether protecting herself has started to look too much like loneliness - and whether the man who sees everything is worth letting in. Because in Pine Ridge, secrets do not stay buried, second chances rarely arrive neatly, and love has a way of finding the people who are most determined not to need it.

The Orchard on Carletta Lake is a heartfelt small-town romance about later-in-life love, single motherhood, found family, healing after divorce, and the kind of second chance that asks for everything.

Perfect for readers who love emotional clean romance, cozy lake-town settings, meddling small towns, slow-burn love stories, and women rebuilding their lives one brave choice at a time.

Return to Carletta Lake - where the cider is sharp, the town talks too much, and love is always worth the risk.

Bonus Content: Claire and Jack's wedding is the background of Chapter One, but it just wasn't enough - so a bonus novella is included at the very end of this small town romance set in Pine Ridge, and it doesn't disappoint.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H7XP83X8
• ISBN13: 9798185963456
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"