Beyond That, The Sea
Sometimes the very best books are the ones you weren’t even looking for.
When this book arrived unsolicited in my mailbox wrapped in brown parcel paper and tied with string showing a vintage stamp and Air Mail insignia, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but some friends’ glowing reviews convinced me to try it. I even got the audiobook to listen along.
I was a fool to wait. This was a beautiful debut by Laura Spence-Ash!
When eleven-year-old Beatrix (Bea) Thompson’s parents, Millie and Reginald, send her to a foster family in America to shelter her from the WWll bombing raids on London, they can’t foresee how this one choice will impact the rest of her life. What Bea finds is that “love” and “family” aren’t as easy to define as you’d think.
Ethan and Nancy Gregory and their two boys, older son William and younger son Gerald, become Bea’s de facto family for five very important formative years … years she spends being folded into this affluent family’s lifestyle, home, values, and community. She also finds her first love. Unfortunately, she has to leave that love behind when her mother calls for her return to London.
Here’s the thing that surprised me the most about this book: I was expecting Bea to find romance, and it was there, but what I wasn’t expecting is that the true “romance” of this book would be falling in love with the Gregory family and Bea’s relationship with them!
For those who worry that this may be dry WWll-based historical fiction, let me assure you that this book is a full emotional experience. There were moments of frustration and sadness for sure, but also a whole lot of tenderness and heart! Bea was particularly special. I also loved the American setting of Boston and the family trips to Maine. Those trips reminded me just a bit of my favorite book from last year: Every Summer After by Carley Fortune - only set in an older timeline.
The plot is divided into three parts covering 1940-1945, August 1951 and 1960-1965 with an epilogue set in 1977 to show Bea’s time in America and the aftermath of returning to London after the war. My favorite part was the older timeline, but honestly all three parts came together so well. The book definitely went in a couple directions I didn’t see coming, but Spence-Ash skillfully wove the story threads together into a heartwarming and memorable story.
Whether you read it, listen to the lovely narration by Ell Potter, or both, it’s a beautiful debut and I highly recommend it!
★★★★ ½
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