The Northside Star's Lullaby

THE NORTH STAR’S LULLABY
by Laura Carpenter
Belfast in December hums with small mercies—market lights, fiddle songs, and the breath of strangers passing close in the cold. For Aoife Devlin, returning home after years away feels like stepping into a melody she once knew but can no longer sing. The North Star Market is alive again, strung with paper lanterns and old ghosts. Somewhere among the stalls, the man she once loved is playing guitar for tips and pretending he doesn’t see her.
Ronan Kelly was always the song that steadied her. Ten years ago they made promises beneath those same lights—promises broken when the world tilted and neither could find their way back. Now he plays for coins, and she’s carrying a secret that won’t stay buried through another winter. When a chance encounter pulls them together at closing hour, one melody rekindles what grief and distance tried to silence.
Over snow-slick cobbles and the hum of the cranes above the harbour, The North Star’s Lullaby traces two souls learning to listen again—to each other, to the rhythm of forgiveness, to the small sounds of home. It’s a Christmas-market romance about light after loss, courage in the everyday, and the quiet revolution of tenderness.
Set against Belfast’s winter skyline, Laura Carpenter’s new novel blends the intimacy of contemporary romance with the lyrical weight of Irish literary storytelling. Readers of Josie Silver, Marian Keyes, and Emily Henry will fall for its emotional clarity, sense of place, and warmth that lingers long after the last page. Every scene feels like candlelight on glass—heart-catching, cinematic, and deeply human.

– Second chances and unspoken promises
– Music as memory and healing
– Found family among market stalls and musicians
– Consent-forward intimacy and emotional aftercare
– Hope, grief, and the act of staying
Perfect
Readers who crave atmosphere and ache—a love story rooted in place, carried by melody, and steeped in the hush before Christmas morning.