The Lie We Tell at Christmas
A Small Town Fake Dating Romantic Suspense

About this book:

Ten years ago, Clara Bennett vanished into a Pine Valley blizzard, leaving behind an abandoned car and a town full of secrets. Now, investigative reporter Avery Mitchell has arrived undercover—posing as a freelance writer holing up in a cabin for the holidays—to dig up the truth before the trail goes completely cold. Her only lead points to Detective Jack Fox: a hometown boy turned major crimes cop who was first on the scene that night, though he was off-duty and miles from his jurisdiction. He's gruff, guarded, and exactly the kind of man who knows where the bodies are buried in a town this small.

When the Christmas festival forces them into a convenient arrangement—fake dating to explain Avery's sudden presence and keep the locals from closing ranks—the line between performance and reality blurs faster than the mountain roads. Jack needs Avery's outsider perspective to finally crack the case that haunted his early career; Avery needs Jack's access to survive a community where everyone has something to hide. But as they navigate tree lightings, holiday galas, and a snowbound cabin, the chemistry sparking between them becomes the most dangerous variable of all.

Someone in Pine Valley got away with murder a decade ago, and they're watching Avery's every move. With a dead PI's cryptic notes, a missing girl's final cell phone ping, and a killer who's had ten years to perfect their alibi, the investigation is heating up just as the temperature plummets. In a town where silence is a survival instinct and the past is buried deeper than the winter snow, Avery and Jack have until Christmas Eve to uncover the truth—before the lie they're telling becomes the least of their problems.