The Real Town Behind Glenn Arbor

A Peek Into the Inspiration for the Store Front Romance Series.

A Little Backstory Before We Begin

Every fictional place I write has a seed — a real-world memory that blooms into something entirely its own on the page. For Glenn Arbor, the charming coastal town in my Storefront Romance series, that seed was planted years ago during a trip to Bar Harbor, Maine, with my grandmother. What began as a simple getaway turned into something much more — the kind of place that quietly takes root in your heart and never leaves.

A Trip to Remember

A long, long time ago… just kidding I was twenty when my grandmother and I traveled to Bar Harbor, Maine. She had been saving for this trip for years, and we planned it as an early celebration for my graduation from beauty school. (Yes, hairstylist to author is a leap — but life has a way of rewriting our stories.)

It was the second week of September, the air still clinging to summer but carrying hints of autumn. As we drove into town along the winding coastal road, we passed a bagpipe player standing on the cliff’s edge, playing Amazing Grace in honor of September 11, which was the next day. The leaves had yet to fully turn, but the whole scene felt like the quiet, cinematic opening of a story.

The rental home we’d booked wasn’t quite the “on the water” retreat it had claimed to be, so we traded it for a hotel right on the harbor. Each morning, we woke to heavy fog drifting in from the water, softening the edges of everything. My grandmother and I carried a quiet worry that week — my father’s health was failing — and yet, Bar Harbor’s steady calm still wrapped around us. The fog mirrored my mood in some ways, but the town itself offered comfort, beauty, and a pace of life I didn’t know I’d been missing.

The Heart of the Town

On our first morning, we wandered out in search of coffee and breakfast and stumbled upon a cozy, eclectic restaurant called The Two Cats. The Victorian-style house was painted sunshine yellow with a green-roofed porch, surrounded by flowers. Inside, no two plates matched, and they sold jars of their homemade granola right at the front. We decided instantly that this would be our breakfast spot for the week.

After breakfast, we explored the town’s streets — a charming maze of main roads and tucked-away side streets. The air was crisp, carrying both the salt of the harbor and the first whispers of fall. Shops ranged from classic tourist stops with mugs and t-shirts to one-of-a-kind specialty stores.

One of my favorites was the Bar Harbor Tea Co., where shelves were lined with tins of loose-leaf teas, each one more fragrant than the last. My grandmother and I have shared a love for tea since I was little — she bought me my first porcelain tea set when I was just three — so we happily lost ourselves in the shop for over an hour before I left with large tins of Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey. I still have one of those tins today, repurposed but still full of memories.

The Spark of Inspiration

That week was filled with simple joys: poking through an antique shop just past the tea store, sampling oils and breads from a tiny distillery, and wandering in and out of boutiques without a rush. Even when the streets bustled with peak-season tourists, the town never felt overwhelming. The atmosphere seemed to wrap each sound in a layer of softness, keeping everything warm and welcoming.

When I sat down years later to create Glenn Arbor, I knew this was the feeling I wanted to capture. I kept the geographic backdrop of Bar Harbor but filled the streets with my own shops and names. The feel — the coastal weather, the timeless charm, the sense of community — all came directly from my time there.

Glenn Arbor in the Pages

Glenn Arbor became my fictional “home away from home” — the kind of place where time seems to stretch, and life feels just a little softer. It’s not old-fashioned in a dusty, dated way, but in the way childhood felt before schedules and deadlines. It’s a place where you can breathe deeply, linger over coffee, and let the sound of the waves set the rhythm of your day.

That’s the experience I hope readers carry with them after they finish A Fragrant Melody. I want Glenn Arbor to leave an imprint on their hearts the way Bar Harbor left one on mine — a quiet, enduring invitation to come back and visit again.

I can’t wait for you to visit Glenn Arbor yourself in A Fragrant Melody, the first book in my Storefront Romance series. Until then, I hope you enjoy this little peek into the real-world place that inspired it all.