Not my usual fare. Reminded me a bit of Women in the Castle. This takes place in England during the war, but there's something about it that felt similar.
Those is a character study novel. It moves slowly but it's not overly descriptive.
I usually enjoy a narrator with a British accent, but this one was not my style. She made the book feel dreary and depressing - like a gray London day. Of course that is the whole point, but maybe listen to a sample before committing to the audiobook or stick with the ebook.

It’s been awhile since I experienced a book hangover. I just stared at the wall when it was over. It’s so much harder to me to write a review of a book that I absolutely adored.

Millie and Reginald Thompson sent their only daughter, Beatrix, from London to America, in 1940 to keep her safe from the bombs of World War II. Beatrix is known as Bea to the family in Maine who greets her with open arms. Nancy Gregory is overjoyed to have a girl after having two boys, William and Gerald.

Missing her family at home, Bea gradually adjusts to her new family and their lifestyle so different from her own. She grows to love the Gregory’s and their summers on a private island are the highlight of her days with them. She develops a special relationship with the older brother, William. Eventually, she goes home to her mother, Millie, but it is a difficult adjustment.

Years later and all grown up, William visits her in England and both hearts break when they are forced to separate again. Life takes them in different directions. Eventually, Bea is drawn back to Maine and finds the unexpected.

This is beautiful story of love- familial love, romantic love, love for a child and a family that is not biologically yours. It is heartbreaking and joyful and moving.

This was an easy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book for me! I anguished as Bea adjusted to her different lives. I loved watching her mother learn to parent her, even as an adult. I love the Gregorys unconditional love of her. My heart soared and my heart broke. I shed real tears in this one and that doesn’t happen very often. It is definitely character driven, and I absolutely fell in love with these characters. The narrator, Elle Potter, of the audiobook was fantastic.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this advance copy!

Beautiful. I alternated between reading and listening to the audiobook and it was a seamless transition. The narrator was great, but her accent made me feel like Bea was telling the story and "reading" the other characters' POV, which honestly worked fine. The story is just lovely. I knew British children were sent to the country during WWII for safety, but I don't think I was aware they were also sent to the US. How difficult that must have been. This story was written beautifully, with wonderful characters and believable struggles through life. I felt every bump in the road and every triumph they each experienced and they became real by the end of the novel. Heartbreaking at times, it was also full of joy and forgiveness. Highly recommend for fans of historical fiction.

I enjoyed this book, I think it had a good story but for some reason it felt very slow for me. For a historical fiction book, it didn’t seem to focus on history enough for my liking. I also found the characters to be likeable but there wasn’t anything all that exciting about them that kept me coming back for more. I definitely wanted to finish the book and see how it ended, and I did enjoy the ending, but it just fell a little flat. There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with it, just not all that great.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. This was such a beautiful story to read! This story is told from multiple POVs, but each character shows development throughout the book and I loved that.

The story begins with Millie & Reginald in the beginning of WWII. They are faced with the impossible decision of sending their young daughter Beatrix overseas to the US for safety during the war. Bea is sent to live with the Gregory family: Ethan, Nancy, William and Gerald. Bea fits in and throughout her stay in America it feels as though she is closer to the Gregory family than her own.

The story continues when Bea goes back to the UK and the Gregorys continue life back in America. There are ups and downs in both of their lives and although this book is a love story, it is more than that. It’s a beautiful story of parents love for their children, romantic love, and friendship.

Thank you to netgalley, Laura Spence-Ash, and Macmillan audio for this wonderful book. It is available as of March 21! Run, don’t walk to buy this!

Happy Publishing Week to Beyond That, the Sea!

I just finished this on audiobook and it was emotionally addictive in the best way.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫

I’m not sure if it is because many of the settings are places I know so well from my own childhood in New England or if I just got tangled in the characters, but either way if you like historical fiction, character-driven stories, and family sagas, I definitely recommend picking the one up.

I loved the exploration of different types of relationships and being able to follow the characters across such distinct decades (the 1940s-1970s)

Thanks to NetGalley, celadon books, and the author for an advanced audio version of the book!

4.5/5⭐️

I loved this story of a girl who is sent to live in the U.S. from London during WW2. The story is not centered around the war, but focuses on her relationships with the new American family she lives with for five years.
These relationships impact her life and theirs for the better.

There is a shocking event that occurs about 75 percent in, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. That being said, I do think that the author does a good job of making the reader feel like it was fully resolved.

🥰The writing style was reminiscent of Rosamunde Pilcher, spanning decades. The audiobook is perfectly narrated by Ell Potter.

