A sensitive loner on the run from his past. A rebellious young heiress with a death wish. A bridge brings them together ... a mystery can tear them apart. Following a life-shattering accident, conscience-stricken Will Archer seeks refuge in a small Ohio River town, where he plans to live out his life as a virtual hermit. But a chance encounter with Essence Warner, orphaned daughter of a jazz saxophonist and an aristocratic socialite, entangles him in a quest to discover the truth behind the cold case of her parents' mysterious deaths. As Will deciphers clues, he becomes romantically entwined with Essence, forming a relationship that draws him into a sordid underbelly of small-town existence that threatens his own life. At the same time, he uncovers a dark secret that could set Essence free from her own path of self-destruction-or does she have a plan of her own? Soft as Water is a novel about bridges-between strangers across a river-and the dangers of mutual attraction when worlds divided by race, wealth, and culture collide. In the end, though, the novel offers a glimmer of hopefulness that survivors of trauma-physical, emotional, and sexual-can transcend their circumstances and find redemption through connection.