I was warned about Tristan Cole.“Stay away from him,” people said.“He’s cruel.”“He’s cold.”“He’s damaged.”It’s easy to judge a man because of his past. To look at Tristan and see a monster.But I couldn’t do that. I had to accept the wreckage that lived inside of him because it also lived inside of me.We were both empty.We were both looking for something else. Something more.We both wanted to put together the shattered pieces of our yesterdays.Then perhaps we could finally remember how to breathe.

What does it take to rise from life’s depths, swim against the current, and breathe?

Weighted down by the loss of her parents, Blythe McGuire struggles to keep her head above water as she trudges through her last year at Matthews College. Then a chance meeting sends Blythe crashing into something she doesn’t expect—an undeniable attraction to a dark-haired senior named Chris Shepherd, whose past may be even more complicated than her own.

As their relationship deepens, Chris pulls Blythe out of the stupor she’s been in since the night a fire took half her family. She begins to heal, and even, haltingly, to love this guy who helps her find new paths to pleasure and self-discovery. But as Blythe moves into calmer waters, she realizes Chris is the one still strangled by his family’s traumatic history. As dark currents threaten to pull him under, Blythe may be the only person who can keep him from drowning.