Thank you to @netgalley @macmillan.audio and @celadonbooks for my audio ARC. Thank you to @thebookclubmom for my gifted copy!

⚠️Content warning:
-Profanity: 2/5 (infrequent)
-sexual content: 3/5 (not explicit)

‘Back then, Beatrix liked to sit next to Mr. G when he rowed them all to the mainland. She would watch the town come into focus, the buildings growing larger, the white steeple in relief against the bluest sky. This was in Maine, where the family went each summer, and it was during the war, although that was hard to remember when they were there. Mrs. G often wore a pink or yellow sundress, her pearls tight round her neck, and she squawked about getting wet as William and Gerald splashed each other with water. ‘

’She was struck, whenever she saw the island from the mainland, by how different it was when seen from afar. It was beautiful, a blurry patch of green, caught up between the ocean and the sky. It was also so small that she could hold it in the palm of her hand. When they were on the island, though, she was the one who was small. It was her whole world. It was as though nowhere else existed.’

This story begins during the years during the war, as Beatrix comes to live with a family she’s never met, travels to America at the age of eleven, unaccompanied, on a ship with other children there for the duration of the war. The Gregory family takes in Beatrix, they have two boys of their own, Gerald and William, and the mother is thrilled to have a young girl join their family - even if it is only until the war is over. During the years that follow, as Gerald, William and Beatrix have become a family formed out of need and necessity, but there is also a bit of a mutual love story blossoming between William and Bea.

Much of this story focuses on the happy days she has living with the Gregory family, especially their blissful summers in Maine as a family. An idyllic place, and a family - albeit a temporary one - who genuinely loves her.

When the war is over, Beatrix ends up back in London with her mother, Millie, and her mother’s new husband. Beatrix longs for the life she had, the family she became a part of, and loved, while also feeling as though it was all somewhat of a dream. A dream that can’t be replicated after the years that have passed.

There is an aura of wistfulness that permeates these pages, a desire to return to happier days while at the same understanding the impossibility of having those days back, other than in their dreams. They keep in contact sharing major events - births, deaths, marriages - but time and distance have left their mark.

I read this on my kindle while listening to the audio, something I love, but rarely do, but I’m so glad that I added the kindle version to read along and highlight as I listened to this heartbreakingly beautiful story, which was beautifully narrated by Ell Potter.


Pub Date: 21 Mar 2023

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Macmillan Audio

I received an advanced listening copy of Beyond That, The Sea by Laura Spence-Ash through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review, and here it is.
•
☆☆☆☆ ½  - rounded up to 5 stars
•
In London, during WWII, a couple make the impossible decision to send their daughter to America to live with a family they don't know in order to keep her safe. She ends up with the Gregorys, a married couple who have two sons, and they are completely welcoming, generous, and overall lovely.
•
She spends 5 formative years of her life with them until the war is over, and it's time to return to London. We get to see how her life with the Gregorys was and how everyone's life turns out independently and how their lives stay intertwined for many years afterward.
•
I loved every single relationship that exists in the novel. They're so complex, realistic, and ever-changing.  I especially loved the evolution of the characters and their relationships throughout multiple decades in which this story takes place.
•
This story evoked so many emotions, too, ones from my youth and ones now that I'm a Mama.
•
I love the way the author told this story. I was particularly eager to see how the ending would unfold, and I'm super happy with it! Everything made sense to the plot, and nothing felt like it went against any of the characters' personalities.
•
This is Laura Spence-Ash's debut novel, and I look forward to her future books!
•
Thanks to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley, and author Laura Spence-Ash for this ALC to honestly review. Beyond That, The Sea came out yesterday (March 21st), so go get it now!!

Thank you to Netgalley, McMillan Audio and Laura Spence-Ash for allowing me to listen to an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book for an honest review.

A captivating read set during World War II. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, so naturally I found this storyline to be very enjoyable!

A tale of two families living during World War II separated by the sea. Millie Thompson, mother to Beatrize, was concerned about what her daughter was witnessing during the start of the war. In turn, fearing for her safety. She and husband, Reginald, made the extremely tough decision for Bea to go live with a family in America. At age eleven, Bea travels across the world to live in with Mr. and Mrs. Gregory who split their time between Boston and Maine. The Gregory’s have two sons: William and Gerald. Bea fits right in with the two boys quickly establishing her role as middle child. Overtime she becomes comfortable in her new life of luxury and riches and rarely misses her biological parents. At the end of the War, her new reality is snatched out from underneath her as she returns to London and her parents home. How will she cope leaving everything and everyone she lives behind?

