The Binding Choice

Some places call to you. Some places know your name.

"The road dipped down, following the curve of a valley. And then I saw it: a wooden sign, hand-painted, weathered by time.

Moon Falls Hollow - Welcome Home

My hands tightened on the wheel.

The trees opened up to reveal a town nestled deep in the hollow, golden in the late afternoon light. Buildings climbed the hillsides as if they had grown there, and at the far edge of town-exactly where it should be-I saw the waterfall.

A crescent-shaped cascade poured over dark stone, mist rising into moonlight. My breath caught.

I pulled onto the shoulder without meaning to, my body moving before my thoughts could catch up. The sight was wrong in the strangest way-not unfamiliar, but remembered. I had never been here before. And yet, I knew this place.

I lifted my camera with shaking hands and began to shoot.

Click. The curve of the falls.
Click. The mist glowing faintly, as if lit from within.

And then-just for a moment-I thought I saw something standing at the edge of the pool.

Watching.

I told myself it was the light. The mist. Anything but the quiet certainty settling in my chest.

Because as the moon rose higher over Moon Falls Hollow, one truth became impossible to ignore:

I hadn't found this place.

It had been waiting for me."

Emma Shaw has spent her whole life feeling out of step with the world-too sensitive, too observant, too tired of pretending she fits. So when she finds a room for rent in the quiet mountain town of Moon Falls Hollow, she thinks she's finally found a place calm enough to just be.

She's wrong.

The waterfall at the edge of town glows beneath the moon. The locals speak in half-truths about cycles, rituals, and things best left undisturbed. And Emma's grandmother's silver locket-an heirloom passed down for generations-has begun to burn warm against her skin whenever she gets too close to the water.

As strange symbols appear around town and a long-buried mystery resurfaces, Emma is drawn into a low-stakes but deeply personal paranormal investigation-one that feels uncomfortably connected to her own past. With the help of a quiet, sharp-witted bookshop owner named Claire, Emma begins to uncover a truth Moon Falls Hollow has been hiding for centuries.

Every fifty years, the water calls.

Some answer. Some refuse.
All of them disappear.

Now the full moon is approaching, and Emma must decide whether to walk away from the first place-and the first woman-that has ever felt like home... or make a binding choice that could change her life forever.

Perfect for readers who love:

• Cozy paranormal mysteries with atmosphere over gore
• Small-town secrets and gentle supernatural horror
• Sapphic slow-burn romance and LGBTQ+ representation
• Neurodivergent and autistic-coded protagonists
• Found family, emotional connection, and quiet magic

The Binding Choice is the first book in The Moon Falls Chronicles, a cozy-horror mystery series where the stakes are personal, the magic is ancient, and belonging is the greatest spell of all.