When Rumors Bloom in February: a Christian Romance About Truth, Tenderness, and the Courage to Be Seen

Sometimes the bravest kind of love isn’t a grand gesture. It’s telling the truth when everyone thinks they already know it.In the charming small town of Maple Ridge, February brings more than just frost on the windows and Valentine’s roses—it brings gossip that clings tighter than the winter chill.Lena Hart has worked hard to rebuild her life with quiet faith and careful boundaries. As the event coordinator for the town’s beloved Winter Welcome Festival, she is determined to prove she can handle responsibility without a hint of the drama that once upended her world. She wants stability, not a spotlight.Graham Cole is back in town for one reason: to manage his late grandmother’s community center and honor her legacy. Carrying a grief he rarely names and a sense of duty he refuses to break, he is painfully aware that his return makes him a target for curiosity. He just wants to do the work and survive the season.But when a simple repair job leaves Lena and Graham walking out of a room that looks exactly like a couples’ counseling office—at the exact wrong moment—the town’s rumor mill ignites.Suddenly, they aren’t just colleagues. According to the whispers passed along in grocery aisles and over hot cocoa, they are “that couple”—a romance on the rocks, fighting to save a relationship that doesn’t even exist.As the festival approaches and the town’s assumptions tighten around them, Lena and Graham are forced into an awkward alliance. But amidst the chaos of snowstorms and silent prayers, the fiction begins to feel dangerously close to a truth neither dared to hope for.They weren’t looking for love, and they certainly weren’t looking for a scandal. Now, they must decide what matters more: managing appearances or trusting God enough to step into the light together.From Arabella G. Hamilton comes a tender Christian romance about the damage of rumors, the healing power of honesty, and the courage it takes to let God write a better story than the one you’ve been protecting.