Between the Sound and Sea: (Inspirational Contemporary Fiction with History and Mystery at a North Carolina Lighthouse)

Finnigan “Wally” O’Hara was her gentle sound, her lighthouse captain father was the tumultuous sea, and Cathleen McCorvey was a barrier island caught in between…courageously trying to hold back the tides of his dementia, while being slowly washed away and reshaped with every rolling wave. Immovable, but never forgotten. “Not by God. He kept a record of every tear. Every fear.” Not by Wally, who kept a ledger of love in his heart until he discovers her “messages tucked into a tin can. A few words of greeting, or plans to meet up, or a poorly written but heartfelt verse about the sand and sea and sky.” Will he have the courage to return them to the hands that penned them over half a century prior? Meanwhile, Josephina “Joey” Harris discovers an opportunity “to work on a lighthouse…A beacon that stood through wind and storm to guide people safely home. Being part of making a place like that beautiful again could be the perfect respite” from her family’s scandal back in her her childhood home Copper Creek. “Along the way she’d uncovered buried heartache and regret. Time lost that could never be regained. Brokenness. But she’d also witnessed hope, second chances, and even restoration…Bleakpoint Island had warmed her up to the promise of wilderness as she’d unfolded its mysteries. Now it was time to dive into her own unknowns with anticipation instead of dread.” “For darkness is as light to you…the things that look dark and confusing to us are not that way to God. So even if we feel overwhelmed and like we’ve lost sight of the path ahead, we can still trust He’s there beside us. Guiding us…God meets us right where we’re at. And maybe things in our lives get broken down and beaten up along the way. The good news is restoration work is kind of His specialty.” It’s about the undeserved regaining of things gone missing–often lost by impulsive decisions and foolish choices–because that’s the beauty of love and grace. We don’t deserve it and we don’t have to earn it. Amanda Cox’s Between the Sound and Sea is a gift.