What I liked:
-Reading about the three teens coming of age.
-Bea’s journey and the emotions that come with struggle of navigating two different lives.

What Could’ve Been Better:
-This book would have easily been a 5 star read for me if it had been focused a little less on character development, in turn placing more emphasis on plot development .
-The inclusion of more historical events or facts. I would have loved to know more about how children were paired with new families during this time.

The narration of this book was done well but I would have liked another reader to help differentiate between the characters. The narration pace was slightly slow so I was thankful that I was able to speed it up. The narrators reading style did however bring the text to life and I loved her soothing voice. Her voice added a nice sweetness to the story.

The story itself is an amazing, sweet love story that is a bit historical fiction and a bit romance. Set during the second world war, a young girl is sent alone on a ship from war-torn London over to a family in Boston that she has never met. She soon fits in with family with both an older and a younger brother. She becomes part of the family and when the war is over she is expected to go back to London. This story tells about Brea growing up, with two families in two different places and the story takes places over decades and is told from several characters point of views.

I absolutely recommend this tender story and I loved listening to the audiobook version of it.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me an advanced reader audiobook of this title to review.

This is a wonderful story of the two families Beatrix calls her own during and after WW2. This story focuses on her families and the trials and life they all live through in two countries mfrom Beatrix’s childhood to adulthood.

The story is told in many points of view so you see life through not just a child’s point of view during the war but also the two families adults and children so you get to read Beatrix’ connection to her families and
their feelings about both sending away their daughter to live in the US to be safer, and those adults who took in Beatrix and felt as though she was their own.

There is an underlining romance but that is not the main focus. I feel like I have read quite a few really rough emotional WW2 novels recently but this one stood out differently. While all the character points of view can be a lot I felt it was done really well and is well worth the read.

Reading with the audio book can be a bit confusing due to the many points of view so it’s helpful to have a paper copy near by, but the narrator does a really great job.

Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash is a Blend of Women's, Historical, and Romance Fiction!

Oh, how I love this story...

Despite a hard choice, working-class parents, Millie and Reginald Thompson, decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America to keep her safe from the bombs falling on 1940 London. She'll live with another family for the remainder of the war, then return home.

Greeted in Boston by Mr. and Mrs. Gregory and their two sons, Beatrix, who they begin to call Bea, is quickly made to feel like a member of their family. She's the daughter Mrs. G. has always longed for, and she easily fits between the two brothers, William, who is older, and Gerald, who is younger.

Bea becomes accustomed to the Gregory's affluent lifestyle and spending summers on the coast of Maine on their private island. She easily makes new friends who are curious about her other life and, as the years pass, her life in America begins to feel more natural to her than her life back in England.

When Bea is suddenly called home to England, she goes without question but she never forgets her other family in America...

Beyond That, the Sea is unlike any WWII Historical Fiction story I've read, as it focuses on the characters, not the war, and blends in Women's and Romance Fiction which softens and enriches the story overall.

The writing is beautifully descriptive, tender, and engaging and the story runs through the highs and lows of many emotions, switching back and forth, from one to another, and back again. The book doesn't end when Bea returns to England, that's just the first part of this story that continues on for many more years.

The telling of Beyond That, the Sea alternates through chapters of the primary characters from the two families, The Thompson's and The Gregory's. This gives the reader a perfect opportunity to become acquainted with each character as the years and the story progresses.

As I listening to the audiobook narrator, Ell Potter, I felt embraced by the sound of her voice. I have heard this captivating voice before, and experiencing her voicing skill and range is always a memorable one. Everyone should have the pleasure of listening to a story through the expertise of this narrator. It's simply unforgettable.

For me, Beyond That, the Sea, a debut novel, is a remarkable story that I chose to listen to rather than read, to take slowly and savor, to make it last just a little while longer, yet hoping it would never end. It's hopeful, uncertain, sometimes frustrating, but mostly beautiful in its telling and outcome. I look forward to what this author delivers next.

Before That, the Sea will be on my favorites shelf and one of my top reads for 2023. I highly recommend this audiobook to everyone!

Oh, how I love this story...

5 Beautifully Told Stars!

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Laura Spence-Ash for an ALC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.

I have to say I was quite an emotional mess when I finished this book. It was a roller coaster ride and I definitely didn’t want to get off. I read it as part of a buddy read group and while my friends sped through it because they couldn’t get enough I actually put it away because I didn’t want it to end. That’s a testament to the beauty, aching tenderness, sadness, and pure heart that went into Laura Spence-Ash’s DEBUT novel, Beyond That, the Sea.

