Coming Home to Starr's Fall

The leaves are falling, with a crispness to the air, along with the scents of coffee and pumpkin spice, past a half-empty street of shuttered storefronts and a bandstand that has seen better days. . . Just like the whole town of Starr's Fall, thinks Laurie Ellis - as she and her beloved dog Max head to collect the store keys. Maybe she has seen better days, too, but she's certainly ready for a new start - and to leave her past behind. Still Laurie wonders whether she made a terrible mistake in coming to lovable but shabby Starr's Fall. Will she even find customers for her pet store and bakery, never mind a community to welcome and accept her? Not according to Joshua Reilly, the handsome but grumpy manager of the bookstore across the road, who claims he's never heard of anything so ridiculous as a bakery for dogs. But Laurie remains stubbornly undeterred. She's starting over, right here. Not least because she has another secret reason for being here. . . one she isn't telling anybody, at least not yet, as it involves her own tragic past. What she doesn't yet know is that a clue to the mystery is hidden deep in Joshua's bookstore. And he doesn't yet realize that Laurie herself might be the key to mending his own battered heart. . . for Laurie and Joshua and the whole town, it's going to be a fall to remember.