First published 2025
Freya Arnalds faces eviction from her Maine apartment after working dead-end bartending jobs. At thirty, she has nowhere left to turn except the house her estranged parents left her in Somers, New York. She plans to keep her head down and figure out her next move. Instead, she discovers fifteen-year-old Aubrey living secretly in the rundown property. Aubrey is her niece, someone Freya hasn't seen in years due to a family rupture that scattered everyone. Now both women are essentially homeless and wary of each other. As they begin the work of making the house livable again, Freya runs into people from her past who remember the old drama. Aubrey slowly opens up about why she can't go home. Together, they start rebuilding more than just walls and plumbing. They must face whatever happened years ago that tore their family apart. The restoration becomes a way to heal old wounds and create something new together.
Genres: literary-fiction, domestic-fiction, contemporary, adult-fiction, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, healing, hopeful, intimate, introspective
Tropes: forced-proximity, found-family, healing-journey, second-chance
Setting: Maine, Somers, New York
Period: 21st-century, contemporary
448 pages · Paperback · Gallery Books
Content warnings: abuse