HALF THE HOUSE, ALL THE LIGHTS

Della Nwosu has run Christmas in Peavey Falls for six years. She knows which anchor point on the porch garland wants to pull and how to fix it before it does. She knows which neighbors need the Santa workshop most and which vendors she can charm into a late delivery. She built this holiday — every strand of lights, every shared-porch display, every workshop the town's kids depend on — around a Victorian duplex she loves and a Holiday Home Tour she's won twice. She is not looking for a variable.

Then a moving truck pulls up to the other half of her duplex three weeks before Christmas.

Before Della can finish her display and collect a prize that matters more than she's letting on, there's a structural engineer who shows up with a chalk line and a level like Christmas has load-bearing requirements, an anchor point he fixes on her side of the porch before she asks him to, hot chocolate at twelve degrees on a shared porch because neither of them will be the first to go inside, a seven-year-old who hands him her favorite rock and says you can have it, you're careful, and the night they build the junction between their two displays together and neither of them can say anything afterward because there's nothing to say that isn't too much.

She's spent six years pouring herself into a town that loves her back without anyone loving her specifically. He's spent seven years arriving in buildings, doing the job correctly, and leaving before anything gets complicated — and he's been calling that a plan.

A small-town Christmas romantic comedy about two people who can't agree on a single strand of lights, and what gets built anyway.

The kind of book you read in one December sitting and then immediately buy for everyone you love.

WHY THIS WILL SELL

→ Romance > Holiday > Christmas sits at 8.9 sales-to-comp (Hot Mainstream) with 320–480 estimated daily sales per top 20 title — peak October–December window with sustained readthrough into January

→ Romantic Comedy stacks at 9.1 sales-to-comp (Hot Mainstream) — the highest-converting of the three categories this package claims, and the one that pulls non-Christmas-romance readers in

→ Neighbors-to-lovers + forced collaboration is the highest-converting Christmas premise structure — external competition with genuine interdependence outperforms proximity-only setups

→ Christmas-hater thaw with grief roots runs deeper than the standard cynical-professional version — earns the emotional payoff rather than manufacturing it

→ Triple-category positioning (Christmas + Romantic Comedy + Small Town) maximizes discoverability during the six-week retail peak when Christmas romance category competition peaks

→ The Santa suit scene is built for BookTok — a specific, describable, emotionally resonant moment that generates the organic word-of-mouth that carries Christmas titles into January

TROPES: • Neighbors to Lovers • Rivals to Lovers • Grumpy/Sunshine • Small Town • Christmas-Hater Thaw • Forced Collaboration • Dual POV • The Grand Gesture Is Structural (He Finishes Her Display) • Kid Approves First • Santa Suit Reveal • Shared Porch as Contested Territory • He Fixes the Thing Without Being Asked • Found Family (Community)

HEAT LEVEL: Moderate / Closed Door — one kiss scene with full emotional weight; physical awareness and warmth throughout; nothing explicit; the most intimate moments are about attention and care, not heat

Perfect for fans of: Meghan Quinn, Lucy Score, Jenny Holiday, and Talia Hibbert

WHAT'S INSIDE THIS PACKAGE

⭐️ Story Premise — high-concept pitch, elevator pitch, and Market-Matched™ validation with triple-category positioning (Christmas, Romantic Comedy, Small Town) and competitive analysis against three comp titles

⭐️ Complete Codex — full story bible with dual leads, supporting cast of 5, the Victorian duplex at 14 Halcyon Street and Luminara Candle Co. as primary settings, 24-day December countdown structure, dual first-person voice system with distinct verbal patterns for Della (quick, sensory, lists-under-pressure) and Bram (spare, precise, structural metaphors deployed without awareness), moderate heat guidance flagged for dial adjustment, and series seeds for 2 future Peavey Falls books

⭐️ Chapter-by-Chapter Outline — 28 chapters + epilogue with emotional beats, word count targets, scene breakdowns, and escalating decoration-war set-piece architecture

⭐️ AI-Ready Chapter Prompts — 29 detailed writing instructions with tone, pacing, heat-level guidance, and distinct voice direction for alternating POV

⭐️ Marketing Copy — Amazon listing with categories and keywords, back cover copy, social media posts, newsletter announcement with three subject lines, reader magnet concepts, and seasonal launch strategy with Ideogram cover prompts

⭐️ Market-Matched™ Brief — market snapshot table, competitive positioning, seven-keyword strategy with rationale, and launch positioning including cover direction and series readthrough strategy

One buyer. One story. Exclusively yours.