Jessie's Point

When Casey Carpenter receives a call to go back to her small hometown to be with her dying father, the last thing she’s expecting is that he’s hired a contractor to work on the family marina—she handles her father’s expenses, and Nathanial Kipling doesn’t show up in them. The situation is fishy. It’s only once she’s back home, only once she meets Nate and discovers he’s struck a deal with her father to renovate and sell Jessie’s Point, that she realizes the decision has already been made without her. All that’s left to do is help them—at least then she’ll feel like she had a say in the matter.

To Nate, her helping out is about the worst outcome he could have expected. Casey—with her big, sad eyes, whiplash smile, and piss-poor attitude—is too much of a distraction. Somehow, he knows that becoming entangled with her isn’t going to work out for him, for either of them. Still, how could he say no? If Jessie’s Point is going to sell, shouldn’t she have a chance to say goodbye?

But as Casey’s father slowly fades, and as she and Nate work together to repair Jessie’s Point, it becomes painstakingly clear that the marina isn’t the only thing she doesn’t know how to say goodbye to. Will Casey be able to let go of the past and forgive her father? Will she be able to stay in Dungeness Hollow through to the end?

And what happens after? Can new beginnings survive the worst possible endings?

Book illustrator: Dorina Nemeskeri