Owned By The Woodcarver
(2025)(The third book in the Autumn Heat In Cedar Falls series)
A novel by Maya McKenna
When a reclusive woodcarver agrees to make her a pumpkin, she doesn’t expect him to carve his way into her life…
Kindergarten teacher Ivy Dawson just wants something special for her classroom—one perfect jack-o’-lantern to make her kids believe in magic. But the only man who can create it is the town’s most antisocial recluse: Eli Granger, a gruff, broad-shouldered woodworker who lives deep in the mountains and doesn’t take visitors.
Eli has spent years avoiding people—and years secretly carving Ivy’s face into wood. When she shows up at his door, sunshine-bright and full of stubborn hope, he breaks his own rules to give her what she’s asking for. But what starts as one pumpkin becomes late-night rescues, protective promises, and an attraction too fierce to ignore.
Now Ivy has to decide if she’s ready to trust a man who’s been watching her far longer than she’s known his name—and Eli has to convince her that what’s growing between them isn’t just a moment carved in autumn, but something built to last.
Tropes: Grumpy/sunshine, small town romance, protective hero, artist hero, instalust-to-love, forced proximity, possessive hero, mountain man romance, HEA.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Kindergarten teacher Ivy Dawson just wants something special for her classroom—one perfect jack-o’-lantern to make her kids believe in magic. But the only man who can create it is the town’s most antisocial recluse: Eli Granger, a gruff, broad-shouldered woodworker who lives deep in the mountains and doesn’t take visitors.
Eli has spent years avoiding people—and years secretly carving Ivy’s face into wood. When she shows up at his door, sunshine-bright and full of stubborn hope, he breaks his own rules to give her what she’s asking for. But what starts as one pumpkin becomes late-night rescues, protective promises, and an attraction too fierce to ignore.
Now Ivy has to decide if she’s ready to trust a man who’s been watching her far longer than she’s known his name—and Eli has to convince her that what’s growing between them isn’t just a moment carved in autumn, but something built to last.
Tropes: Grumpy/sunshine, small town romance, protective hero, artist hero, instalust-to-love, forced proximity, possessive hero, mountain man romance, HEA.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Used availability for Maya McKenna's Owned By The Woodcarver