Soot Happens - J.E. Joyce

Some messes can’t be fixed with duct tape. Maddie Weiz has tried.

Three years after her husband’s sudden death, Maddie is still running his family’s hardware store, living in the house they shared, and wondering when her life became one long memorial. Selling everything and returning to Boston might finally give her the fresh start she needs.

Jordan Vale has other plans.

Sleighbell Springs’ soot-covered chimney sweep, part-time handyperson, and full-time professional disaster was Maddie’s late husband’s best friend. When Maddie admits she’s never felt like the town truly belongs to her, Jordan makes her a deal: give them one month to prove it does.

Soon, Jordan has Maddie painting, laughing, reconnecting with her art-and noticing far too much about the muscles beneath those perpetually filthy flannels. Their comfortable friendship quickly becomes something hotter, and far more frightening, than either expected.

But Jordan can’t ask Maddie to stay while keeping one boot out the door. And Maddie must decide whether moving forward means leaving the past behind... or finally choosing the life still waiting for her.

Can a widow searching for a new beginning and a restless chimney sweep build a future together, or will everything between them go up in smoke?

SOOT HAPPENS is a funny, steamy sapphic small-town romance featuring friends-to-lovers, a bisexual widow, a masc nonbinary lesbian chimney sweep, emotional healing, found family, queer joy, and a hard-earned happily ever after set in the shared world of Sleighbell Springs