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Spring Dates & Sprinkled Cakes

A cozy small-town M/M romance

by Anouk de Rooij

In Heritage Hollow – where everyone knows everyone but no-one knows what’s really happening behind closed doors – two exes find themselves trapped in the lie of a life they were supposed to have together.

Small-town baker Casey Abbott has a lot going for him. With a successful bakery, a roof over his head and a loyal best friend, he doesn’t need much else. Unless it involves Ethan Bremer. On that front, it’s less hit and more miss. After an absence of almost four years, Ethan’s return to Heritage comes with a lot of secrets and feelings to work through. There’s a lot Casey is afraid to share – most importantly his heart.

As much as he would tell you otherwise, Ethan did not enjoy his years in the city. The loneliness, the fast pace of the day to day – he’d rather spend his days holed up in the older, cozy library in Heritage. It was obvious his return to town would be difficult, he’d just not imagined it being this hard. Getting to know each other again, in a town that thinks you’re closer to getting married than the actual break-up you’re working through. Five dates, that’s all he asks, and if they’ve worked through their differences by the end of those, they’ll try again.

How far are they willing to go to stop lying to the town, to their friends – and most importantly, to themselves?

Published:
Genres:
Tags:
Pairings: M-M
Heat Level: 1
Romantic Content: 3
Ending: Click here to reveal
Character Identities: Bisexual, Gay
Protagonist 1 Age: 26-35
Protagonist 2 Age: 26-35
Tropes: Bad Breakup, Fake Relationship, Found Family, Hurt / Comfort, Love Can Heal / Redemption, Second Chances, Slow Burning Love, Small Town
Setting: Small-Town
Languages Available: English
Series Type: Same Universe / Various Characters

About the Author

Anouk de Rooij (she/her) is a Dutch national, born and raised in a small coastal town in the Netherlands where she learned to love books, enjoy music, to value the importance of friendship and the impact of a chosen family. She spent years scribbling down ideas and stories in notebooks and on long forgotten pieces of paper. Music is one of her biggest sources of inspiration.
When she’s not writing and creating, she’s either enjoying a good book, getting lost in a movie or spending time with the people closest to her. Wandering through touristy little towns and empty museums is one of her favorite pastimes, so she tries to do so as often as she’s able. One of her goals is to own enough books for her shelves to be considered a library.