The Closet of Warmth: a Winter Coat Drive Brings Two Guarded Hearts Into God’s Gentle Light

In the small lake-town of Maple Harbor, January doesn’t forgive.Mara Ellison has learned to endure cold—literal and otherwise. Between managing the community center’s winter coat drive and keeping her late mother’s legacy afloat, she is determined to prove she can do everything alone. To Mara, help is a luxury she doesn’t trust, and vulnerability is a weakness she cannot afford. If she keeps moving, sorting, and solving, she won’t have to feel the ache of grief or the fear of disappointment.Jonah Reyes didn’t plan on coming home. A former high-school hockey hopeful turned handyman with a bruised faith, Jonah has returned to Maple Harbor only to settle his grandmother’s estate and fix up the old family duplex. He expects quiet repairs, not a collision with a woman who treats vulnerability like thin ice. He believes he is good for fixing things, but not for staying.But God has a way of disrupting the best-laid plans.When a donation mix-up forces Mara and Jonah into the community center’s dusty storage closet—hours of sorting, labeling, and squeezing past each other in a narrow aisle—their sharp edges start to soften. The fluorescent lights and the scent of wool and cedar become the backdrop for a connection neither of them saw coming.As the coat drive faces a funding threat, a missing box of children’s coats, and a town rumor that could shut the center’s doors, Mara’s desperate need for control clashes with Jonah’s paralyzing fear of failing the people he loves.With every zipper repaired and every coat placed in a child’s hands, God asks them both the same question: Will you keep guarding your heart—or will you let love be the warmth that changes everything?The Closet of Warmth is a tender, slow-burn Christian romance about the courage it takes to let people in. Perfect for fans of small-town charm, emotional restoration, and love stories where faith is the thread that holds it all together.