The Autumn Boarding House

Ellie Monroe has a plan for everything.

After a broken engagement and the end of the life she thought she had carefully arranged, the last thing she wants is a fresh start. She only needs three months in the small town of Hawthorn Ridge—long enough to coordinate the annual Autumn Lantern Festival, rebuild her savings, and decide what comes next.

Then she moves into Hawthorn House.

The rambling old boarding house comes with creaky floors, mismatched furniture, a warmhearted landlady who seems to know far more than she should, and five other seasonal boarders who are strangers at first—but not for long.

It also comes with Ben Harper.

Quiet, capable, and far too amused by Ellie’s love of schedules, Ben restores historic buildings for a living and seems perfectly comfortable with all the uncertainty Ellie would rather organize into a spreadsheet. As autumn settles over Hawthorn Ridge, their teasing friendship begins to deepen into something neither of them planned.

But Hawthorn House is holding more than memories.

An old photograph, a locked room, and unexpected connections to the boarders’ families reveal that Miriam Hawthorne did not bring them together by accident. As long-buried stories begin to surface, Ellie must decide whether every unanswered question needs a solution—and whether God might be leading her toward a life she never could have planned for herself.

Filled with crisp autumn days, small-town charm, gentle humor, heartfelt faith, clean romance, family secrets, and a boarding house full of people learning what it means to belong, The Autumn Boarding House is a warm Christian romance about second chances, unexpected family, and discovering that sometimes the place you meant to pass through becomes home.