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Bad Little Falls #4
Reasonable Temperature
A Michelin-star chef. A police chief who bakes at 4 AM. A house at forty-eight degrees.
Hugh Barnett is a walrus, an omega, and the executive chef at one of Boston's best restaurants. He's also the new owner of a crumbling Victorian on a point in Bad Little Falls, Maine, inherited from a great-aunt who once told him he was too fat and put an apology in her will.
The house has no working stove, plumbing from 1894, and a radiator that sounds like a foghorn. It also has a police chief who drives past it twice a day and hasn't stopped.
Shane Haugen is a polar bear, an alpha, and the quietest man in town. He's maintained that house for six years. He knows where every valve is and which floorboards creak. He's been driving past it for three weeks and he hasn't stopped because stopping would require words and Shane doesn't have words for what he wants because Shane has never wanted anything.
Then a pipe bursts at 2 AM, Hugh calls the station, and Shane drives to Shore Road in three minutes instead of four.
The bond hits in the flooded basement. The heat follows. The town knows before breakfast.
Now there's a walrus building a twelve-seat auberge, a polar bear learning pastry, a Molteni range that arrives on a flatbed, a lobsterman with a napkin schedule, a Shiba Inu from Boston who has opinions about the thermostat, and a house that stays at forty-eight degrees because two arctic mammals don't need heat and the only person who complains is the peacock who shifted in the living room hoping to trigger a bond with someone, anyone, even though the only people home were two bonded mates and a very cold chef de cuisine.
The temperature is reasonable. It's always been reasonable.
Reasonable Temperature is a cozy, high-heat M/M shifter romance with fated mates, omegaverse, small-town meddling, a competence fantasy in the kitchen, mpreg, and a guaranteed HEA. Fourth in the Bad Little Falls series. Includes a bonus short story and a prologue reprinting "The House on the Water."
Hugh Barnett is a walrus, an omega, and the executive chef at one of Boston's best restaurants. He's also the new owner of a crumbling Victorian on a point in Bad Little Falls, Maine, inherited from a great-aunt who once told him he was too fat and put an apology in her will.
The house has no working stove, plumbing from 1894, and a radiator that sounds like a foghorn. It also has a police chief who drives past it twice a day and hasn't stopped.
Shane Haugen is a polar bear, an alpha, and the quietest man in town. He's maintained that house for six years. He knows where every valve is and which floorboards creak. He's been driving past it for three weeks and he hasn't stopped because stopping would require words and Shane doesn't have words for what he wants because Shane has never wanted anything.
Then a pipe bursts at 2 AM, Hugh calls the station, and Shane drives to Shore Road in three minutes instead of four.
The bond hits in the flooded basement. The heat follows. The town knows before breakfast.
Now there's a walrus building a twelve-seat auberge, a polar bear learning pastry, a Molteni range that arrives on a flatbed, a lobsterman with a napkin schedule, a Shiba Inu from Boston who has opinions about the thermostat, and a house that stays at forty-eight degrees because two arctic mammals don't need heat and the only person who complains is the peacock who shifted in the living room hoping to trigger a bond with someone, anyone, even though the only people home were two bonded mates and a very cold chef de cuisine.
The temperature is reasonable. It's always been reasonable.
Reasonable Temperature is a cozy, high-heat M/M shifter romance with fated mates, omegaverse, small-town meddling, a competence fantasy in the kitchen, mpreg, and a guaranteed HEA. Fourth in the Bad Little Falls series. Includes a bonus short story and a prologue reprinting "The House on the Water."
161 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 20, 2026
About the author
E.C. Dane
20 books5 followersE.C. Dane writes M/M shifter romance from somewhere in New England, where the winters are unreasonable and the fictional characters have stronger opinions than most elected officials.
