This month in BookTrib, we are celebrating women’s fiction titles that showcase characters on boating or sea journeys. The sea offers a setting that is a character in itself who can be your character’s savior, or torment them, or destroy them. This journey might last months, a year, a day, or never happen despite the characters’ desperate attempts to leave land. Roll up your sleeves, pull up the anchor and tell us all.
On Christmas Tree Cove (Tule Publishing) by Sarah Vance-Tompkins
December was always a special time for seaplane pilot Morgan Adair, but after losing her parents six years ago, the holiday is a quiet affair. When her siblings announce plans to sell the family home, Morgan longs to experience her favorite, now-forgotten tradition one more time. A lighted tree that for over a hundred years, has appeared floating on a boat in the harbor every Christmas Eve.
The Taylors were always rivals to the Adairs in the once-thriving fishing village of Christmas Tree Cove, but Jesse Taylor was much more. He wanted to be understanding when Morgan set aside their plans to escape to Chicago in order to hold her family together, but his future as a successful freelance photographer soared on without her.
As Morgan dives deeper into the history of the mysterious holiday appearance, she discovers that true love has always been at the heart of the annual tradition. Can the wonder of Christmas and a few surprises along the way rekindle that love for Morgan and Jesse too?
Between the Sky and the Sea (Dragonblade Publishing) by Lisa Williams Kline
Lavinia Onslow, who delights in the freedom of managing her father’s millinery shop in the heart of Savannah, Georgia, has decided she may defy convention and not marry after all. Yet, in the summer of 1838, on board the elegant steamship Pulaski, bound from Savannah to Baltimore, she exchanges glances with an intriguing young man. What can ensue from a mere glance? Quite a lot, as legend has it.
That very night, the boiler of the Pulaski explodes and the ship sinks, drowning most of its wealthy passengers. As Lavinia struggles in the water in her heavy dress, calling out for her father and thinking she will surely perish, someone dives in to rescue her, pulling her up next to him on a makeshift raft made of two deck settees. When she composes herself, she recognizes the intriguing man. There they float, alone but together, surrounded by ocean, thirty miles off the coast of North Carolina, desperate for a life-saving miracle.
Is the bond she feels for this stranger more than an instinct for survival? Inspired by a legend — that may or not be true — and set in the rich historic milieus of Savannah, New Orleans, and the coast of North Carolina, Between the Sky and the Sea explores how Lavinia Onslow’s desire to live as an independent woman transforms after surviving the wreck of the Pulaski.
A debut novel inspired by the real-life story of Maria Hallett and her love affair with the notorious pirate Black Sam Bellamy.
There is a place on the coast of New England where a salty sailor gives sage advice, and a legendary mermaid appears at least once a century. Madeline owns an antique store in this charming town and knows everyone by name. But she keeps a secret buried deep inside — her ability to touch an object and feel the essence of the previous owner.
After purchasing a mysterious box at an estate sale, she has startlingly vivid dreams about Maria, a young headstrong Puritan whose “knowing” could get her branded as a witch, and whose forbidden love for a poor sailor caused a scandal.
Desperate for answers, Madeline turns to Evan, a handsome history professor who tempts her to believe in love. Together they uncover Maria’s story, helpless to stop its trajectory toward tragedy. With Evan’s support, maybe she can lay the ghosts of the past to rest — including her own.
Take the Plunge by Susan Carew
Still reeling from the loss of her beloved father and her part in his death, Claire takes refuge in alcohol, cake and online dating, but nothing helps. These days the only thing that makes her happy is swimming, be it in the pool or the sea.
So when Claire’s swim club organizes an open water swimming holiday in Spain, it seems like the ideal antidote to her woes. She persuades her best friend to take the plunge and come along too. After all, what’s the worst that can happen? But the trip is being organised by two inexperienced coaches, desperate to make a go of their business venture and blind to the challenges of the holiday. Added to this, swimming isn’t top of the agenda for everyone in the group.
The perfect getaway or a recipe for disaster? A horrendous incident at sea means Claire has to risk her life for another. Will this act help her find the atonement — and the future happiness she so desperately seeks?
