Niki Ballantyne has spent a decade being extraordinary — search and rescue specialist, parkour athlete, the woman who runs toward danger while everyone else runs away. A summer cycling solo through the sun-drenched south of France was supposed to be a break. Instead she stumbles into a medieval festival in a golden Aquitaine village, adopts a gentle giant of a blacksmith who reminds her of everything she’s lost, and finds herself squarely in the orbit of the most dangerously perceptive man she’s ever met.

Luc sees through her armour. All of it. And he won’t go away.

Emotionally layered and set against the breathtaking beauty of southern France — a story about what happens when the most fearless woman in the room finally meets the one thing she can’t outrun.

For readers of Santa Montefiore — a luminous travel romance about grief, reckless courage, and the terrifying, transformative business of letting someone love you.

Some people are worth catching. Some people are worth staying for.

“A carefully woven and surprising story of love, friendships and heartache — an utterly independent woman who you will find endearing but frustratingly stubborn.” — Reedsy Discovery ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