Publisher's Synopsis
When life gives you lemons, hunkering down while you devise a Plan B is good medicine. Unless you arrive at your safe haven and find that someone else beat you to the house keys?
When a series of unfortunate events wrecks Kelly Klein's orderly existence, she boards a plane and escapes to the one place she knows she can regroup: Turtle Island. Her vacant childhood home-Sea Rock-will be the perfect refuge while she devises a plan to rebuild her crumbling life.
The problem is Kelly's mother, Sharon-who has just left on a spontaneous three-month trip to Italy-rented the house to a contractor who has promised to renovate it for free in exchange for room and board. Kelly surprises the new tenant, Jake, who has made himself at home and has no intention of leaving.
Kelly plans to run Jake out of the house, but he's not budging. They are at constant loggerheads, each trying desperately to come up with an inventive way to send the other one away...preferably screaming and never looking back! The result is a hilarious tenancy war with loud music, underhanded pranks, and a rescue mutt who will steal your heart.
Upon seeing Jake's frustration over simple home repairs, Kelly soon discovers that not only is Jake not a contractor, but instead, a podcaster who specializes in legends and folklore. He's on a top-secret mission to unearth a hidden treasure that his great grandfather buried behind one of the walls in Sea Rock. Kelly plans to use the revelation to get rid of Jake, but when her ex-boyfriend, Tyler, shows up unexpectedly, Jake uses her shaky situation as leverage. He devises a quick-thinking plan that involves fake dating to make Tyler jealous in exchange for Kelly's help in finding the buried treasure. At her wit's end, Kelly agrees, and the shenanigans stack up quickly.
Kelly tells Tyler that she and Jake were old high school sweethearts, but when Jake's judgmental father, Tony, comes to town, the only way to keep up the ruse is to create yet another convoluted dating history that he'll believe.
As they pretend to love one another, Kelly and Jake toggle between throwing barbs at one another and collaborating to solve the mystery at Sea Rock. Before it's said and done, Kelly will learn that nothing is normal on the street she grew up on, and no one is who they seem.
The pair will need to solve the puzzle quickly, before Jake's lease is up and Kelly's biggest secret refuses to keep any longer.
