**2017 ATAI Book Awards Finalist**The Water Novels - Book 1For seventeen-year-old Nell, life is about to take a chilling turn. Raised by a workaholic uncle and used to being over looked in a crowd, Nell has found life to be rather dull and uneventful...Until the day of a school field trip out to White Shell Lagoon. Going against her nature, Nell bends a rule - and makes a shocking discovery. Now she has a secret that no one will believe, one that whispers danger even as it seems to call to her very soul. What really lurks beneath the glassy waves...and how much will finding out cost her? All she knows is that she's caught the attention of a strange boy with special abilities and violet eyes, a boy she is certain cannot be human. Trapped by rules and tradition in a deteriorating kingdom, Sebastian feels he has no other choice except to act. Taking matters, and fate, into his own hands, the daring young man enters the realm of humans to retrieve what was once taken. The land beyond the waves is no friend to his kind, yet to save his home, he will do what few before him have ever dared. He is prepared for almost anything...except meeting a girl who somehow poses a threat to his identity, his hidden world and to everything he has ever known. As the two fight for their own agendas it becomes clear that they may just have more in common than either realizes...A young adult fantasy romanceWhat Readers are Saying"Had me gripped from the start...Deborah's characters are well-rounded and believable." "Nell and Sebastian...I like that they each bring out one another's fiery side." "Looking forward to part two." "An enjoyable teen adventure that kept me up a little too late...competently written with a well-paced plot and an intriguing background mythos." - Goodreads Community Reviews