The Summer I Learned To Swim

This book is anticipated to release April/May 2026. 

If for any reason, timelines shift, you will be REFUNDED at least 2 weeks before BRBF

Synopsis:

She’s a survivor.

And she learned early how to keep her head above water.

The summer the bad things happened was the same summer her grandmother taught her how to swim. Salt on her skin. Fear in her chest. Love doing its best to outrun harm. She learned the mechanics then…how to float, how to move, how not to drown. But survival isn’t the same as living. Years later, when the job is gone, the city turns its back, and a house she never wanted is forced into her hands, she’s dragged back to the shoreline of everything she buried. That house still breathes with memories she’d never fully out swam. She goes anyway because nowhere else will have her and because sometimes healing starts when there’s nowhere left to run. 

She doesn’t come back looking for peace. She comes back bracing for impact.

He’s a man made of water.

And still doesn’t know how to rest.

The world once watched him glide through pools like nothing could touch him. Medals. Applause. A body trained to endure. Now the noise is gone. The crowds are gone. And grief has delivered him a teenage daughter he never knew existed—sharp-tongued, wounded, watching him with the same guarded eyes he sees in the mirror. He’s learning how to be present without a finish line. How to be a father without instructions. How to stay when everything in him was trained to keep moving. 

That summer long ago taught her how to survive the water.

This summer will teach her how to trust it.

Between a broken house, a grieving man, and a girl learning what family really means, she’ll learn that swimming isn’t about staying afloat. It’s about choosing not to drown in the past. It’s about discovering that sometimes, the deepest water is where you finally learn to breathe.

The Summer I Learned to Swim

A story about inherited pain, quiet forgiveness, chosen family, and love that doesn’t save you—but stays while you save yourself.