Before publishing, there were twenty-five-plus years of writing in online fiction communities, none of it for money, all of it for love and comments. That apprenticeship left habits that carried over intact: content notes that mean something, heat levels stated plainly, and endings you can trust. If you came up in those communities too, you already know the deal. Read the tags. The tags are honest.
Caldwell & Pike is M/M wolf-shifter romantic suspense. Two ex-Delta operators, twenty years side by side, newly married, trying to be civilians. It isn't going well. Established couple, high heat, live ammunition.
Common Ground is longer-form M/M omegaverse romance with more danger, bigger stakes, and plots that build across volumes. Fated mates who earn it the hard way. More teeth. Medium heat, and not fade to black.
Bad Little Falls is a different world entirely. Cozy, funny, explicit omegaverse with fated mates, small-town meddling, and a guaranteed happy ending in every book. There are drafts through Book 20 in various states of "needs editing." They're coming. The town keeps growing.
Safe Harbor runs alongside Common Ground: mpreg, warmth-forward, and labeled clearly on its own front door so nobody wanders in by accident.
Publishing is new. The learning curve is real. If you got here early, thank you for your patience while the author figures out which buttons do what and why there are so many of them.
Home is shared with five chaos foxes who run the household and allow a human to remain as a courtesy. Signing up for my newsletter gets you new release alerts plus two free welcome gifts: True North, the Caldwell & Pike prequel novella, and an exclusive short story set in Bad Little Falls. subscribepage.io/ecdane
The author welcomes derivative and transformative works based on any of these worlds. If you're inspired to write, draw, or create, please do. The author asks only that fanworks be posted to AO3 and locked to registered users, to keep content scrapers from reposting them to paid platforms without anyone's consent. The author does not read fanworks for legal and creative reasons, but is genuinely glad they exist.
Before publishing, there were twenty-five-plus years of writing in online fiction communities, none of it for money, all of it for love and comments. That apprenticeship left habits that carried over intact: content notes that mean something, heat levels stated plainly, and endings you can trust. If you came up in those communities too, you already know the deal. Read the tags. The tags are honest.
Caldwell & Pike is M/M wolf-shifter romantic suspense. Two ex-Delta operators, twenty years side by side, newly married, trying to be civilians. It isn't going well. Established couple, high heat, live ammunition.
Common Ground is longer-form M/M omegaverse romance with more danger, bigger stakes, and plots that build across volumes. Fated mates who earn it the hard way. More teeth. Medium heat, and not fade to black.
Bad Little Falls is a different world entirely. Cozy, funny, explicit omegaverse with fated mates, small-town meddling, and a guaranteed happy ending in every book. There are drafts through Book 20 in various states of "needs editing." They're coming. The town keeps growing.
Safe Harbor runs alongside Common Ground: mpreg, warmth-forward, and labeled clearly on its own front door so nobody wanders in by accident.
Publishing is new. The learning curve is real. If you got here early, thank you for your patience while the author figures out which buttons do what and why there are so many of them.
Home is shared with five chaos foxes who run the household and allow a human to remain as a courtesy. Signing up for my newsletter gets you new release alerts plus two free welcome gifts: True North, the Caldwell & Pike prequel novella, and an exclusive short story set in Bad Little Falls. subscribepage.io/ecdane
The author welcomes derivative and transformative works based on any of these worlds. If you're inspired to write, draw, or create, please do. The author asks only that fanworks be posted to AO3 and locked to registered users, to keep content scrapers from reposting them to paid platforms without anyone's consent. The author does not read fanworks for legal and creative reasons, but is genuinely glad they exist.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 27, 2026
Great series
I love this sweet series! Every book will put a smile on your face in the end. I can't wait till the next book comes out.
I love this sweet series! Every book will put a smile on your face in the end. I can't wait till the next book comes out.
April 1, 2026
Give This Author a Try
"Warm" love story about two shifters finding their person. All the books in this series are great. Check them out.
"Warm" love story about two shifters finding their person. All the books in this series are great. Check them out.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews