Even a vanished world leaves a gravity you can't escape.
Tulsa may have a wild imagination, but she has Rules. She has always had Rules. She likes to say those Rules provide her with a compass so she can safely navigate her way through life. But at eighteen, when a free-spirited boy stumbles into her world while she is acting out a scene of imagination, she finds she can't make him leave... even though the Rules clearly prohibit a relationship with him.
Soon enough, he becomes a central part of her world in a way no one outside of her eccentric family ever does. Then, even worse, he starts breaking all the Rules by falling in love with her.
Just as she stands on the brink of a decision about him, disaster strikes - and no Rule Tulsa has ever put in place can prevent everything she loves from collapsing... including her relationship with Max.
Eight years later, the unexpected inheritance of her aunt's Victorian mansion brings her home again, where she finds herself trying to reckon with what she lost, where she truly belongs... and those unbending Rules that have kept her from admitting what - and who - she really needs.
For readers drawn to nostalgic, character-driven romantic dramas, The Warm Planet is a tender meditation on belonging, the self-made armor of independence, and the subtle gravity of second chances. Part of Exley Books Legacy Collection.