When Autumn Leaves Turn Gold

A Clean, Small-Town Irish Romance

One harvest fair, one looming goodbye—and a friendship on the edge of forever.

Autumn paints Ballycove gold just as primary-school teacher Aoife Flynn throws herself into planning the village harvest fair. Her best friend since nappies, Finn Murphy—paramedic and dare-devil cliff-rescue volunteer—steps in to help, hiding the letter in his pocket: a dream job interview in Galway that could take him sixty miles, and a lifetime, away. Between bonfire rehearsals, Gaelic songs, and cider-sweet sunsets, long-buried feelings spark. But risking the perfect friendship that’s carried them since childhood may cost them both more than distance ever could.

Aoife’s biggest fear isn’t losing Finn to a city ambulance—it’s losing him to regret if she asks him to stay. Finn aches to trade big-city glory for a future beside Aoife, yet can’t ask her to shoulder his stalled ambition. As fair day approaches, the pair waltz around confessions, every stolen glance brighter—and more painful—than falling leaves. When a cliff-side rescue tests Finn’s resolve and Aoife’s courage, they must decide: speak the truth or let the Galway train carry their hearts in opposite directions.

Will they guard a friendship carved in childhood—or leap into a love that could last a lifetime?