First published 2017
Virginia Fortescue drives ambulances through the battlefields of World War I France when she meets Captain Simon Fitzwilliam, a British army surgeon. Their wartime romance leads to marriage, but Simon's hidden past destroys their relationship and sends Virginia back to New York. Five years later, Virginia receives word that Simon died in a fire at their Florida home. She travels to Cocoa Beach as a widow to settle his estate, bringing along the young daughter Simon never knew. Virginia refuses to believe her estranged husband actually perished in the flames. Simon's brother and sister welcome her into their world of citrus groves and bootlegging operations. As Virginia digs deeper into Simon's business dealings and mysterious death, she discovers that the same dangers that may have killed him now target her and her child. The tropical paradise hides predators beneath its beautiful surface.
Genres: romance, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, adventure, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Cocoa Beach, New York, France
Period: World War I, 1920s
608 pages · Paperback · William Morrow Large Print
Content warnings: death, violence