About the Novel

Nikki, 39, arrives on picturesque Topsail Island with her sons and devastated father for the annual family reunion, hoping the sunshine and ocean will cure her unrelenting sadness. Nikki’s steady husband Pete stays home, ostensibly for work.

 

Unbeknownst to Pete, Nikki’s spent their entire savings on collectible dishes, figurines and books; donated their kids’ college funds to her mom’s art camp; and is on leave from her insurance job after she attacked a potential client in Walmart. She’s also keeping her mother’s ashes in her suitcase instead of the urn that was buried in the family cemetery.

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Enter Jessie: a virile, athletic builder who’s renovating a historic tower down the beach. Nikki feels his magnetic pull each time she bumps into him—while buying a snow cone, walking on the shore, or roller skating with her boys. Despite being attached himself, Jessie aggressively pursues Nikki, as if she too is naturally meant to be his. His boldness and his seeming defiance of gravity, age, and even death draw Nikki in and edge out her sadness. Nikki lies to everyone to be with him, sneaking into his tower by night, then by day, willing to do anything he wants.

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Now, caught between her obsessive desire and her love for her family, Nikki must decide what true healing looks like and what she’s willing to risk to feel whole again.