Brandi is a 50-something island girl who either gave up adulthood—or cleverly dodged it—when she left Tucson, Arizona, and headed for the Florida Keys at 22. She’s called Marathon home ever since, falling in love with its sun-soaked chaos, salty characters, and one very captivating firefighter.

Over the decades, she’s bagged bait, gassed boats, cleaned hulls, poured beers, dug ditches, rubbed backs, shaken Key lime martinis, lifeguarded at Pigeon Key, and reported for the Florida Keys Keynoter, where her coverage of Marathon’s early city politics earned a First Amendment Defense Award from the Florida Press Association.

These days, Brandi is the benevolent sadist behind Island Pilates by day… and a steamy storyteller by night. Her debut novel is a sun-drenched love letter to Marathon, and to her husband —whose childhood tales from the Bahamas and the Keys helped inspire the unforgettable story of Priscilla and Jackson.