At 35, Ava still feels stymied by her family. When she meets child psychologist Matthew Frazier at a conference, she thinks her days of loneliness are behind her. After a whirlwind romance and elopement, Ava soon discovers that it may be impossible to escape the past.

At 35, Ava still feels stymied by her family. When she meets child psychologist Matthew Frazier at a conference, she thinks her days of loneliness are behind her. After a whirlwind romance and elopement, Ava soon discovers that it may be impossible to escape the past.

When newlywed Ava Whalen follows her husband to his family home on St. Simons Island, she discovers a tangled web of dangerous secrets in this enthralling story from the New York Times * bestselling author of the Tradd Street novels.*

For as long as she can remember, Ava Whalen has struggled with a sense of not belonging, and now, at thirty-four, she still feels stymied by her family. Then she meets child psychologist Matthew Frazier, and thinks her days of loneliness are behind her. After a whirlwind romance, they impulsively elope, and Ava moves to Matthew's ancestral home on St. Simons Island off the coast of Georgia. But after the initial excitement, Ava is surprised to discover that true happiness continues to elude her. There is much she doesn't know about Matthew, including the mysterious circumstances surrounding his first wife's death. And her new home seems to hold as many mysteries and secrets as her new husband. Feeling adrift, Ava throws herself into uncovering Matthew's family history and that of the island, not realizing that she has a connection of her own to this place--or that her obsession with the past could very well destroy her future.