First published 2025
Salem ditches her wedding and fiancé to board a ferry bound for Blackridge Island in the Pacific Northwest. She arrives at the historic Balfour Manor, where she meets Rayne, a woman harboring deadly family secrets. The old house crawls with crimson shadows while mysterious voices echo through its halls at night. A brutal murder exposes the island's true malevolent nature. Something predatory roams the surrounding forest, hunting and killing without mercy. Salem and Rayne become its targets, forced to fight for their lives each night. Rayne carries the trauma of her mother's murder and father's violent death, experiences that hardened her against the world's cruelty. Salem breaks through Rayne's emotional barriers, showing her she deserves love. To protect Salem, Rayne must unearth her family's most vile buried secrets. Both women discover they finally have something worth fighting for in each other.
Genres: romance, mystery, horror, gothic
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Balfour Manor, Blackridge Island, Pacific Northwest
Period: contemporary
416 pages · Hardcover · Kensington
Content warnings: death, murder, violence