You, Me & the Sea

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One thing the author really nailed was the setting. Instead of the wild Yorkshire moors, we have the beautiful Northern California coastline. The author’s description and Merrow’s own recounting of her childhood home that has an almost intoxicating pull on her will enthrall the readers. It makes you want to move to a cottage by the sea and run among the California orchards. Merrow Shawe is born of the sea. She thinks it’s part of her tempestuous temperament. She is raised on a farm named Horseshoe Cliff in Northern California. The atmosphere of where she lives is absolutely stunning. Not unlike that beautiful cover, there are bluffs and cliffs’ edges, an alluring cove, and of course, the sea. Amir & Merrow’s relationship is not healthy & I cannot believe the author thought this was path to go with. On and on we hear how these two were part of each other and it’s just....no, these two characters were traumatized as children by the same abuser who was their older brother/adopted brother and all three were poorly cared for by the father/guardian & other adults in their lives. That’s not a healthy foundation for a relationship. Also they were adoptive siblings, no matter how much they say they’re not brother & sister. The island’s other inhabitants are less than welcoming. Fraser Sutherland is a taciturn loner who is not happy about sharing his lighthouse – or his precious coffee beans – and Lefty, his unofficial assistant, is a scrawny, scared lad who isn’t supposed to be there at all. Merrow’s childhood is mostly a happy one, but her mother passes away under mysterious circumstances, so of course that lingers and haunts. Her brother, Bear, is outright mean and cruel, so that’s a blemish on her otherwise idyllic childhood as well.

I started reading You, Me, and the Sea on 6/3/2019 and finished it on 6/5/2019. This book is a fantastic read! I read throughout the whole night and through the morning. I feel hurt for Merrow’s childhood with such an uncaring brother. Farm life is hard and I feel heart wrenching to the 5 through 8 years old having little to no parental comfort and not enough to eat. Her story is inspiring because with the meager she grew up with, she still loves school and loves to learn. I like following Merrow’s view and experience her life through her eyes as she grows up. I like her self motivation and how she looks on the bright side of things, especially at the place where she lives. As a child, Merrow Shawe believes she is born of the sea: strong, joyous, and wild. Her beloved home is Horseshoe Cliff, a small farm on the coast of Northern California where she spends her days exploring fog-cloaked bluffs, swimming in the cove, and basking in the light of golden sunsets as her father entertains her with fantastical stories. It is an enchanting childhood, but it is not without hardship—the mystery of Merrow’s mother’s death haunts her, as does the increasingly senseless cruelty of her older brother, Bear. Firstly, there is the totally glorious setting of Must that utterly transported me from the flat fens where I live to the rugged Scottish island. Elizabeth Haynes captures it so vividly, and employs nature and weather to counterbalance and underpin the narrative with such brilliance that the island is every bit as much a character as are Rachel, Fraser and Lefty. Descriptions are evocative and realistic with all the senses catered for in an immersive and convincing way. Frasers cooking in particular is so realistic I was ravenous and I felt as if I were there on the cliffs, breathing in the salt air with the others. You, Me & The Sea is a bewitching maelstrom of sensory delight. It has been a long time since I've read a romantic novel, and then it was the Regency type, so I don't know if there is a subset of that genre which might be described as 'realistic romance'. This book covers a gamut of topics ranging from migrating birds to surrogacy to drug addiction, but mostly it conforms to the romantic formula: two lonely, damaged people find each other. First, there is process of opening up, then there is hot sex, inevitably there is withdrawal and fear, and then finally the happy denouement.

You can now imagine my reaction to getting a book posted to me in November 2020 from Elizabeth Haynes, especially as once again it was a genre so removed from her previous books that I had no idea what to expect.

When they’re around fourteen years old and bored with their monotonous lives, they decide to break into the houses of wealthy people. They want to imagine how rich people live and how would it be to have all this money and freedom to do whatever you want. One of their break-in attempts doesn’t go as planned and they meet the Langford family. The family instantly shows some curiosity and interest in the two kids, especially in Merrow. Will, a law student who is a few years older than them, doesn’t hide how much he likes Merrow. Contributions should be travel related. The most helpful contributions are detailed and help others make better decisions. Please don’t include personal, political, ethical, or religious commentary. Promotional content will be removed and issues concerning Booking.com’s services should be routed to our Customer Service or Accommodation Service teams. So obviously when this book popped up on my Goodreads feed and advertised itself as a retelling of Emily Bronte’s only novel, I shrieked like a banshee and immediately included it on my never ending TBR. I just met Meg Donohue at an author event and she is such a warm and gracious person. So it comes as no surprise that her books are the same way. I've been craving a dose of California during the COVID time at home and Meg's book You, Me and the Sea has given me that in spades. I read a lot of historical fiction and love it, but it was nice in this book to be taken to contemporary California and feel the sun on my face. Love this passage:Contributions should be appropriate for a global audience. Please avoid using profanity or attempts to approximate profanity with creative spelling, in any language. Comments and media that include hate speech, discriminatory remarks, threats, sexually explicit remarks, violence, or the promotion of illegal activity are not permitted. One day, when she’s around nine years old, her dad brings a boy named Amir home. He’s Indian, close to Merrow’s age, and he’ll be her father’s ward. Merrow and Amir instantly have a connection. They both love exploring they try to spend as much time away from home as they can since they’re afraid of Bear. Especially after Merrow’s father dies, the two young kids want to be around Bear even less.

