Trope: Winter Romance

  • Lake Mittens

    Lake Mittens

    In the winter of 1995, carpenter Tom Green pins a letter to the North Wind tree. He expects the wind, the snow, or an inquisitive neighbor to carry it away. He certainly doesn’t expect an answer from a woman who claims she is writing from 2026.

    Thirty years later, archivist Marian Clay finds Tom’s letter inside a water-damaged box. Writing back begins as an experiment, then becomes a correspondence she cannot explain and a friendship she cannot bear to lose. Tom understands her silences. Marian makes his narrowed world feel possible again. Each new letter draws them closer, even as three decades keep them apart.

    Then Marian discovers that Snowball Falls may have remembered Tom’s story incorrectly.

    With BrightPeak Developers threatening the town square, Marian and Tom begin following a trail of forgotten records, hidden clues, and secrets buried beneath years of local history. Their only chance to save the town lies in trusting each other across two different winters, where every answer can alter the future and every missing letter could end their connection.

    Fortunately, Marian has help from Charles Lickens, a spaniel whose jingle collar makes discreet archival investigation largely theoretical, and a town committee that considers gossip an essential public service.

    Lake Mittens is a full-length, sweet, time-crossed winter romance filled with impossible letters, small-town mystery, mature love, snowy nights, and the hope of being found when you thought your story had already ended.

    Lake Mittens by Robin Bayliss, showing a leather-gloved hand and a red-mittened hand holding a sealed letter across the winters of 1995 and 2026, beside a frozen lake and jingle-collared spaniel.
  • The Billionaire’s Holiday Fix

    The Billionaire’s Holiday Fix

    Tricia is tired of being the dependable one. Her struggling Christmas tree farm demands more money, more time, and more energy than she has left. When her glamorous twin suggests a temporary life swap, Tricia trades Snowball Falls for New York City and a borrowed executive identity. She expects a rest. Instead, she lands in the middle of a high-profile gala crisis with no idea what she’s doing.

    Nick Sterling steps in before the evening collapses. Calm, capable, and refreshingly uninterested in appearances, he makes Tricia feel seen even while she’s pretending to be someone else. What she doesn’t know is that Nick has a disguise of his own. The helpful stranger beside her is worth billions, and he’s learned to keep that information quiet around anyone he might want to trust.

    When Nick discovers Tricia’s secret, he follows her home to Snowball Falls. Soon he’s repairing heaters, hauling trees, hanging festival lights, and attempting to win the approval of a town that considers curiosity a civic duty. Even the resident goat begins to tolerate him, although nobody should mistake that for friendship.

    As Christmas gives way to New Year’s Eve, their borrowed identities fall away and something real begins to grow. Then a quiet threat places Tricia’s farm and the town she loves at risk. Staying with Nick could cost her the life she has fought to preserve. Walking away could mean losing the first person who has ever made sharing the burden feel possible.

    The Billionaire’s Holiday Fix is a full-length, sweet, closed-door winter romance filled with secret identities, New York sparkle, small-town snow, twin-swap complications, and a billionaire who discovers that some problems cannot be solved by writing a check.

    The Billionaire’s Holiday Fix by Robin Bayliss, showing Tricia and Nick between snowy New York City and a Christmas tree farm in Snowball Falls, with a goat beside them.