Dark Crystal by Leah Rhoades

A life plagued by tragedy.
I'd lived in the shadow of my childhood infamy. Orphaned, my parents killed in an accident and my grandmother...by something unnatural. I did not let my past control me.
Except for the obsession.
No one understood my chosen career path in the study of crytozoology, because I'd never explained it to anyone. I couldn't even explain it myself.
And then I met him. He got me.
Luke was like a breath of fresh air, until the tainted scent of my shadowed past cast doubt on him, too. Despite my conviction, my belief in the preternatural, and the physical evidence in front of me, I faced a fate I could not reconcile as my own. How could I accept a truth so outlandish even I failed to believe?
But my life - with Luke and overall - depended on my ability to overcome the odds, to embrace the outcome in front of me, and to become engulfed in the supernatural world I'd been chasing all along.