A Wild Sea

Rating:
Summary: Real Characters, Real Grief, Real Life
Review: If this is Rebecca Montague's first book, she has crafted a fine first novel. Told from Kat Jenkins' first person point-of-view, the story is engaging and realistic. Kat comes to the family vacation house with her best buddy, Mel, in order to put more than one ghost to rest -- but she didn't bargain for a summer romance.

In particular, I liked the fact that Jenn and Kat seem like real people. Jenn is very tall and solid, not a thin, gorgeous waif. Kat is smaller, but not described as a runway model. Given the fact that few of us look like Angie Harmon or Julia Roberts, it was nice to read about "normal" characters.

The book was short...but it was plenty long enough to serve up some steamy love scenes and an appropriate level of angst and indecision. By the time you get to the end, you will agree it was a Wild Sea, but we were spared from the Hurricane.

I look forward to reading Montague's BARNFIRE next. In addition, I recommend Karin Kallmaker's SUBSTITUTE FOR LOVE and King & Dunne's MANY ROADS TO TRAVEL.

Rating:
Summary: It's worth the price of the ferry ride.
Review: In 1999 Katherine Jenkins, a 34 year old, openly lesbian, financial investor living in Seattle, returns to Smith Island to empty the summer house her parents built there some twenty years ago. Located off the coast of North Carolina, Smith Island was the paradise of Katherine's adolescence. It was also the site of the accidental drowning of her first lover, Caroline, 15 years ago. Although Katherine has had her share of lovers since the loss of Caroline, she has never given her heart to anyone else.

"A Wild Sea" is the story of Katherine finally facing her survivor's guilt as well as her grief over Caroline and allowing herself to love again. Shortly after arriving on Smith, Katherine meets Jennifer, the "kid sister" of an old classmate and friend from high school. But the adult Jennifer, an attractive, athletic, artist and gallery owner from Raleigh, is nothing like the annoying 13 year old from Kat's last summer on the island. Indeed, Jenn is the first woman since Caroline for whom Katherine has felt more than lust. Katherine fears those feelings because to love opens her to the possibility of hurt. Yet loving Jenn seems to hold the potential for Katherine's happiness in life.

The vacation island setting is lovely, yet it allows glimpses of the stress living a closeted life in the more conservative parts of America can provide, even in a paradise. Montague's observations about being queer in the South are insightful. Her lead characters are interesting, intelligent and well rounded. The love scenes between Kat and Jenn are touching, arousing, and romantic. Even the extremely patient and enamored Jenn has enough self respect to limit what she will put up with from the stubbornly grief-ridden Katherine. Perhaps one of the more touching, and even mildly amusing, elements of this story is the role Caroline, or her ghost, plays in helping Katherine to heal. As Caroline says,"I'm dead, Katherine. It gives one an interesting perspective." (p160)

"A Wild Sea" is a well written little romance. Montague resolves Katherine's struggle with herself and provides hope for the future. As a novel, "A Wild Sea" is worth the price of the ferry ride.

Rating:
Summary: It's worth the price of the ferry ride.
Review: In 1999 Katherine Jenkins, a 34 year old, openly lesbian, financial investor living in Seattle, returns to Smith Island to empty the summer house her parents built there some twenty years ago. Located off the coast of North Carolina, Smith Island was the paradise of Katherine's adolescence. It was also the site of the accidental drowning of her first lover, Caroline, 15 years ago. Although Katherine has had her share of lovers since the loss of Caroline, she has never given her heart to anyone else.

"A Wild Sea" is the story of Katherine finally facing her survivor's guilt as well as her grief over Caroline and allowing herself to love again. Shortly after arriving on Smith, Katherine meets Jennifer, the "kid sister" of an old classmate and friend from high school. But the adult Jennifer, an attractive, athletic, artist and gallery owner from Raleigh, is nothing like the annoying 13 year old from Kat's last summer on the island. Indeed, Jenn is the first woman since Caroline for whom Katherine has felt more than lust. Katherine fears those feelings because to love opens her to the possibility of hurt. Yet loving Jenn seems to hold the potential for Katherine's happiness in life.

The vacation island setting is lovely, yet it allows glimpses of the stress living a closeted life in the more conservative parts of America can provide, even in a paradise. Montague's observations about being queer in the South are insightful. Her lead characters are interesting, intelligent and well rounded. The love scenes between Kat and Jenn are touching, arousing, and romantic. Even the extremely patient and enamored Jenn has enough self respect to limit what she will put up with from the stubbornly grief-ridden Katherine. Perhaps one of the more touching, and even mildly amusing, elements of this story is the role Caroline, or her ghost, plays in helping Katherine to heal. As Caroline says,"I'm dead, Katherine. It gives one an interesting perspective." (p160)

"A Wild Sea" is a well written little romance. Montague resolves Katherine's struggle with herself and provides hope for the future. As a novel, "A Wild Sea" is worth the price of the ferry ride.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, although a little predictable
Review: Katherine Jenkins returns to Smith Island in North Carolina for a last visit to her family's summer home, which she plans to have demolished. It has too many bad memories, including the death of her first lover, Caroline. Katherine has never allowed herself to get really close to anyone because of the loss and when she starts to feel more than desire, she runs. Her friend and housemate in Seattle, Melanie, accompanies her. While visiting she meets Jennifer Brooks again, who was only 13 when Katherine lost Caroline. The sparks fly. Will Katherine give into her feelings for Jenn or will she run away, as she's always done. The story flows nicely and the characters are believable. Although the use of a dead lover standing in the way of romance is a standard in lesbian romance, it's well done here and, as I said before, believable. You really feel Katherine's pain and hope she can free herself of the guilt and the obsession. Enjoyable reading. Finished it too soon.

Rating:
Summary: steamy
Review: Katherine returns to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to tear down the family summer home and to hopefully lay to rest the ghost of her first love, Caroline, who drowned there. Katherine reacquaints herself with Jennifer, whom she knew years ago, and the two feel an intense attraction to each other. Kat struggles with her memories of Caroline and with the chance of a sort of catharsis that Jennifer offers. Montague has crafted a potent and sometimes humorous story of a woman reluctant to overcome her grief and move on with her life. Any reader who's a fan of books by the Naiad Press or Bells Books will adore this story!

Rating:
Summary: The main protagonist's conflict is needlessly drawn out.
Review: Perhaps it takes a Radclyffe to elicit credible tension from a heroine's excessive reluctance to commit her heart--the emotional conflict at the center of A Wild Sea goes slack well before the book is ended, perhaps because the physical action is relatively uneventful, and the younger love object does not seem particularly magnetic, just wholesome and even-tempered.

Rating:
Summary: Touching story
Review: Redemption, grief, recovery and the challenge of a new lover -- these are familiar themes. But their familiarity needn't be a barrier to a good read, and but for one flaw, "A Wild Sea" is a good read, indeed. The flaw? It's too short for themes of such depth.
Montague does a very believable, moving job with characters and plot, but it just seemed to wrap up too neatly and quickly toward the end. "Watermark" -- which for me sets the standard for romances dealing with grief -- is probably a third longer than "A Wild Sea" and delivered that much more high impact characterization and depth of plot. But for its relative shortness, this was an excellent romance. I will be pursuing all of Rebecca Montague's other books and crossing my fingers that they will get as long as they need to be and the writer's talent will be allowed to flower to its very fullest. Women of Cape Winds Press please note: readers have a longer attention span than you seem to think.