Credence

Credence is a novel by the American writer Penelope Douglas, published in 2020 and set in the mountains.

Tiernan has been alone for most of her life and has learned not to expect anything from anybody, which is no preparation for a household of three men who live by hunting and by their own rules. Jake takes her in because he feels obliged to, and his sons Noah and Kaleb have their own reactions to a girl from the city arriving two months before her eighteenth birthday. The novel follows a winter in which she learns the work of the place and the men learn to accommodate her, and it deals directly with the difficulty of a young woman living among adults who are not related to her. Douglas writes it as a slow-burn romance with a great deal of tension, and the isolation of the setting is what makes the relationships intense.

It is one of the author's novels of new adult romance, and it was first published independently before reaching a wide readership.