Tender Heart

He's hidden himself from the world. She's desperate to escape it. But fate-and a crumbling lighthouse-has other plans.

Callum McCreary has spent two decades in self-imposed exile, keeping watch over the weather-beaten lighthouse his father once tended to on a remote island off the coast. The only tether to his past is his sister Iris, who runs the cozy café on the mainland-and the only person left who hasn't given up on him. After a devastating loss and a town that turned its back on him, Callum shut the door on love for good.

Now, the lighthouse that has sheltered him is falling apart-and with it, the fragile life he's built. Unless it's restored, it will be shut down for good. But the local Restoration Society couldn't care less.

Evie Holland hasn't written a word of her long-awaited fantasy novel since the accident that shattered her life five years ago. With her career hanging by a thread, her editor gives her a final ultimatum: finish the book in nine months-or it's over. Her escape? A residency far from the noise, pressure, and haunting reminders of the man who's stalked her with cryptic messages and dead Monarch butterflies for years.

Evie can't see past her own desperation-but something about the lighthouse, the island, and the broken man who lives there just might change her mind.