An architect on the brink of ruin. A reclusive artist with a crumbling legacy. A house with secrets buried in its walls. Architect Laura Vance’s career is collapsing. Haunted by a professional scandal and drowning in debt, she’s one invoice away from losing everything. Her salvation arrives in the form of a mysterious, half-million-dollar contract to restore Blackwood Estate, a decaying Gothic mansion on the wild Maine coast. But her client isn’t the wealthy benefactor she imagined. He’s Julian Wright, the estate’s brooding heir—a raw, brilliant sculptor as damaged as the house he’s inherited. The impossible deadline isn't about restoration; it's a desperate legal gambit to save Blackwood from a predatory developer. The massive fee? It doesn’t exist yet, dependent on the success of Julian’s own high-stakes art show. Thrown into a high-pressure alliance, Laura and Julian are forced to collaborate. As she fights to reinforce the mansion’s fragile bones and he wrestles with his creative demons, they uncover the hidden story of Helena Blackwood, a gifted painter who once dared to defy the constraints of her gilded cage. Helena’s secrets echo Laura’s own fears, challenging her rigid principles and carefully constructed walls. With time running out and their professional boundaries blurring into undeniable attraction, Laura must choose: retreat to the safety of her broken life, or risk her heart and her career on a ruin, an artist, and a chance at a love as powerful as the storms that batter the coast. This sweeping novel is a testament to the courage it takes to rebuild—both a historic treasure and a life worth living.