Cinder by Hailey Rodger

I’m exhausted by all the different versions of myself I’ve spent years trying to be.

Dutiful stepdaughter, polished girlfriend. The woman who keeps smiling through dinner parties and business meetings while feeling absolutely nothing underneath.
So I sell my share of my late father’s business, and leave Toronto for Maplewood. All I bring with me is a bag of clothes, my mother’s sparkly heels, and the blue-tipped hair I only dyed because my stepmother hated it.

Maplewood is supposed to be my fresh start. A quiet little town where nobody expects me to be anyone but myself.
Then I meet Evan Prince, a grumpy firefighter who definitely isn’t charming—though his five-year-old daughter Elle certainly is.

Soon I’m falling into their mornings filled with penguin-shaped pancakes, their quiet afternoons beside the lake, and a midnight date that has Maplewood feeling less like a place I escaped to, and more like somewhere I belong.

Somewhere I want to stay.
But when one terrible night leaves our lives tangled in grief, every fear of being unlucky for the people I love comes rushing back.
The problem is, a cinder still glows after everything else turns to ash.

And firefighters run toward things worth saving.