From the bestselling author of Honeysuckle Season comes an evocative dual-timeline novel detailing one woman’s journey to discover the hidden stories of her family’s seaside resort.

When a shipwreck surfaces, old secrets are sure to follow.

Or so goes the lore in Ivy Neale’s hometown of Nags Head, North Carolina. When Ivy inherits her family’s beachfront cottage upon her grandmother’s death, she knows returning to Nags Head means facing the best friend and the boyfriend who betrayed her years ago.

But then a winter gale uncovers the shipwreck of local legend—and Ivy soon begins to stumble across more skeletons in the closet than just her own. Amid the cottage’s clutter are clues from her grandmother’s past at the enchanting seaside resort her family once owned. One fateful summer in 1950, the arrival of a dazzling singer shook the staff and guests alike—and not everyone made it to fall.

As Ivy contends with broken relationships and a burgeoning romance in the present, the past threatens to sweep her away. But as she uncovers the strength of her grandmother and the women who came before her, she realizes she is like the legendary shipwreck: the sands may shift around her, but she has found her home here by the sea.

Listening Length

10 hours and 43 minutes
Author

Mary Ellen Taylor
Narrator

Megan Tusing
Audible release date

July 1 2022
Language

English
Publisher

Brilliance Audio
ASIN

B09L2LJ3JJ
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	10 hours and 43 minutes
Author	Mary Ellen Taylor
Narrator	Megan Tusing
Audible.ca Release Date	July 01 2022
Publisher	Brilliance Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B09L2LJ3JJ
Best Sellers Rank	#84,771 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #2,936 in Women's Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #7,029 in Domestic Life in Women's Fiction #9,930 in Family Life

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

52,351 global ratings

5 star		46%
4 star		37%
3 star		13%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from Canada

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NATALIE NOONAN

Joyful, easy reading

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 21, 2023

Verified Purchase

These characters are welcoming , endearing and feel like family.
The backdrop, something out of a dream for me, having never lived or vacationed near anywhere similar.

Helpful

Cathy

Very enjoyable read.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 17, 2023

Verified Purchase

Likeable characters and story. I did not want the book to end. Not a heavy read but fun. I recommend this book.

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Sharon Mierke

A bit tedious

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 16, 2023

Verified Purchase

I started out enjoying this story, but by the middle of the book it seemed to drag on and on. I even tired of flipping from 1950 to 2022 and then trying to keep all the names straight. At the end I was relieved to see the family tree; however, even found it confusing too!

Helpful

Anonymous

too little too late

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 24, 2022

Verified Purchase

I had high hopes for the book based on previous reviews but kept waiting for something to happen. It was enough to keep me reading but in the end predicable and anticlimactic. The family lineage was very confusing. While I didn’t mind the switching of perspectives between Ruth and Ivy, I didn’t love the seemingly random perspectives of other characters thrown in there.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Anne G.

Loved it

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 4, 2022

Verified Purchase

This is the third book I have read by Mary Ellen Taylor and like the first two, I loved it. It was an Amazon's first read book. I loved everything about it, the story, the characters, slowly learning how everything came together, she does it so well. I did not want to put it down, and luckily this week I did not have to.

Helpful

Family of 4 + fur baby!

a new fave

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 20, 2022

Verified Purchase

My first exposure to this author was a welcome surprise with this unique story. Full of twists, loveable and complex characters, touching moments, all mixed with humour and mystery. A delightful and unexpected story that was not predictable or like any other book I’ve read!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Maggie C

novel

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 7, 2022

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Light read, enjoyable.

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Delightful summertime read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 1, 2022

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Enjoyed the story

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Amazon customer

Very Confusing!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

The storyline over 2 generations were generally interesting & unpredictable. Many reviews give positive feedback on that. But it took a lot on concentration to remember what happen to each character & who is who - esp since all the husbands and fathers died - it was a bit too convoluted for my liking. Another small thing - I didnt like that every chapter started with date AND TIME - it made me feel like the time at some stage will be critical & I really need to focus on that, but in the end it was irrelevant.

