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. 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. I thought the plot was wonderful too. There’s drama and tension, quieter moments and heightened emotion so that I finished reading You, Me & The Sea feeling as if I’d experienced every emotion possible. This is such a wonderful love story but it is so much more besides. Elizabeth Haynes explores love, grief, depression, identity, feelings of inadequacy, violence and tenderness with absolute skill. It’s so hard to explain, but I felt I had lived and breathed this book rather than simply read it. Marian Keyes describes this novel as Immersive and affecting…utter bliss. She’s not wrong. (It’s Marin Keyes, is she EVER wrong about books?!) I have to admit that’s what first caught our eye with this book. Then there’s the title, simply, You, Me & The Sea. Oh and that cover. Everything about this book screams escape, delicious escapism to desolate beauty, wild stormy coasts, and, perhaps, into someone else’s arms. There’s so much to learn whilst reading this book – but at the same time without feeling like you’re being preached to. Teaching through contemporary fiction is a talent, and Elizabeth Haynes has it mastered well.

This is the tale of two people, one hiding from his past and one running from hers. Fraser is a recluse, a gruff, intimidating mammoth of a man living on the island in the lighthouse. He doesn’t seem to like people and prefers to be left alone. Rachel is running away from her past and when she is offered the opportunity to work on an isolated island away from everyone she jumps at the chance until she finds out she has to live with Fraser.

APARTMENTS

This is a beautifully written book, loosely based on Wuthering Heights. I actually did not enjoy Wuthering Heights when I read it 30 years ago, but this book made me wonder if I should try again. Rachel is at crisis point. A series of disastrous decisions has left her with no job, no home, and no faith in herself. But an unexpected job offer takes her to a remote Scottish island, and it feels like a chance to recover and mend her battered self-esteem. 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. Jamaica Holidays | Jersey Holidays | Kefalonia Holidays | Kos Holidays | Lake Garda Holidays | Lanzarote Holidays | Las Vegas Holidays | Madeira Holidays | Magaluf Holidays | Majorca Holidays | Maldives Holidays | Malta Holidays | Mauritius Holidays | Menorca Holidays | Mexico Holidays | Morocco Holidays | Mykonos Holidays

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.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. His accent made his words sound even and pure. It reminded me of rain falling into a half-full barrel.

I adored how atmospheric and original this story is. It’s easy to be swept up into this story and feel right beside Merrow on those blustery cliffs! It almost feels like a different time because the setting is so enchanting. The writing here is beautiful, and the characters are vividly drawn.

Custom Oyster Shells

Elizabeth’s first 6 books are all dark thrillers either in the police procedural genre or standalone psychological thrillers so when I received a book in the post from her in 2018 called The Murder of Harriet Monkton, a historical fiction book I was surprised and slightly apprehensive because it was such a change from her previous books, but it was absolutely INCREDIBLE and proved that Ms Haynes is a woman of many talents! Overall, You, Me, and the Sea is stunningly atmospheric story of tumultuous true love and how far one will go to protect family.