Catherine Drake

Catherine Drake is a novelist whose debut combines a fresh start, family responsibility, and a small-town Vermont setting. The Treehouse on Dog River Road was published by She Writes Press in 2022. Its central character, Hannah Spencer, leaves Boston after losing her job and takes temporary charge of her sister’s children while their parents travel. Building the elaborate treehouse the children have imagined gives Hannah a practical project and draws Nathan Wild, a local designer, into the household’s orbit. Simon & Schuster describes the book as contemporary romance, but its family relationships and questions about work give the story equal weight. Hannah must reconsider the career she had treated as secure while learning how much patience an improvised home life requires. The Vermont landscape and the construction project provide a tangible frame for that change. The Treehouse on Dog River Road introduced Drake with an optimistic story about creativity, affection, and choosing a future that differs from the plan one expected to follow.