I went into this reading blindly, only knowing it was about WWII and a young girl coming to America. I will try not to give away too much because truly, the story deserves to be read as such.

In 1940, German bombs have been to fall in London. Reggie and Millie make the difficult decision to send 11 year-old Beatrix to America for safety, along with other British children. She comes to live with Ethan and Nancy Gregory, “Mr & Mrs G.”, and their two sons, Gerald and William in Boston.

As the war ends she must return home, but what is home anymore?
“The girl in the tale is different from the girl at home, and this will all become something that once happened to her in a dream.”

The book ranges from 1940 to 1965 (with the epilogue in 1977). The chapters alternate between the POV of the different characters. In my opinion, although it is technically a book that takes place during a historical event I wouldn’t necessarily classify it a historical fictional novel. I mean, technically it is one because it’s about the past (in the same way that Carrie Soto is one) but I’m more apt to classify it as a coming-of-age/Bildungsroman as we see Beatrix go through a huge change from age 11 to 36. (But I’m not a publisher so… 😂)

I read this as an immersive read with the digital version and the audiobook. Ell Potter was a delicious narrator. I want her to read absolutely everything to me. She embodies Bea.

I can’t wait to read Laura Spence-Ash for years to come. The debuts this year have been phenomenal!

Thanks to Netgalley, Celadon for the eARC, and Macmillan Audio for the ALC!

In a Nutshell: A drama spanning a couple of decades, focussing on two families on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, with one woman who is common to both of them. Unlike what the blurb says, this isn’t a romantic story, with romance being a minor track. Better suited to those who enjoy character-oriented fiction.

Story Synopsis:
When the German bombs start falling over London in 1940, Reginald Thompson decides to send his eleven-year-old daughter Beatrix to an American family in Maine, much against the wishes of his wife Millie.
Uncertain of what awaits her in America, Beatrix arrives at the Gregory’s place, where Ethan, Nancy, William and Gerald Gregory are curiously awaiting their little British guest. Their open nature and different lifestyle soon melts away Beatrix’s reservations and she begins enjoying her life in the US. But they all know that this is only until the end of the war. Once the war is over, and Beatrix has to return, how can life be the same in post-war London?
The story focusses on all the key characters via a third person limited narration over a period of almost two decades.

Where the book worked for me:
😍 I has all but given up on WWII fiction as I am so saturated of that genre – every story was beginning to look the same! But stellar reviews by many of my GR friends pushed me into giving this one a go. I am glad I did! The story focusses not on the war itself, but on the life of Beatrix and the other characters during that period. With the war staying in the background, we get to glimpse a realistic perspective of ordinary life without repeated mentions of wartime atrocities.
😍 The book is divided into multiple sections, grouped together by years. Because of this, we get to see the characters at different stages of their lives, and they always seem to match the age in thought and action. In other words, the characters grow almost in front of our eyes.
😍 The blurb declares this “a sweeping, tender-hearted love story.” It is unfair to call this just a love story because it is so much more! I am always happier when stories focus more on every emotion than just on love, so as a historical drama, or even a coming-of-age story, it worked much better for me. But if you go in expecting romance, you *might* be disappointed.
😍 The writing explores an array of human emotions, be it pride or envy or anger or frustration or hope. It even shows the intricate connections between the key people, Beatrix’s struggle between her loyalty toward her own family and her feelings towards her foster family are especially well-written. It was a treat to see an author portray characters as realistic humans instead of caricatures.

Where the book left me with mixed feelings:
😐 We see the story unfurling from the point of view of five Gregorys (the fifth coming in later) and the three Thompsons. This gives us a wonderful look at the individual thought process of all the key characters. But it also increases the complicatedness of the storyline. The perspective changes are quite frequent, with a changeover sometimes happening within a few paragraphs. The third-person writing is a boon. (I would have gone nuts keeping track of so many voices in first person!)
😐 While I am happy that it didn’t focus too much on the war itself, the fact is that the blurb promised this to be a WWII-era story. But the wartime narrative lasts only up to the first one-third or so. The rest is set much after the war, leading right until the mid-1960s.
😐 The descriptions of the places, especially in the Maine scenes, is beautifully handled. (This isnt surprising, considering the author hails from New England.) London feels dull in comparison, though the author does try her best to do justice to the UK locales too.

