The Winter That Bound Us
A love story from two sides of the snow

About this book:

In the mountain village of Highfrost, the sun has not risen in three years. The snow doesn't fall—it conquers, burying a generations-old feud between the timber-rich Mercers and the iron-wielding Hales beneath twenty feet of silence. Eira Mercer has spent every frozen morning hauling green wood and staring across the ravine at Lukas Hale, the only other soul who refuses to shrink beneath the cold. When the ancient bridge connecting their sides begins to splinter, severing the village's last lifeline to medicine and escape, their fathers would rather let it rot than concede an inch. But Eira and Lukas strike a dangerous bargain: three stolen days, a forge fired in secret, and a repair that could save them all—or expose a truth neither family wants to face.

The cold doesn't care about bloodlines or grudges. It cracks iron, splits oak, and freezes the breath in your throat before you can speak. As the longest night approaches and the mercury drops beyond measure, Eira and Lukas discover that the thaw they've been praying for might not come from the sky at all. In a world where survival demands isolation, the most radical act of defiance is reaching across the ice.

Atmospheric and unflinching, *The Winter That Bound Us* is a love story forged in the deadliest of elements—where every touch is a risk, every shared secret a betrayal of kin, and the only thing colder than the endless winter is the price of keeping your heart closed.