Book Review: Between the Sound and Sea by Amanda Cox

Title: Between the Sound and Sea

Author: Amanda Cox

Where to buy: Amazon (affiliate link)

Genre: Christian Fiction, Historical Fiction

Would I recommend: Yes. This is a compelling work of historical fiction about a part of World War II I wasn’t terribly well versed on.

Synopsis:

Every family has its secrets. Josephina Harris wouldn’t mind if her family still had a few of their own after a lawsuit tarnishes their name. When an opportunity opens to become a temporary keeper of a decommissioned lighthouse on a North Carolina island, she jumps at the chance to escape her small town to oversee its restoration.

As the work begins, “Joey” discovers strange notes tucked deep in the crevices of the old stone walls–pages torn from a lighthouse keeper’s log signed by someone named Mae who recounts harrowing rescues at sea. Fascinated by a woman lighthouse keeper, Joey digs into the past only to discover there’s never been a record of a lighthouse keeper by that name.

When things start to go amiss on the island, locals are convinced that it is the ghost of the lighthouse keeper and his daughter who were lost at sea during World War II. As Joey sifts through decades of rumors and legends and puts together the pieces of the past, what emerges is a love story–one that’s not over yet.

Multiple Christy Award winner Amanda Cox is your guide upon the raging seas of young love, heartbreaking loss, and learning to risk it all for a chance at happiness in this timeless novel.

If you’re looking for someone to review Amanda Cox’s latest book with a critical eye, well, you’re probably in the wrong place. I adore her books (you can see two of my reviews here and here). But if you’re looking for someone to share her enthusiasm about a book she thinks you need to read you’re in the right place. Read on!

Josephina “Joey” Harris is discouraged. Her family name has been dragged through the mud. Her parents are moving to Florida. Her brother is still estranged from her father. Her event planning business is suffering. And it all feels horribly unfair. But Joey is determined to stay there in her hometown of Copper Creek, determined to win back the trust of the townsfolk, trust that her family had done nothing to lose. Until an opportunity comes up that she can’t resist, one that has her heading to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to oversee the restoration of a historic lighthouse, decommissioned after World War II.

Amanda Cox gives us another heartfelt dual-timeline story here, with events at the lighthouse unfolding in real time and the World War II era serving as the backdrop to young love lost between Finn “Wally” O’Hare and Cathleen “Cay” McCorvey. Though Wally and Cay had roamed the island wilds and grown quite close, their relationship was torn apart when Wally signed up at age 16 to serve with the Merchant Marines. A horrible tragedy leaves both of them thinking the other dead. So we see Wally, who now goes by Walt, in the later years of a life well lived but spent with questions and regrets about Cay hovering at the back of his mind. He wants to restore the lighthouse to somehow honor her story and her memory.

But the present-day story is just as engaging. Joey is a woman in the field of construction and project management. Finn O’Hare, Walt’s grandson, isn’t convinced she’s the best for the job, and they get off to a rocky start. But she is hired, and she and Walt get along just fine, even once they realize Finn has tasked each of them with keeping an eye on the other. The lighthouse is rumored to be haunted by Cay’s ghost, and some strange things do happen. As the restoration progresses and old lightkeeper log pages are found plastered into the lighthouse walls, questions come up about the identity of local legend Saint-Mae, the person who saved the most hopeless cases from the grasp of the raging sea. Could there be a connection between Saint-Mae and Cathleen McCorvey?

I loved the characters! Walt was just delightful, and my heart really hurt for his questions about Cay over the years. He’d gone on to have a good life, with a wonderful family, and Cox did a good job balancing his regrets about how things ended with Cay with the fact that he didn’t regret the life he’d led at all. Joey is feisty, prone to tackle challenges head-on, and just as prone to put others’ dreams and goals ahead of her own. Finn also has some baggage that he carries, and he and Joey are just about two peas in a pod as far as hanging onto dreams or regrets that maybe they need to let go of so that they can grab the good things that are right in front of their faces.

The story is engaging and well-paced. I never got bored, and I read it in two sittings, because I wanted so much to see what happened. The ending didn’t just happen, but took some twists and turns to get to where Cox was leading us. I absolutely loved it, and the story made me smile and get a little teary-eyed. Such a wonderful tale of regrets and restoration, of family found and family reconciled. If you love a good story set in two different times that will give you events you get wrapped up in and characters you just want to hug, I highly recommend Between the Sound and Sea!

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy from Revell. All opinions here are mine, and I don’t say nice things about books I don’t actually like.