Carla Mockenhaupt was supposed to be building a serious career, not sleeping in her Mazda with her life packed into storage bins.
After losing her university job, her housing, and the future she thought she’d earned, Carla ends up in Santa Barbara with nowhere to go and a carefully folded map of plans that don’t work anymore. She only means to pass through Butterfly Beach long enough to catch her breath.
Then Goldie Winslow offers her a room next to the Seaglass Café.
Warm light in the windows, coffee in the morning, voices downstairs that remember her name by the second day. It should feel temporary. But when Carla discovers the Butterfly Beach Marine Wildlife Sanctuary is barely staying afloat, she sees something she understands too well: a place doing everything it can to survive.
The sanctuary needs one huge beach fundraiser to keep its doors open, and Carla may be the only person stubborn enough to make it happen. Between tangled permits, nervous sponsors, volunteer drama, family rules, wildlife protections, and a rumor that the event is trying to ‘ban kids from the beach,’ saving the sanctuary becomes less like organizing a fundraiser and more like holding back the tide with a clipboard.
And then there’s Ben Talbot.
Ben is charming, steady, quietly impossible to ignore, and far too good at seeing through Carla’s practiced smile. As they work side by side through rescue calls, committee chaos, and late evenings by the water, their almost-kisses start to feel less accidental and more like a question Carla is afraid to answer.
She knows how to draw boundaries. She knows how to protect fragile things. What she doesn’t know is how to let herself want a life that isn’t temporary.
With the ocean at her feet, the Seaglass Café behind her, and one golden summer asking more of her than survival, Carla has to decide whether staying is the risk that finally brings her home.
One Golden Summer is a heartwarming beach read about found family, starting over, marine rescue, small-town belonging, and a sweet slow-burn romance for readers who love women’s fiction with a coastal heart.
Genre: Romance
After losing her university job, her housing, and the future she thought she’d earned, Carla ends up in Santa Barbara with nowhere to go and a carefully folded map of plans that don’t work anymore. She only means to pass through Butterfly Beach long enough to catch her breath.
Then Goldie Winslow offers her a room next to the Seaglass Café.
Warm light in the windows, coffee in the morning, voices downstairs that remember her name by the second day. It should feel temporary. But when Carla discovers the Butterfly Beach Marine Wildlife Sanctuary is barely staying afloat, she sees something she understands too well: a place doing everything it can to survive.
The sanctuary needs one huge beach fundraiser to keep its doors open, and Carla may be the only person stubborn enough to make it happen. Between tangled permits, nervous sponsors, volunteer drama, family rules, wildlife protections, and a rumor that the event is trying to ‘ban kids from the beach,’ saving the sanctuary becomes less like organizing a fundraiser and more like holding back the tide with a clipboard.
And then there’s Ben Talbot.
Ben is charming, steady, quietly impossible to ignore, and far too good at seeing through Carla’s practiced smile. As they work side by side through rescue calls, committee chaos, and late evenings by the water, their almost-kisses start to feel less accidental and more like a question Carla is afraid to answer.
She knows how to draw boundaries. She knows how to protect fragile things. What she doesn’t know is how to let herself want a life that isn’t temporary.
With the ocean at her feet, the Seaglass Café behind her, and one golden summer asking more of her than survival, Carla has to decide whether staying is the risk that finally brings her home.
One Golden Summer is a heartwarming beach read about found family, starting over, marine rescue, small-town belonging, and a sweet slow-burn romance for readers who love women’s fiction with a coastal heart.
Genre: Romance
Used availability for Laurel Leigh's One Golden Summer