The three founding family's history is entwined along with a very old curse.

But getting answers is tougher than she thought and there are many secrets on South Carolina's Watsons Island, especially when it comes to the founding families, the Watsons, the Beauforts, and the Colesworth. Barrie is interested in her family's past though and she is hoping her aunt can answer some questions about the fire that took her fathers life and led to her mother's disfiguring facial scars. Her Aunt Pru lives on a Southern plantation in South Carolina, which is very different than the life she is used to in San Francisco. Mark sends her off to her mother's sister, Aunt Pru, to ensure she has a stable family home. Her mother has died and her caretaker, Mark, is now dying from cancer. What she finds is dangerous: a love she never expected, a river that turns to fire at midnight, a gorgeous cousin who isn’t what she seems, and very real enemies who want both Eight and Barrie dead.' Barrie Watson has hit a rock bottom. With the help of sun-kissed Eight Beaufort, who knows what Barrie wants before she knows herself, the last Watson heir starts to unravel her family's twisted secrets. Stuck with the ghosts of a generations-old feud and hunted by forces she cannot see, Barrie must find a way to break free of the family legacy. But she finds a new kind of prison at her aunt’s South Carolina plantation instead-a prison guarded by an ancient spirit who long ago cursed one of the three founding families of Watson Island and gave the others magical gifts that became compulsions. When her mother dies, Barrie promises to put some mileage on her stiletto heels.

Goodreads says, ' All her life, Barrie Watson has been a virtual prisoner in the house where she lives with her shut-in mother.

Compulsion by Martina Boone