Overview

“Don’t.”

The word leaves my mouth before I can stop it.

She’s already halfway to the door, coat pulled tight, eyes fixed on the floor like looking at me would make this harder.

But it’s too late.

Because the moment Elena Hart walked into Blackwood Books, my quiet little life stopped being safe.

And now she’s trying to leave—before the town notices what we’ve become.

Before I admit it.

Before we both break.

Elena Hart is a Chicago psychiatrist on medical leave, taking a temporary job in Halloway Ridge to disappear for a while. She’s sharp, professional, and painfully controlled—someone who can help anyone through a crisis… except herself.

Iris Blackwood is a fourth-generation small-town bookstore owner, the kind of woman everyone trusts, everyone likes, everyone thinks they know. She smiles for the community, serves lavender tea, and keeps her life tidy and respectable.

What no one knows?

She’s been hiding pieces of herself for years.

Upstairs in her apartment, behind a locked cabinet, are the books she never talks about. The ones that tell the truth she’s been trying to bury.

And then Elena arrives.

Their connection starts quietly—glances that last a second too long, hands brushing between shelves, conversations that drift into something dangerously personal. It’s a slow burn that turns into the kind of longing you can’t ignore.

But Halloway Ridge is the kind of town that watches.

It remembers.

It whispers.

And when a love story becomes a secret, every touch feels like a risk.

The Stories We Hide is a small town sapphic romance filled with slow burn tension, forbidden attraction, emotional healing, and the kind of love that feels like coming home—until the world tries to tear it apart.

If you love small town romance, women’s romantic fiction, LGBTQ romance, sapphic love stories, and cozy-but-angsty bookstore settings, you won’t be able to put this down.

✅ Start reading today and discover the love story Halloway Ridge was never meant to see.

✔️ Small Town Romance

✔️ Sapphic Romance / WLW Romance

✔️ LGBTQ Romance (Lesbian Romance)

✔️ Slow Burn Romance

✔️ Secret Relationship / Forbidden Love

✔️ Opposites Attract (Big City x Small Town)

✔️ Emotional Healing / Comfort Romance

✔️ Angst + Tender Moments

✔️ Bookstore Romance

✔️ Small Town Drama & Gossip

Book 1: Chapters 1–21