Part One
When fifteen-year-old Martha Aaron’s family trades Florida comfort for island uncertainty, she’s thrust into a world where home is a hotel and innocence meets reality. This is a vivid coming-of-age tale of longing, loss, and awakening set against the lush, deceptive calm of the Bahamas. A haunting journey of self-discovery and the price of growing up.

Mary Jane Fine is a longtime feature writer for newspapers including the Philadelphia Inquirer, the New York Daily News, the Palm Beach Post and the Miami News. She lived in the Bahamas for several years. She now lives in Connecticut with her husband Tim Norris and their two cats.

Fifteen-year-old Martha Aaron is uprooted from Florida to an island hotel where isolation, mystery, and unexpected connections teach her the uneasy art of becoming herself.