Flora Carmichael has always believed in fairytales—the kind with happy endings and love that sweeps you off your feet. But after a tragic New Year’s Eve car crash, Flora finds herself inside a nightmare.
She wakes in Charity, a crumbling gothic manor perched high above the cliffs of Bly Cove. There, she meets Giselle Buchanan, a beautiful and unsettling woman who claims they are in the afterlife. Flora must earn her passage across the threshold to be reunited with the people she loves in the Other Realm.
Flora soon discovers the truth. Nothing is as it seems and Giselle is a stranded siren, a creature banished from the deep who relies on feeding from humans to keep her youth, beauty and power alive. And Flora is another in a long line of victims.
By day, Flora is protected by Claude, a gentle giant of stone. A quiet and mysterious figure, Claude has a dark past of his own, one that ties him to the manor’s secrets. What starts as a simple bond of companionship between him and Flora grows into something deeper. If she escapes, how can she leave Claude behind?
Giselle offers Flora a truce. Accept her fate and she'll give Claude human form for three nights each month. Try to escape, and he will dissolve into dust. Together, Flora and Claude must find a way to escape Charity before Flora succumbs to Giselle and becomes nothing but stone.
Meanwhile, in the world of the living, Jules Carmichael cannot accept her younger sister’s death. Consumed by guilt for not driving Flora that night, Jules knows—feels—that her sister is still alive. When Sam Brady, a tall, bookish stranger, approaches her with an impossible claim—that the same thing happened to his sister—Jules has no choice but to listen.
Why do so many accidents happen on Buchanan Pass? Why does no one remember the storms that batter the coast of Bly and wash all the evidence away?
This romantic gothic fantasy with chills and unsettling vibes will be perfect for fans of Guillermo del Toro, Ava Reid, Kristen Cicarelli, and Rebecca Ross.
Victoria Wren is the author of the Wild Spirit series, bringing you a gothic coastal romantasy, full of twists and turns to keep you reading till the wee hours.
