Ocean's Gift - Turbulence and Triumph Series, Series by Demelza Carlton

Cast adrift on the Indian Ocean, eighteen-year-old Maria is saved by the crew of the steamship Trevessa. She can't tell them her tragic tale, so the superstitious sailors make up their own stories – and some would sacrifice her to the seas to save themselves from the coming storm. Scottish engineer William McGregor boarded the Trevessa in search of adventure. He finds a crew convinced their ship is cursed, as he fights to protect the mysterious girl and bring her safely to shore... moreCast adrift on the Indian Ocean, eighteen-year-old Maria is saved by the crew of the steamship Trevessa. She can't tell them her tragic tale, so the superstitious sailors make up their own stories – and some would sacrifice her to the seas to save themselves from the coming storm. Scottish engineer William McGregor boarded the Trevessa in search of adventure. He finds a crew convinced their ship is cursed, as he fights to protect the mysterious girl and bring her safely to shore. When the sharks start circling and the storm closes in, are sirens more than just a myth? less

Smuggled ashore by the kind widow Merry D'Angelo, Maria begins her new life in the colonial port city of Fremantle. With the help of a young fisherman named Tony, she fights to find her place among a people so different to her own. Yet danger lurks beneath the surface of the turbulent harbour waters as her past races to catch up with her; threatening her future and her friends, and forcing her to choose between her old love and the new.

Maria thought stowing away on a ship to follow the man she loves was a great idea - but sleeping in the cargo hold and fighting rats for food isn't at all what she bargained for, and that's before she reaches her destination: the desolate colonial outpost of Christmas Island. Now the man who was once her world won't even look at her. Perhaps she'd be better off swimming hundreds of miles home. It's time to lay the ghosts of their past to rest...or are some ghosts not dead at all?