After years of pursuing a denim design career, Maris Carrington never imagined trading her Chicago studio for a New England shingled cottage. But when her life sketch takes an unexpected shape - smudged with a pastel seaside setting, rendered with pencil strokes of her father's estate shading family secrets, and inked with silhouettes of old friends reconnecting on a weathered boardwalk - nothing is what is seems as illusion blends with reality.

Salt air drifts in through the windows. Swaying marsh grasses whisper. Seagulls cry overhead. Off the docks, rowboats are anchored in a calm inlet. Beyond, shingled cottages look silver beneath rays of sunlight. Seafood shacks are strung with fishing net and lobster buoys. You're driving on SHORE ROAD.

"The cottage is nestled along winding Sea View Road, set back from the sandy street. Surrounded by swaying dune grass, it's a shabby little beach bungalow with an open back porch overlooking sparkling Long Island Sound. A sign propped in the front window says: For Rent. Well, the cottage was For Rent...until one particular lobsterman booked a summer stay there. As Shane Bradford settles into the New England beach town of Stony Point, he unloads more...

"Celia Gray finds herself house-sitting a silver-shingled cottage at Stony Point. She arrives with her guitar, a few staging jobs ... and a bit of summertime sadness. That is, until an unforgettable group of beach friends draws her in like a breath of salt air. Sal DeLuca heard the words in a dream: Take me to the sea. So after a decade of demanding work, he takes his first vacation in years. Trading in his suit and tie for blue jeans and boat shoes,...

It was going to be exquisite: a rambling, shingled New England cottage converted into a grand beach inn. Nestled among hydrangeas and swaying dune grasses, this seaside haven would welcome guests on the Connecticut shore. Except the little beach town of Stony Point is no longer feeling like a haven to its residents. Residents including a brooding Jason Barlow, the esteemed architect in charge of the inn's renovation--until a stubborn, grief-induced...

"You know them on a first-name basis. Jason. Maris. Elsa. Shane. Celia. Kyle. Lauren and the rest of the Stony Point beach crew. So catch up on the enchanted evening sand and join your favorite friends on the Connecticut shore. In this deftly woven novel, love, secrets and surprises are in store." -- Back cover.

In the dark of a summer night, everything can change. A moment can tip on edge. The salt air might stir. Or still. The waves might roll in. Or recede. A heart might fill. Or break. In two different cottages, the night is coming undone. As the sun sinks into the sea, as evening presses in, the summer calm is broken. Until an unexpected visitor arrives. -- back of cover.