Wild Dark Shore - A Novel of Storm and Sanctuary

A family on a dying island. A stranger with deadly secrets. A storm that will force them to choose between survival and salvation.

Dr. Iris Vance thought isolation would keep her children safe. For four years, she's raised them alone on Sentinel Island-a windswept research station housing humanity's last genetic archive as rising seas swallow the world. They are the final guardians of extinct species, forgotten ecosystems, the ghosts of a planet that's slipping away.

Then the worst storm in recorded history hurls a woman onto their shore.

Mara Chen should be dead. Instead, she's alive, mysterious, and asking too many questions about the vault Iris has spent years protecting. As Mara recovers, she integrates into their fractured family-helping with research, playing with the children, filling silences that have haunted them since Iris's partner died in a lab accident she can't stop blaming herself for.

But Mara isn't who she claims to be. She came to Sentinel with a mission: steal the genetic samples that could save her dying sister, no matter the cost. And as she grows closer to Iris's brilliant, neurodivergent daughter Noa, her resentful teenage son Ezra, and her heartbreakingly earnest nine-year-old Finn, the line between thief and family blurs.

Iris is hiding secrets of her own-a freshly dug grave, sabotaged equipment, a past that drove her into exile. When Noa discovers evidence of foul play and Ezra's online rebellion threatens to expose the Archive to corporate raiders, the family's careful walls begin to crumble.

As another catastrophic storm barrels toward the island, they face an impossible choice: trust each other with the truths that could destroy them, or let their secrets tear apart the only sanctuary they have left.

In a world running out of tomorrows, five people must decide what's worth saving-and whether love is stronger than survival.

Perfect for readers of Station Eleven, Where the Crawdads Sing, and The Great Alone. A haunting exploration of climate grief, impossible choices, and the fierce love that binds broken families together when everything else falls apart.