When a sunny young musician gets stranded with a grumpy mechanic during a snowstorm, a lack of heat is the least of their problems…

Liam Luckett is on an adventure. He's dropped out of his Master's program without telling his overbearing parents and set off on a road trip across the country. Armed with little more than his guitar, he’s looking for his best life. He never expected his car to break down in the middle of nowhere Vermont with a huge storm pending, leaving him stranded and at the mercy of a hunky local mechanic.

Jasper Cunningham is in a holding pattern. Three years after the death of his husband, he still hasn’t moved on. A hot, younger, stranded tourist is exactly the sort of complication this mechanic has been avoiding. But he can’t leave the guy in the snow. He brings Liam home to crash on the couch. The air is heavy with more than snow, and when the power goes out, the two men become closer than either of them expects.

Every silken note Liam sings on that guitar thaws Jasper’s heart a little. Suddenly, Liam’s itchy feet aren’t so eager to move on. When their feelings get too big to ignore, the bond they’ve formed is tested. Will daybreak leave them going their separate ways?

This opposites attract, hurt/comfort romance features a grumpy widower who is only soft for one specific blue-eyed musician, a remote farmhouse, a friendly dog, and enough snow to knock the power out until love catches fire.

I dove into Daybreak by Kate Hawthorne the minute I learned the widower Jesper from Unguarded got his happy in this one.

In Unguarded the reader meets Jesper as Emmett’s friend and client as he brings his sick dog to Emmett’s veterinarian clinic… but no worries at ALL this book is easily read standalone..

As the blurb reveals Jasper Cunningham is a widower who lost his husband and is well sort of stuck… that is until he meets Liam Luckett who just traveling through Vermont in search or well…… the reader learns in search of a way to be himself.

Liam is a man finding his way in the world, breaking away from his father and the closet he wants to put Liam in.

This book is about loss and healing and love… finding that love when you don’t expect it… and being brave enough to grab a hold of it; even at the risk of being hurt again.

I am so happy I took a chance on this new-to-me author as Jesper and Liam’s story was so beautiful.

Burlington, Vermont acts as another character in this book and helps craft a world that pulls the reader into this world.

Daybreak is set in the Vino and Veritas world and I have loved so many of these stories!

Click on each to read my review of Featherbed, Heartscape, Headstrong, and Unguarded (which is the story that leads me to this one – if you loved Tsia and Emmett in this one you are going to any to read their happy here)