A charming sailor, a desperate media mogul, and a fraud walk into a farmhouse.

Zuzu Lane dreams of writing the next Great American Novel. Instead, she’s accidentally become Elizabeth Lane—America’s most adored domestic online influencer. Her blog Simply Staged details her charming Connecticut farm, her picture-perfect married life, and her sweet but sleep-depriving Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Snickerdoodle.

But when Zuzu’s employer, Yardley Media Group, gets slammed in a cancel-culture firestorm, her boss launches the ultimate image-saving stunt: decorated Navy hero Chief Petty Officer Jefferson Jones will spend Christmas at Elizabeth Lane’s idyllic farmhouse. There’s just one problem. Elizabeth Lane and her farmhouse fantasy don’t exist. If Zuzu’s secret gets out, she won’t just lose her job—she’ll be professionally blacklisted and kiss her publishing dreams goodbye.

Now, Zuzu has to turn her carefully curated fiction into festive reality—fast. But hauling out the holly to play the perfect hostess is harder than it looks… especially when her houseguest is a charming, battle-scarred sailor who keeps noticing the cracks in her story—and the woman behind them. Losing her career would be mortifying. But falling for Jefferson Jones? That could ruin everything.

A modern-day retelling of the 1945 holiday film classic, Christmas in Connecticut, this funny, heartfelt story of simple pleasures and found family, reminds us of the importance of finding your way home.

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Available in ebook and paperback November 2026