Also, am I the only one who read Amir as controlling? Merrow mentions seeking help for the abuse and Amir keeps stopping her because they’d be separated aka the worst thing ever for Amir. Even though they’re abused & starving. The setting of this remote and often hostile environment intensifies the raw emotions and attraction between Fraser and Rachel and I thoroughly enjoyed watching their relationship develop. Oh dear. I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to review You, Me & The Sea because I loved it so much it’ll be difficult to articulate how wonderful it is. You, Me & The Sea is one of those books you can’t put down, but you don’t want to end, because it seeps into your soul and mesmerises you. It’s such a beautiful, emotional and completely satisfying read that I simply want to tell everyone to buy it and read it. When I was made to do other things instead of reading You, Me & The Sea I was so resentful. It consumed all my waking thoughts.

Each review score is between 1 and 10. To get the overall score, we add up all the review scores and divide that total by the number of review scores we received. Guests can also give separate subscores in crucial areas, such as location, cleanliness, staff, comfort, facilities, value, and free WiFi. Guests submit their subscores and their overall scores independently – there’s no direct link between them. Meg Donohue has turned out a beautifully written, lushly and evocatively detailed and heart-rending book that was swirling with atmosphere and sea mist. I was captivated, devastated, and engrossed from beginning to end. Written in the first person POV of Merrow, an adult woman at a significant crossroads and recalling her childhood, which was peppered with a love of the land and ocean yet heartbreaking and cringe-worthy with unpredictable violence, humiliation, intentional neglect, and vicious cruelty perpetrated by her older brother upon her and her best friend, an orphaned boy of the same age who had come to live with her family as her father’s ward. The family was rather isolated and lived like hillbillies in a small rustic cabin in a small rural yet coastal area of California. His accent made his words sound even and pure. It reminded me of rain falling into a half-full barrel.

Dalaman Holidays | Dominican Republic Holidays | Dubai Holidays | Egypt Holidays | Goa Holidays | Florida Holidays | France Holidays | Fuerteventura Holidays | Germany Holidays | Gran Canaria Holidays | Greece Holidays | Ibiza Holidays | Italy Holidays | Izmir Holidays The best way I can describe this novel is that this is a gentler rendition of Bronte’s literary work. In Bronte’s novel, the characters can only best be described as selfish, stupid, vicious, and cruel to each other. They hurt each other where it hurts the most and the cycle repeats itself throughout the next generations. Donohue’s reworking makes the characters almost genial to each other. Yes, her versions of Cathy and Heathcliff have the same wildness about them as Bronte’s original characters, but they are softened around the edges to make them immensely more likable. Cathy and Heathcliff would surely turn up their noses at Merrow and Amir, but those who detested Bronte’s novel for the characters being immensely unlikable will find this a welcome change. The island setting is a strong element of the story; not only does it function as a mechanism to throw two unlikely types together, but it also provides its own elemental wildness and sense of danger. (There also some descriptions of the sort of birds to be found on a northern Scottish island, and I found that bit of the book enjoyable.). Rachel has been hired as a temporary housekeeper for the bird conservatory, which means that she and Fraser are thrown together as both roommates. Their relationship also has an element of mentorship as Fraser teaches her much about the natural life on the island. When it comes to emotional matters, Rachel tends to take more of a lead - and that aspect comes into play when a mysterious occupant of the lighthouse is revealed. Of course there are secrets here, and a tragedy occurs involving Amir. Merrow is unsure if she ever knew him at all. She finds herself in a dangerous and dire situation, and she has to decide if she is going to flee. Anyone who spots something suspicious can always report it to our Customer Service team so that our fraud team can investigate.The novel bowls along and kept me hooked, it is so very readable. For me some of the developing relationships, as they change and morph, perhaps didn’t feel quite convincing, but that is a minor quibble. Merrow is a young child living in Horseshoe Cliff with her older brother and her father. She has always loved the sea and that’s where she spends most of her time running away from reality. Her mother passed away but no one will tell her how it happened. Bear, her older brother, is extremely abusive when her dad is not around, so Merrow decides to spend her time exploring the cliff and the beach. Merrow meets Amir, who has been sent from New York, by way of India, to live with her family. Amir is not affected by Bear’s nastiness, and Merrow admires his strength of spirit. Merrow Shawe endures a lonely childhood with an uncaring father and brother until Amir comes into her life. She is still coming to terms with the mystery surrounding her mother’s death as well. When a tragedy occurs, she doesn’t know if she can trust in Amir anymore. Merrow lives in a remote coastal area of Northern California along with her father and her brother. They live on a dilapidated farm and it barely yields enough crops for them to get by. Her older brother, Bear, doesn't look out for her in the very least as he is a disturbed individual and treats her very cruelly. One day her father brings home an orphan, Amir. Amir is the son of his deceased wife's best friend, so he can't just let him go into foster care again. This thrills Merrow completely as she has wanted a friend and a playmate practically her whole life. Merrow and Amir spend blissful days exploring Horseshoe Bluff, the farm, swimming in the ocean, and avoiding Bear at all costs. As they get older, Amir slowly changes from being her best friend to something more while they both weather the many storms of that come into their lives. Meg Donohue's You, Me, and the Sea is a heartfelt story about family, friendship, the call of the ocean, and star-crossed love.