The Lights By the Sea
(2026)(The first book in the Northlight Cove Picture House series)
A novel by Brooke Skie
A heartwarming Small Town, Grumpy/Sunshine cozy romance
Fresh starts, old movies, and the magic of finding family.
Autumn Hayes bought a crumbling 1920s cinema on impulse and a bottle of wine. Okay, mistakes were made.
But she's done with Boston, done with burnout, ready for a fresh start in a Maine fishing village where nobody knows her name. She’s got six weeks to restore the Grand Lady before opening night and prove she can build something that lasts.
Except the town's Police Chief won't let her breathe at all.
Ryan Cole shows up with code violations and pointed silences. He speaks in dry harbor humor that lands just wrong enough to make her blood pressure spike. The man still tends his grandfather's lighthouse in his off-hours and watches Autumn with those same steady keeper's eyes, like he's cataloging exactly how she'll disappoint him, because Ryan Cole rations words like they cost money.
The worst part? The insufferable man keeps showing up exactly when she needs him.
With a building that breathes and settles around her work, Gatsby, an aristocratic black cat that supervises from secret wall passages and a reclusive projectionist, Autumn just might be finding home.
For readers who love the magic of old buildings coming back to life, small towns that feel like a warm blanket, and the kind of romance where love is built with quiet devotion, one stubborn renovation at a time.
Genre: Romance
Fresh starts, old movies, and the magic of finding family.
Autumn Hayes bought a crumbling 1920s cinema on impulse and a bottle of wine. Okay, mistakes were made.
But she's done with Boston, done with burnout, ready for a fresh start in a Maine fishing village where nobody knows her name. She’s got six weeks to restore the Grand Lady before opening night and prove she can build something that lasts.
Except the town's Police Chief won't let her breathe at all.
Ryan Cole shows up with code violations and pointed silences. He speaks in dry harbor humor that lands just wrong enough to make her blood pressure spike. The man still tends his grandfather's lighthouse in his off-hours and watches Autumn with those same steady keeper's eyes, like he's cataloging exactly how she'll disappoint him, because Ryan Cole rations words like they cost money.
The worst part? The insufferable man keeps showing up exactly when she needs him.
With a building that breathes and settles around her work, Gatsby, an aristocratic black cat that supervises from secret wall passages and a reclusive projectionist, Autumn just might be finding home.
For readers who love the magic of old buildings coming back to life, small towns that feel like a warm blanket, and the kind of romance where love is built with quiet devotion, one stubborn renovation at a time.
Genre: Romance