The Plant Shop Next Door

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She inherited the building. She never expected to fall for the woman downstairs.

Lena Ortiz doesn’t do feelings. She does code, black coffee, and strategic avoidance of anything that might require emotional vulnerability. When she inherits her late grandmother’s apartment building — and the chaotic plant shop that occupies the ground floor — she plans to fix the plumbing, sort the finances, and get out before anyone asks her to care about something alive.

Mira Chen is a force of nature in overalls and a vintage Fleetwood Mac tee. She’s loud, messy, and talks to her plants like they can hear her (they can’t, but that’s not the point). She built Fern & Flicker from nothing after escaping a relationship that tried to make her small, and she’ll fight anyone who threatens it — including the reluctant landlord upstairs who won’t stop staring at her through the greenhouse glass.

The problem? They share a building. A wall. A leaky pipe that forces them into proximity neither of them asked for and neither can resist. Every late-night repair becomes an excuse to touch. Every shared grocery run becomes a date they won’t call a date. And every time Lena watches Mira from the balcony — barefoot in the greenhouse, talking to a fiddle-leaf fig named Gerald — the locked safe she’s built around her heart opens a little more.

But Mira’s ex isn’t done with her. The building’s future is uncertain. And the power dynamic between landlord and tenant is as complicated as the root system of a plant that’s outgrown its pot. To build a life together, they’ll have to dig deep — into the soil, into the lease, and into the parts of themselves they’ve been afraid to let anyone see.

You’ll love this book if you enjoy:

✅ Sapphic romance with graphic, frequent heat (12 spice scenes)
✅ Forced proximity that starts with a leaky pipe and ends in a greenhouse
✅ A grumpy programmer who falls first and falls hard
✅ A sunshine plant whisperer who talks during sex (a lot)
✅ Found family with a tattooed best friend and a Korean grandmother
✅ A cat named Basil with catastrophic romantic timing
✅ “Who did this to you” protectiveness that’s quiet, devastating, and extremely hot
✅ A guaranteed HEA with roots as deep as the jasmine vine