Kindling

Kindling
A Novel by Ember Tate

When Delaney Brooks sets fire to the truck of the man who broke her heart, it's not revenge she's chasing, it's freedom.

After years spent shrinking herself to fit inside someone else's life, Delaney returns to her rural Tennessee roots with nothing but a scorched field, a half-grown garden, and a name the town still whispers with a mix of sympathy and scandal. But in the ashes, something unexpected takes hold. With dirt under her nails and the past still clinging to her shadow, Delaney begins to build something new, rooted not in survival, but in becoming.

As seasons shift and wildflowers bloom, the quiet hum of rebuilding transforms into something louder: community, possibility, even love. But when opportunity knocks and old ghosts stir, Delaney must decide if she's ready to step fully into the life she's growing, or burn it all down again to protect it.

Raw, lyrical, and fiercely hopeful, Kindling is a novel about fire and soil, endings and beginnings, and the courage it takes to bloom in the aftermath