TIDES OF US

She's running from her past. He's hiding from his future. Together, they'll discover that home isn't a place-it's a person.

Pastry chef Shanae Bennett's life fell apart when she discovered her fiancé's betrayal. Leaving behind her career, life, and toxic relationship, she moves into her late grandmother's beach house, determined to start over. The last thing she needs is a man-especially one as tempting as her devastatingly handsome photographer neighbor.

Liam Cole knows heartbreak. After his ex-wife's affair destroyed him, he retreated to his beach house to lick his wounds and swore off relationships. Then Shanae moves in next door with her guarded smile and sunrise eyes, and suddenly his carefully constructed walls start crumbling.

What begins as morning coffee and neighborly conversation ignites into something neither can resist. But falling in love is terrifying when you've both been broken before.

Just as Shanae starts to believe she can trust again, Liam's career demands he leave for a three-month project across the country. The distance exposes every insecurity, every doubt, every fear. When a single photograph threatens to destroy everything they've built, Shanae must choose: let her past dictate her future, or fight for the love that's healing her.

A debut novel from Cornelia Knight. TIDES OF US is a sweeping beach romance about second chances, the courage to trust again, and discovering that the best kind of love is the one that makes you brave.

Perfect for fans of: It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover, Beach Read by Emily Henry, Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

Tropes: Multicultural & Interracial, Neighbors to Lovers, Insta-Love, Mild Slow Burn, He Falls

First, Small Town Beach Setting, Second Chance at Love, Forced Proximity, Emotional Baggage, Age Gap Dynamic, HEA

Content: 4/5 peppers

Steamy open-door romance with detailed sexual content written tastefully. Emotional depth, panic attack representation (handled sensitively), references to past emotional abuse.

Cornelia writes emotionally rich contemporary romance about strong women and chivalrous men who are not afraid to grovel. Her stories are full of healing hearts, complicated pasts, second chances, emotional baggage, and love that consumes and finds home in unexpected places-all inspired by her own views on life, love, and relationships.Tides Of Us is her debut novel, a beautiful, emotional romance where the setting feels like its own character-born from her obsession with love stories, spice, music, and falling hard.When she's not writing, Cornelia is an entrepreneur, a mum, and a dreamer-spending time with her kids or plotting her next story and business idea.REVIEW:"The novel becomes most powerful when love stops being the question and Liam and Shanae must decide what loving each other will require in ordinary life."- DBN Magazine"Cornelia gives readers not merely a happily-ever-after, but the harder and more satisfying journey toward becoming people capable of accepting one."- DBN Magazine"The sweetest promise in Tides of Us is not forever itself, but the idea that the right love leaves room for both people to remain fully themselves."- DBN Magazine"At its heart, Tides of Us is a romance about two people learning that starting over does not require leaving every part of themselves behind."- DBN Magazine