A darkness runs through Ella's family... Her mother called it the echo. Seven years ago, Ella Jacobs' mother went to prison for kidnapping and attempted murder. Since then, Ella's lived in her shadow, haunted by memories of her mother tying men up and hurting them. Now tucked away in tiny Portage Bay, Maine, Ella works hard at her father's bakery, determined to never date and never risk hurting men the same way her mother did. But when Dean Archer sails into town, his ocean-blue eyes and easy way make him impossible to resist. It's more than just blazing chemistry that threatens to rip her carefully crafted life apart: his father is one of her mother's victims. Dean Archer isn't happy to leave his no-rules sailing life and take over his family's sailboat charter, but after eleven bad reviews due to his father's erratic behavior, he doesn't have a choice. The single benefit of Portage is an alluring woman who keeps crossing his path. Ella holds him at a distance for reasons he can't figure out, but he's determined to get her to open up. Will the truth set them free or tear them apart? And if Ella can't restrain the echo, her mother's darkness could claim her life--and worse, Dean's...