Between the Sound and Sea
A lighthouse and its storied secrets feature in Amanda Cox’s engrossing novel Between the Sound and Sea, in which a woman helms a restoration project and meets a widower who longs for atonement.
Joey was an event planner in Copper Creek until a lawsuit involving her father’s former business caused her neighbors to shun her. On the heels of a breakup, she accepts a job in project management to renovate an island lighthouse that was decommissioned in the 1940s. Intrigued by its history—which includes rumors of a haunting after the disappearance of its keeper, Callum, and his daughter, Cathleen—Joey meets its new owner, Walt, an octogenarian bound by memories of wartime love whose adult grandson, Finn, worries about him.
The book’s alternating perspectives reveal the characters’ curiosity about each other. And as the remaking of the lighthouse continues, Walt discloses his connection to Cathleen. Nostalgia takes hold, forming a touching backdrop for Joey’s discovery of journals and log book entries detailing remarkable rescues. There are subtle parallels between these stories and Joey’s family’s own situation at home. Locally, Callum and Cathleen’s story is also met with suspicion—in part because of German U-boat attacks near the Eastern seaboard. As history and personal estrangements wind with light suspense about an interloper on the island, romance grows: Joey and Finn each find inspiration in Walt’s story, learning to be fearless and take chances while there’s still time.
Rich in themes of bittersweet regret, fresh beginnings, and the secrets that families keep to protect each other, Between the Sound and Sea is a charming novel in which romance blooms from misunderstanding and loss.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
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