Penny Easton has spent years trying to protect the legacy her father left behind. After one betrayal too many, she takes the payout from her stepmother, dyes the ends of her hair blue purely to piss her off, packs her late mother’s silver heels, and leaves Toronto for a fresh start in Maplewood.

There, she meets Evan Prince, a guarded single dad firefighter raising his five-year-old daughter, Elle. Evan’s life runs on shifts, routines, and keeping everything under control—right down to the three-page nanny questionnaire complete with sections and a scoring system. He has no room for disruption. Unfortunately for him, Elle trusts Penny almost on sight.

Evan needs reliable childcare, and Penny needs a job, and becoming Elle’s nanny draws her steadily into their lives. Soon she knows their morning routine, and exactly how far she can push Evan before the corner of his mouth gives him away. She’s folded quickly into the firehouse crew who roast each other without mercy, show up without being asked, and close ranks around their own when it matters most.

So when tragedy rocks the firehouse and grief settles over the people she has come to love, Penny’s oldest fear collides with Evan’s determination to keep his world safe. Trusting each other means believing that loss doesn’t make love a mistake—and that sometimes, being brave means running toward the scariest thing of all. Love.

Cinder is a swoony and spicy small town firefighter romance, featuring a grumpy single-dad firefighter, a sunshine nanny, hilarious found family, themes of grief and healing, hundreds of penguin facts, and a fractured Cinderella fairytale with a hard-won happily ever after. Includes darker themes around addiction, grief, and loss. Please check the trigger warnings.

As book one in the Maplewood Fire series, it can also be read as a standalone.