The Limestone Rose

Ridge Road, Book 2

The Limestone Rose is a quiet, emotionally resonant romance about restoration—of buildings, of trust, and of people who thought they were beyond repair.

When architectural historian Iris Calloway arrives in the Texas Panhandle to document the restoration of a crumbling nineteenth-century limestone house, she is running from a professional failure that nearly ended her career. The last thing she expects is Dalton Cross—a widowed master stonemason whose grief is etched as deeply as the cracks in the foundation he’s trying to save.

The house, built by a German immigrant stonemason and finished by the woman he never lived to marry, carries a legacy of resilience neither Iris nor Dalton can ignore. As deadlines tighten and the work grows more dangerous, the line between professional distance and personal connection begins to blur.

Set against wide skies and unforgiving land, The Limestone Rose is a slow-burn, closed-door romance about second chances, meaningful work, and learning to trust yourself—and someone else—again.

This Ridge Road novella can be enjoyed as a standalone story.

©2026 V.M. Merrick (P)2026 V.M. Merrick