Added by 1 member
First Star Tonight
(2026)(The second book in the Star Harbor Second Chance Christmas Romance series)
A novel by Nina Potter
A retired fire captain. A school administrator with a divorce binder. One crooked garland and seventeen days to decide.
Diane Brennan has managed her marriage the way she manages everything — with color-coded tabs, precise timing, and zero room for error. The divorce filing is scheduled for January 8. The paperwork is complete. The house is running on schedule.
Ray Brennan hasn't moved his turnout gear off the garage peg in eight months. Retirement took his purpose. The filing date took the rest. When the town's lighthouse star salvage project puts iron in his hands again, he starts to remember what it feels like to be useful — and to be seen.
The problem: they still live in the same house. They still finish each other's sentences about the Cookie Walk. And somewhere between Harlan Pratt's twelve-page salvage report and a New Year's countdown on the harbor green, the thirty-one years they're about to dissolve start looking less like a machine that broke down and more like something worth restoring.
She managed the love out of the room. He stopped reaching. The question isn't whether they still love each other — the harbor answered that on Christmas Eve. The question is whether two people who built a perfect life can tear up the blueprints and start building something real.
A warm, emotional story about a long marriage, a small town that pays attention, and the courage it takes to stop managing and start feeling.
Tropes: Marriage-in-Crisis Romance • Second Chance Romance • Christmas Small-Town Romance • Later-in-Life Romance • Forced Proximity • Found Purpose • Coastal Maine Setting • Community and Found Family
Tone: Warm and Emotional
Series: Star Harbor Christmas, Book 2 (Interconnected Standalones)
Ending: HEA
POV: Dual, Third Person
Content Notes: long marriage in crisis, retirement transition, adult children, emotional reconnection, later in life
Genre: Romance
Diane Brennan has managed her marriage the way she manages everything — with color-coded tabs, precise timing, and zero room for error. The divorce filing is scheduled for January 8. The paperwork is complete. The house is running on schedule.
Ray Brennan hasn't moved his turnout gear off the garage peg in eight months. Retirement took his purpose. The filing date took the rest. When the town's lighthouse star salvage project puts iron in his hands again, he starts to remember what it feels like to be useful — and to be seen.
The problem: they still live in the same house. They still finish each other's sentences about the Cookie Walk. And somewhere between Harlan Pratt's twelve-page salvage report and a New Year's countdown on the harbor green, the thirty-one years they're about to dissolve start looking less like a machine that broke down and more like something worth restoring.
She managed the love out of the room. He stopped reaching. The question isn't whether they still love each other — the harbor answered that on Christmas Eve. The question is whether two people who built a perfect life can tear up the blueprints and start building something real.
A warm, emotional story about a long marriage, a small town that pays attention, and the courage it takes to stop managing and start feeling.
Tropes: Marriage-in-Crisis Romance • Second Chance Romance • Christmas Small-Town Romance • Later-in-Life Romance • Forced Proximity • Found Purpose • Coastal Maine Setting • Community and Found Family
Book Details
Heat Level: Closed DoorTone: Warm and Emotional
Series: Star Harbor Christmas, Book 2 (Interconnected Standalones)
Ending: HEA
POV: Dual, Third Person
Content Notes: long marriage in crisis, retirement transition, adult children, emotional reconnection, later in life
Genre: Romance
Visitors also looked at these books
Used availability for Nina Potter's First Star Tonight