A girl with the power to command the tides has her life changed when she secures a job serving a wealthy noble family--only to learn upon arrival that the last person to fill her post mysteriously died, and her new employers are hiding dark secrets--in this haunting and lush debut fantasy.

Corith Fraine is a Floodmouth, gifted with a rare elemental magic which allows her control over water. Like all young mages in her nation, she has spent her life in a greuling magic institution, training to one day achieve the highest possible honor for one of her kind: the chance to serve a powerful noble family. 

When news comes that Corith has secured a post working for House Shearwater, a reclusive noble house living on a wave-battered island, she thinks her years of hard work have paid off. Until she discovers that the family's previous Floodmouth--Corith's closest friend--mysteriously died in their service. And Corith is her replacement.

To learn the truth of her best friend's passing, Corith must unravel the dark conspiracy at the heart of Bower Island, all while contending with the island's deadly tides and her enigmatic new employers--including the family's brooding youngest son, who she finds herself equally drawn to and repelled by. With her loyalties pushed to the breaking point, these treacherous waters may well pull Corith under…