Stacy R. Ward

At seventeen, Meg Pullman has cut ties with her past.

Available February 2026

Emancipated and determined, she signs on as an intern in the engine room of a research vessel, certain the wide blue horizon will lead her toward the scholarship and freedom she craves.

But the Pacific Ocean isn’t the escape she imagined. Its beauty is haunted by the cries of a polluted world. Ghost nets and floating trash islands echo her own buried pain.

When a humpback whale and an unexpected romantic entanglement force Meg to confront both the ocean’s wounds and her own, she discovers that true survival isn’t about outswimming the current. It’s about surrender. And sometimes, to survive, you don’t fight the waves.

You let go.

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About the Author

Stacy Rogers Ward is a practicing small animal veterinarian with fifteen years of experience as a volunteer marine mammal stranding veterinarian. She cared for whales on local beaches, many of whom had ingested plastic trash. Currently, she serves on the board of the Coastal Studies Institute in Manteo, NC. She has been writing for over a decade.

A North Carolina native, she still has every article about whales and dolphins she cut out of newspapers and magazines from her childhood. Hoarder. Nerd!

She has a long-term fascination with the ocean and ocean life. A big-time Sagittarian, she is a chronic overthinker, and a professional worrier about things she can’t fix.

Stacy lives in Wilmington, NC, with her extremely patient husband and young adult children who pretty much do as they please and generally make a big mess. She has too many dogs, a couple of very obnoxious cats, and a giant but thankfully quiet tortoise named Lewis.

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