
This. Book.
It makes you feel brighter, more human. The words dance across the page and flood your heart with shafts of light. It reminds you that even in the darkest storms, there are bearers of hope to lead you to Him who holds the waves.
This debut novel by Amanda Dykes is stunning. I was swept away by its lyrical prose and I thought the dual timelines wove together seamlessly.
The story starts in 1944, where we meet Robert Bliss and his twin brother Roy. They’ve grown up side by side in a small costal town in Maine, until Roy is sent off to war and leaves behind his wife and unborn son. Fast forward to 2001, and we have Annie Bliss, who starts to unravel some of the questions surrounding her family history.
I loved the way this book captured the ache of loss, the depth of love and the unending strength and beauty of life. It makes you want to listen more intently to the stories of the people around you.
The poetic writing style might not be everyone’s favorite, but I loved it. It is a book worth lingering over and rereading when you want to encounter something truly beautiful.
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Overall: 5/5
Age: 15+
Romance level: 1/5
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From the back cover:
In the wake of WWII, a grieving fisherman submits a poem to a local newspaper: a rallying cry for hope, purpose...and rocks. When the poem spreads farther than he ever intended, Robert Bliss's humble words change the tide of a nation. Boxes of rocks inundate the tiny coastal Maine town, and he sets his calloused hands to work, but the building halts when tragedy strikes.
Decades later, Annie Bliss is summoned back to Ansel-by-the-Sea when she learns her Great-Uncle Robert, the man who became her refuge during the hardest summer of her youth, is now the one in need of help. What she didn't anticipate was finding a wall of heavy boxes hiding in his home. Long-ago memories of stone ruins on a nearby island trigger her curiosity, igniting a fire in her anthropologist soul to uncover answers.
She joins forces with the handsome and mysterious harbor postman, and all her hopes of mending the decades-old chasm in her family seem to point back to the ruins. But with Robert failing fast, her search for answers battles against time, a foe as relentless as the ever-crashing waves upon the sea.
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