Where the book could have worked better for me:
😖 The final third of the book feels too dragged. Some decisions taken by the characters in the second half seemed at odds with their personality.
😖 I would have loved for the focus to stay on the original Gregorys and the Thompsons. But the added point of view of a character who comes into the plot much later, felt like an overkill.
😖 One thing that seriously creeped me out was how Nancy Gregory insisted on giving almost-teenaged Beatrix a bath, and couldn’t even see the flaw in her behaviour, even after her husband pointed it out. Nancy is shown to be a level-headed woman in every other scene, so this weird habit just didn’t make sense.

The audiobook experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 12 hours 18 minutes, is narrated by Ell Potter. She reads the book well. With too many third person perspectives, she takes the smart decision of not giving individual voices to each character, but just focusses on narrating everyone well. I liked her performance. Also, as character-oriented stories are relatively slow, the audiobook was a good way of going through it at a steady pace.
That said, remembering all the characters and whose point of view is currently active, gets a bit tricky. Therefore, I wouldn’t recommend the audiobook to newbie listeners.

All in all, this is definitely a good debut work, albeit with minor flaws. It will work well for readers who would enjoy a slowburn, character-oriented family drama with characters that are human rather than perfect. Keep in mind: it is not exactly a romance, and it is not exactly a WWII story. Go in with the right expectations.

3.75 stars, rounding up for the audio version.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the DRC of “Beyond That, the Sea”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Content warnings: Death of characters, some fat-shaming and religion-shaming (both because of characters’ conservative opinions).

Beyond That, the Sea spoke to my soul. There's a lot of WW2 historical fiction out there, and, to be honest, I was kind of burned out on the genre. I was reluctant to pick up another on the topic, but I'm so glad that I made the decision to give it a try. This novel is absolutely beautiful in its character development. I loved Laura Spence-Ash broke the novel into three parts and focused less on the actual war going on around the characters, but more on their lives and the impact it had on them. I rarely say this, but Beyond That, The Sea could have been double the length it is and I still would have been compulsively reading away, anxious to see what they were each up to. I found them that interesting. Thanks so much for the opportunity to review!

This story to me, is about life and how unpredictable, strange and wonderful it can be. The main character is Beatrix, who was sent to the states by her parents in England to keep her safe during WWII. She is just eleven years old when we meet her and very angry and frightened about being sent so far from home. I enjoyed watching her grow from a shy young girl into a confident woman.

I also enjoyed the multiple POV the story is told from. There was one character in particular that had it not been for hearing things from his perspective, I probably wouldn’t have cared much for him. But as it turns out, I found myself wrapped up in each of the characters and their lives.

The story is well told and memorable. Even though it is set against the back drop of WWII and highlights the very real events of parents sending their children abroad to protect them, its focus wasn’t so much on the historical as it was about family and the various ways we come together. It is a story about the human experience and the many ways we experience love.

What an absolutely amazing book!

With bombs landing all around their homeland, eleven year old Beatrix- ‘Bea’ Thompson's father (against her mother's objection) decides to send her to America to keep her safe. Bea ends up living in Bostom with the Gregory family. They immediately take to her and treat her like family. Bea is homesick, however, and takes some time to adjust.

Eventually she adjusts and begins to enjoy life in American. Nancy, mother of the Gregory family, considers her a daughter she never had, being the mom of two boys. They grown close, and she also goes close with both the Gregory sons.

Meanwhile, her parents are not living such a grand life. The war is still raging, and they miss her. Her mother is taking it especially hard and their marriage is strained because she holds it against Bea's father.

The war finally ends, and it is bittersweet for Bea when she is able to return home to her famil.
She never loses the feelings she has for the Gregory family, each member leaving a permanent impression on her.

I don't want to go into a lot of detail and spoil this. But know if you are a fan of historical fiction, you will ove this. And even if you aren't a fan, I think this book may still be for you.

There is sadness, loss, grief, and longing in this book. But there is love, family, found family, and character growth as well. It was such a beautifully written story!

Many tanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for my honest review!

For someone who doesn't read a ton of historical fiction, I could not put this book down. It was such a lovely story even though it was pretty dark throughout. While there are a decent amount of characters, I had no trouble keeping them in order and found the many relationships to be fully formed and unique. I alternated between listening and reading this one - the audiobook was beautifully done but I did appreciate the book having the year written on the bottom on each page which made it easier to keep track of with all the time jumps.

I really liked this story of about Bea, a London girl who moves in with a Boston family to escape Nazi bombing during World War II. As the war ends and Bea returns to her old life, she begins to realize that she doesn’t really know where or with what family she belongs.
Beyond That, the Sea is a bittersweet story about the changes that happen over the passage time, and makes you realize that there’s really no such thing as going home again.