Nick Sebring has issues. Born feeling like an outsider in his own family, growing up under the shadow of a brother who could do anything, Nick isn’t that great of a guy. But when this culminates with Nick lashing out to hurt his brother through the woman he loves, Nick turns inward and makes some decisions about the man he intends to be. And as he does this, he falls in love and truly learns the man that he’s grown to be. When his love is murdered right before Nick’s eyes, Nick knows he has to avenge her. He knows how he’s going to avenge her. And he has no qualms using Olivia Shade to exact that vengeance. Olivia Shade has grown up on the outside of her family too. Her problem is that they don’t want her outside. They want her all the way in, right under their thumbs. She pays the price for seeking escape and learns her lesson—she’ll never see a dawn where she wakes up free. Then she meets Nick Sebring, and even as she fights it, the hope that died years ago starts to blossom. She can find love. She can have a man of her own. She can be happy. She can be free. Olivia hopes while Nick schemes. However, as Nick peels back the layers of all that is Olivia Shade, he finds something surprising. He understands its fragility. He falls in love with its beauty. He seeks to protect it. But he forgets to protect his Livvie from one thing: Nick Sebring.

In 1911, Ohio entrepreneur George E. Sebring was drawn to the raw south-central Florida peninsular wilderness, known for bountiful fishing and game. After cofounding Sebring, Ohio, in 1898, he envisaged another eponymous town that would attract new residents to this largely unsettled area located 30 miles from the nearest railroad depot. The businessman purchased 9,000 acres on the shore of Lake Jackson, and his new town was designed and surveyed between October 1911 and April 1912. By virtue of its location along the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, the community of Sebring emerged as a novel tourist and golfing destination and was established as the seat of newly formed Highlands County in 1921. Cultural and technological advances have transformed the once-rural community into a thriving modern city that today retains its small-town atmosphere as the City on the Circle.

The Sebring family came from the Netherlands and moved to Pennsylvania. George E. and Elizabeth Larkins Sebring eventually settled in East Liverpool, where they ran a grocery business and lived with their ten children. The Sebrings then decided to find property and build a pottery town, as they had been involved in potteries in East Liverpool and East Palestine. They settled on 200 acres of farmland near the Mahoning River, with the railroad running through the property. After a great deal of work in starting the new town, the Articles of Incorporation were filed in 1899. Potteries and homes were constructed, and Sebring became a flourishing town, at one point considered the pottery center of the world.

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