Maui Winds — Edie Claire

Third in the Pacific Horizons series of romantic women's fiction by USA-Today bestselling author Edie Claire!

Life dealt her heart a terrible blow as a newborn. With time, she learned to love again. But with him, time is running out.

Marine biologist Ri Sullivan had a rough start in life. A biracial baby abandoned in a Moscow train station, she spent eight months in a Russian orphanage before being adopted by a devoted couple from the coast of Maine. Now a sunny-natured, resilient adult, she has no conscious memory of feeling unloved or insecure. But with her ethnic heritage still a mystery to her, she can't help but feel that a part of herself is missing.

Arriving on the island of Maui for an internship at the Foundation for Ocean Mammals, Ri is bewildered when her fondest dreams all begin to come true at once �" even as her time on the island is plagued by random disasters. She is in sync with the ocean and the creatures that are her passion, and she forges a powerful connection with her lost ethnic heritage. But her newfound gains seem in constant peril, particularly her attachment to the elusive volcanologist with whom she is almost certain she could build a relationship that would last a lifetime.

If they had time. But the couple has only a week together, and Alaskan loner Wolf Markov seems to have other ideas. Ideas that come from a different sort of childhood, and a different way of looking at relationships, romantic love, and what is and isn't “worth it.” Ri's learned resiliency is put to the test as she decides whether to guard her wounded heart... or risk whatever is necessary for a chance at lasting love.