book cover of Cinder
 

Cinder

(2026)
(The first book in the Maplewood Fire series)
A novel by

 
 
A single dad x nanny, small town firefighter romance
I’m exhausted by all the different versions of myself I’ve spent years trying to be.

Dutiful stepdaughter, polished girlfriend. The woman who keeps smiling through dinner parties and business meetings while feeling absolutely nothing underneath.

So I sell my share of my late father’s business, and leave Toronto for Maplewood.

All I bring with me is a bag of clothes, my mother's sparkly heels, and the blue-tipped hair I only dyed because my stepmother hated it.

Maplewood is supposed to be my fresh start. A quiet little town where nobody expects me to be anyone but myself.

Then I meet Evan Prince. The grumpy firefighter with tired eyes isn’t exactly what I’d consider charming, but his five-year-old daughter Elle certainly is.

Soon I'm falling into their mornings filled with penguin-shaped pancakes, their quiet afternoons beside the lake, and a midnight date downtown that has Maplewood feeling less like a place I escaped to, and more like somewhere I finally belong.

Somewhere I want to stay.

But when one terrible night leaves our lives tangled in grief, every fear of being unlucky for the people I love comes rushing back.

The problem is, a cinder still glows after everything else turns to ash.

And firefighters run toward things worth saving.


Cinder is book one in Maplewood Fire, a new small town romance series of interconnected standalones, from bestselling romance author Hailey Rodger.




Cinder's tropes include:

  • single dad x nanny



    grumpy / sunshine



    small town setting



    found family



    age gap



    fractured fairytale



    hockey playing firefighters



    hurt / comfort



    spicy mirror scene



    a Dalmatian doggo







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