When her mother passes away from a long battle with cancer, Alice's life is tilted on its axis. After ending her flat-lined, disastrous relationship, she flees Boston for the lake house her mother left behind in Wilcox Grove, New Hampshire. The presence of so much nature all around her is jarring enough on its own, but her quaint new home also seems determined to sabotage her. Alice is still floundering to figure out how to be a homeowner in the middle of the woods when she meets her surly new neighbor, who seems to hate her before they've even spoken. Jake Preston has lived in Wilcox Grove nearly his entire life, where he prefers to keep mostly to himself. His quiet sanctuary is aggressively disturbed by the hurricane of a woman who moves in next door, seemingly determined to completely destroy the home of somebody he considered a dear friend. Prickly on his best day, Jake is not about to play friendly neighbor to the menace who has come to town to turn everything upside down. Barefoot Lake is a small-town, open-door, grumpy/sunshine romance about opening up and redefining success and happiness.