The Waves Are No Different

Release Date: June 1, 2027

Publisher: Tea Rose Publishing

“I see now that pushing people away… can become a habit.”

Fay Davies has always known what she’s working for, and what she’s running from: when her partnership at her top law firm is assured, she’ll never have to visit the Jersey shore town she grew up in again. She’s kept her visits to Purslane Island, and her ageing father, Gene, to a minimum. Fay’s childhood was marred by her father’s indifference and the gossip surrounding her mother’s tragic death when Fay was five. Ekaterina was a mail order bride from Romania, whose arrival tore a hole in Gene’s relationship with his family, leaving him almost alone to bring up Fay. His only help, and Fay’s only champion in her childhood, was his mother, Fay’s Gam, who has just died at the age of a hundred and one. As far as Fay’s concerned, Gene is not enough of a reason for her ever to visit Purslane Island again.

Then, just as the partnership is at her fingertips, she is told that Gene has had a stroke. Her sense of duty forces her to go south to deal with his paperwork and ensure he is getting the proper care. She’ll be there a week, tops.

But Purslane Island is not willing to let her go. She had forgotten how much she loves the ocean, and swims every day. She meets members of the community who, inexplicably, consider Gene a friend. They welcome her with open arms and offer help in a way no one has her entire adult life. And she sees the devastation from the last hurricane, over two years before, that still scars the town, and begins to wonder if her real estate law experience could be more useful here than feeding greedy corporate cats up north.

She is helped on her journey by Sawyer Evans, the good-looking surfer she meets on the beach, whom she is later forced to hire to renovate Gene’s house, which was also damaged in the hurricane. Their relationship is prickly, because Fay trusts no one, but Sawyer’s love for his town and the people help her to see its benefits.

Then long-buried secrets are brought to light about the family she was kept from and the mother she can barely remember. Fay learns that the love and acceptance she has craved all her life is within her reach—if she can just trust long enough to stretch out her hand.