Queen of the Bay

King's Ransom Series, Book 1

By: J. Clare

Narrated by: Leigh Foster

The secret history of the founding of America revealed in the lives of those who carry the perilous responsibility to preserve a noble tradition. Too strange to believe? Too real to forget!

“Get out, I told you. You’ll never be who she was!”

When Amanda West’s mother died, her father’s grief turned to rage and alcoholism. So, Amanda did what he told her. She abandoned her father and the Chesapeake Bay for Washington, throwing herself into her work as a CIA logistics officer. It’s been a decade, and she hasn’t visited home since. That is, until a vintage letter postmarked “Jamestown” with rare $2,000 stamps shows up in her mailbox.

Someone seems to think that Amanda has a family legacy to fulfill—and that her father’s new fiancée may jeopardize that legacy. Still determined to avoid her father, Amanda returns to her hometown undercover to retrieve her mother’s wedding ring by any means necessary.

Still wrestling with PTSD from his wife’s sudden death, Jeb Carter strives to keep life safe and familiar for his daughters, Sierra and Nora. When a tourist barges into his shop and demands an unscheduled paddleboard tour with Sierra, he does everything he can to say no. However, the strange woman with dark sunglasses and a funny accent seems to charm his daughters—and to Jeb’s chagrin, she stirs something inside him as well. It’s a good thing she’s a whack from New York. After today, he’ll never have to see her again.

As old griefs and older traditions boil beneath the surface, will Jeb and Amanda find a second chance at family, or will some scars prove too deep to heal?

©2023 J. Clare (P)2024 J. Clare