6 people found this helpful

Lynda Kelly

Let Itself Down Slightly But A Great Story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 7, 2022

Verified Purchase

Oooh, my Kindle First choice this month, and a good one but it lost itself a star with a couple of real spelling howlers, one which made me gasp aloud !! Sorry, but it's not good enough and ought to have been picked up. Simple as that.
A lovely cover on my copy.....it is a pretty good story but take it from me, you need to REALLY concentrate as there are a lot of characters and differing timelines and trying to figure out who was related to who and remembering who lived where in which timeline is hard work, so you do have to pay attention. I did and still had to flick back 'n' forth quite a few times to remember who was who and who they were married to, etc....Also, some secrets never did get resolved, which I guess you can choose to do yourself, but I'd prefer the author tied up all the loose ends.
But the errors I happened upon really should have been tidied up by any decent editor. She writes french not French, more than once, venders not vendors (my gasping moment) and cord not chord.
She wrote about a rearview mirror in a car catching a nervous smile but the other person wasn't sitting in the back, as all their worldly possessions were there, we were already told. The dialogue on the same car journey from a 4 year old didn't ring true, either. I don't have kids but I don't know any child that young who is that voluble but makes sense !! A couple of characters, such as Ivy's mum, didn't even get a namecheck till we were quite a ways in (255 pages), which also irritated me a little.
I needed to Google sticker shock as I'd not heard of it. It sounds a lovely area, the Outer Banks and she certainly described it well to us and took us along for the ride. The sea-wreck was fascinating, in that it often disappeared for decades. We have one on my local beach but it only disappears beneath a high tide, and is always there at low !!
I think I'd read another by her but not again if I happened upon howlers like I saw here.

3 people found this helpful

satellite1000

Slow going

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

Surprised this book was rated as 4 stars, and although the first few pages kind of draw you in with some lovely writing, it soon becomes extremely slow going. Had to sometimes read a few passages twice to ensure I understood it all. The story jumps from character to character and back and forth in time. Even at 10% into the book there still was no clear storyline developing. There's really nothing much happening up to that point. The characters lack depth and credibility. Found it also quite unbelievable how a 4-year-old child (Ivy) had such a grown-up dialogue going on in her head! There are some inconsistencies such as Ruth"s hair early in the book being described as dark but later it was suddenly blonde (when she met her future husband) as well as the male puppy thing that someone else mentioned in their review. Overall I would not recommend this book.

3 people found this helpful

ALS

Good story but genetics inaccurate!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 18, 2022

Verified Purchase

The story shifts across three generations with lots of twists and turns. You have to concentrate on the family relationships to remember who gave birth to which baby and who was adopted. The family tree was helpful (at the end in kindle version) to consolidate the relationships. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, but it lost a star for a major genetics inaccuracy. As a scientist, it really disappointed me to find that the author stated the father was not the father as both he and the mother were O positive blood group and the child was AB negative. This confused me as it is impossible for an O blood group mother to have an AB child. I had to re-read several bits of the story to see if I'd missed crucial information about the mother, but I hadn't and the family tree confirmed this. If the author had said the child was either A or B blood group, this would have worked. I was surprised that this fundamental error was not picked up before publishing. However, apart from being confusing, it didn't detract from the story which is a good read.

2 people found this helpful

Good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 22, 2022

Verified Purchase

Ivy was raised by her Grandmother Ruth and inherits her property when Ruth dies. The background to both stories is set against a ship which was wrecked years ago and resurfaces from time to time and is in the stories of both Ivy and Ruth. The chapters switch between Ivy now and Ruth when she was a child but explain things about her family that Ivy had not known. In addition Ivy had to leave her job to be able to return to sort out her old home and needs to decide what to do next. There is a slight romance element but it is not the main part of the story.

One person found this helpful

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