After a week of ghosts, near-drownings, surly elderly tourists, and stampeding ponies, Ella finds in Mitch the answer to a question she has never dared ask herself: Do I need anyone in my life?

But before they make that connection, the waters get muddied. Problems plague their search for the sunken ship.

Mitch, who grew up on the island on a diet of ghost stories, believes the wrecksite is haunted. At first, Ella refuses to believe him. She's a scientist -- she doesn't believe in the supernatural.

But when Ella encounters the ghost of a young girl who died centuries earlier, she has to put her science-based disbelief on hold. As Ella soon discovers, the ghost of the girl's killer still haunts the ship as well, and Ella starts to wonder if maybe there are such things as ghosts after all.

To make matters worse, the headless ghost of Blackbeard pays Ella and Mitch a series of visits. He wants to put to rest the other ghosts haunting "his island." He's also looking for his severed head, and he tells Ella and Mitch to keep an eye out for it, if they could.

During their time working together, Ella overcomes her bad first impression of him and falls for Mitch. And he does the same for her. Like the waters off Ocracoke Island, she finds he has hidden depths.

They just have to stay alive long enough to solve the mystery of the young ghost girl's killer before the ghosts of dead pirates take them down to the bottom of the ocean, forever.

HEART'S REVENGE is an 75,000-word paranormal romance novel by Michael Jasper (writing as Julia C. Porter). Read an excerpt online.

"While this world may seem darker and more dystopian by the day, avid, talented newcomers like Jasper help us keep the faith." — Faren Miller, Locus

"Mike Jasper brings the common touch to the most uncommon situations. Welcome to his world." — Nebula-winning author John Kessel

"Michael Jasper is a writer of great integrity, passion, and imagination. He creates imaginary characters who feel realer than some people I've actually met." — Tim Pratt, author of The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, Poison Sleep, and Spell Games