Indigo Waters

About Indigo Waters

Everyone fears something. For Cosette Hadley, that fear is also the thing she once loved most: water.

As a child, Cosette found peace in the water. But after a tragic boating accident, she walked away from it completely. Five years later, she has done everything she can to avoid facing the fear that has taken over her life.

Her older sister, Madeleine, could not be more different. Known as the wild child of the family, Madeleine prides herself on being fearless, impulsive, and always ready for a good time. Their opposite personalities—and the grief they have carried in very different ways—have left the sisters distant from one another.

When unexpected news sends them to spend the summer aboard a dive boat in the Bahamas with a longtime family friend, neither sister is prepared for what waits there.

For the first time in years, Cosette is forced to confront the water she has been avoiding, while Madeleine begins facing struggles of her own. With the help of Fin Hughes, the captain’s handsome and arrogant son, the sisters find themselves navigating more than just the ocean.

Set against the beautiful waters of the Bahamas, Indigo Waters is a story about grief, fear, sisterhood, healing, romance, and learning that sometimes the people we push away are the ones we need most.

Behind Indigo Waters

The idea for Indigo Waters came to me after I went on a wild dolphin expedition in the Bahamas. The experience was exhilarating, and the people, scenery, and time spent on the water stayed with me long after the trip ended.

That experience became the inspiration for the setting of Indigo Waters, but the heart of the novel grew into something much more personal: two sisters dealing with the same loss in completely different ways.

Cosette and Madeleine are opposites, and I loved exploring how grief can pull people apart even when they are hurting for the same reason. The ocean became more than a setting—it became part of Cosette’s emotional journey and a symbol of something she once loved, lost, and eventually had to face again.

I also relocated to Florida while writing Indigo Waters, which made the tropical atmosphere and connection to the water feel especially fitting for this chapter of my writing life.