Summer at Lilac Cove

A Sweet Fake Dating Seaside Romance

By: Josie Mills

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Daisy Hartley has never met a room she couldn’t fill. Until she meets the man who refuses to let her in.

Daisy’s cafe corner at The Salty Spine is real—real plans, real pastries, real grant applications—but everyone in Lilac Cove treats it like a hobby. Charming, they say. Sweet. As if what she builds is decoration, not substance.

Then Wes Doyle tells her the waterfront paperwork is wrong. He’s gruff. Curt. The harbor captain who runs the marina like a fortress and treats small talk like a threat. Daisy walks away flushed and rattled—and more bothered by why it sticks than by what he said.

When Wes’s matchmaking aunts corner him, Daisy doesn’t think. She slips her arm through Wes’s and rescues him on the spot. He stares at her like she just handed him a flare in a storm.

One desperate idea follows: pretend. Through the festival. Through the family dinners. Through every boardwalk appearance that makes the town buzz. Ground rules: it ends when the family leaves, and nothing real is left on the table.

Both of them are lying.

Summer at Lilac Cove is a sweet fake dating romance featuring a sunshine cafe owner and a grumpy harbor captain, matchmaking aunts who won’t quit, and a guaranteed happily-ever-after.

Perfect for readers who love:
• Fake dating grumpy sunshine coastal romance
• Small town harbor festival summer reads
• Sweet clean closed-door slow burn
• Opposites attract: a grumpy captain and a sunshine heroine
• Matchmaking family meddling warmth
• Cafe bookshop found community
• Heartfelt HEA guaranteed