THE SUMMER OF CHASING MERMAIDS

Beautiful and gifted with a lovely voice, Elyse was on the verge of launching a successful singing career in Tobago with her twin sister, Natalie, until an accident ended her dreams and career forever.

Body healed, heart and soul still battered and torn, Elyse has fled to a tiny town on the Oregon coast, accepting an invitation to stay with Lemon, an old family friend, and her daughter, Kirby. Raw pain prevents Elyse from accepting Kirby’s overtures of friendship or socializing; then hot, charismatic Christian Kane arrives home from Stanford and offers Elyse a job: help him restore and race his battered sailboat in the annual regatta. The stakes rise when Christian’s dad and the mayor manipulate their sons, close friends, into competing against each other. If Christian wins, his father won’t sell his property—the Kane house and the adjacent house Lemon rents from him—to a developer as a looming voter initiative on development threatens to turn Atargatis Cove into another cookie-cutter resort town. Falling in love with Christian and their steamy romance awaken Elyse’s desire to find a way forward for herself, yet with each step, she’s flooded anew with regret for all she’s lost. While the plot follows category romance norms and occasionally dips into melodrama, Elyse’s journey and struggles to assimilate her disability—portrayed with compassion and insight—are compelling and original.

A beach read with depth that will keep readers engaged.