Can be read as a standalone or part of the series.
What happens when your mother’s fairy tales about magical tigers turn out to be the story of your own life?
Kat Morrison has built her world around taking care of everyone else. As a freelance web designer in charming Leafwood Falls, Vermont, she’s perfected the art of juggling client deadlines while caring for her mother Rose, whose memory isn’t what it used to be, and her talented seventeen-year-old daughter Emma. Kat’s days are a carefully orchestrated dance of doctor appointments, work commitments, and family needs, with little room left for her own dreams.
But Rose has always been a storyteller, and her enchanting tales of Luna and her magical tiger have become a feature of monthly story nights at Oak & Ink Bookshop, where the whole community gathers to hear about adventures in their own backyard.
Until everything starts to change.
Between Rose’s increasingly fragile grip on the present, Emma’s growing restlessness and mysterious phone calls, and Ben Walsh, the quietly thoughtful parks department worker who keeps showing up exactly when Kat needs him most, Kat’s perfectly controlled life begins to unravel. There’s something about Ben that makes her want things she’s convinced herself she can’t have, but opening her heart means risking the careful balance that keeps her family afloat.
As the community rallies around Rose’s magical stories and Emma faces her own crossroads, Kat must choose between the safety of staying in control and the terrifying possibility of letting others help carry the load. Because in a town where a cantankerous orange cat named Hemingway dispenses wisdom through strategic interventions, where stories have a way of revealing hidden truths, and where love appears in the most unexpected forms, sometimes the greatest magic is learning to see yourself through someone else’s eyes.
With her carefully constructed world shifting beneath her feet, Kat discovers that the hardest person to take care of might just be herself.
Perfect for readers who loved BEACH READ, THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY, and THE BOOKSHOP ON THE CORNER. A deeply moving story about family, caregiving, and finding love when you least expect it. And the courage to accept both help and happiness.
Book Reviews by the Reluctant Retiree 