From modern-day Roanoke Island to the sweeping backdrop of North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains and Roosevelt's WPA folklore writers, past and present intertwine to create an unexpected destiny.

Restaurant owner Whitney Monroe is desperate to save her business from a hostile takeover. The inheritance of a decaying Gilded Age hotel on North Carolina's Outer Banks may provide just the ray of hope she needs. But things at the Excelsior are more complicated than they seem. Whitney's estranged stepfather is entrenched on the third floor, and the downstairs tenants are determined to save the historic building. Searching through years of stored family heirlooms may be Whitney's only hope of quick cash, but will the discovery of an old necklace and a Depression-era love story change everything?

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©2015 Wingate Media, LLC (P)2015 Recorded Books
Listening Length
13 hours and 34 minutes
Author
Lisa Wingate
Narrator
Kate Forbes
Audible release date
September 9, 2015
Language ( )

The Sea Keepers Daughters is the third book in the Carolina series and it's the first one I have read. The book can be read as a stand-alone, at least, I think so since I found this one to be perfectly fine to read even though I haven't read the previous two books.

Here is the blurb from the book: From modern-day Roanoke Island to the sweeping backdrop of North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains and Roosevelt's WPA folklore writers, past and present intertwine to create an unexpected destiny...

I found it so beautifully written that I just had to add it to my review even though I ordinarily don't do that, but it summarizes the book so well. I was quite captivated both by the blurb and the cover of the book, and I'm happy to say that the book was just as good as I hoped it to be.

I have found that I prefer romance book when the romance is incorporated into the story and not romance as the main genre. As long as the romance part doesn't take the central stage is it fine and this book manages to convey an interesting story and integrate the romance part without making me mentally roll my eyes.

Whitney trying to save her restaurant and at the same time finding letters from her grandmother's sister. Whitney never knew her grandmother had a sister so she is very surprised to learn that fact. As the story progress, we get to follow Whitney trying to find something among all the family heirlooms that will save her business, but we also get to know her grandmother's sister Alice through the letters she discovers. She learns that Alice traveled the Blue Ridge Mountains as part of the Federal Writers' Folklore Project.

I admit that I was taken by surprise how engaged in the story I would become and how the ending would make me feel. This was just a truly beautifully written story and I'm quite eager to get my hands on the two previous books in this series.

I received this copy from Tyndale House Publishers, Inc through Edelweiss in return for an honest review! Thank you! ( )

I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did in the end. I initially struggled to connect with the narrator, who approaches her eventual inheritance of a historic building and its contents as a way to raise money for her struggling business. The discovery of letters from a long-gone ancestor and a few objects of mysterious origin mark the beginning of a journey to uncover past secrets and help her to make stronger connections with her hometown and remaining family. There was more to this story than I initially realized and I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. Overall, this was good read and definitely one for fans of dual-time novels. ( )

Everyone else has done a wonderful job of summarizing the story, so I won't do that. It wasn't until the end, that I understood the title, but I did enjoy getting to know about things that I hadn't heard of before, in particularly the Melungeon people of Appalachia and the FWP ( )

4.5 stars

The Sea Keeper's Daughters by Lisa Wingate is a beautiful journey of self-discovery and healing for lead protagonist Whitney Monroe. This third installment in the delightful Carolina Chronicles can be read as a standalone but I highly recommend all of the books in the series.

Desperately trying to save the restaurant she co-owns with her cousin, Whitney's life is further complicated after her stepfather, Clyde Fransczyk, falls and she is forced to confront the complicated past she has ignored since her mother's death. Traveling to the Outer Banks to take care of her stepfather and the Excelsior, her family's historic waterfront hotel, Whitney uncovers startling information about her family's history that provides surprising insight into herself, her grandmother and her strained relationship with her stepfather. She also learns new information about her mother and her late in life marriage to Clyde that makes it very difficult to for her to go through with her plans to convince him to move into assisted living so she can sell the family hotel to an overzealous developer. Before Whitney can decide what she is going to do, the situation with the restaurants takes a dark turn and she is torn between preserving her family's legacy and her duty to her loyal employees.

For the first time in her life, Whitney is on the verge of failure and with so many people counting on her, she is stubbornly fighting to keep the second restaurant from closing down. Her tenacity is admirable but her reasons for refusing to concede defeat are wrapped up in her guilt over making an impetuous business decision that could destroy what she and her cousin have worked so hard to create. This stubbornness extends to her attitude towards Clyde and it is incredibly frustrating watching Whitney refuse to consider other options for his care. She also seems incredibly short-sighted about her decision to continue the battle to keep the second restaurant afloat. She is so certain that she knows what is right that she remains on her chosen path long after she should have explored other options. Overall, Whitney is a likable but exasperating character who lets her fears and inability to trust prevent her from moving forward until she is forced to by outside influences.

Through a series of newly discovered letters written by her grandmother's twin sister, Alice, Whitney learns intriguing information about the 1930's Federal Writer's Project. As one of the Project writers, Alice traveled to distant areas throughout Appalachia where she interviewed and gathered oral histories from as many people as possible for the program. This peek into a long forgotten piece of American history is incredibly fascinating but it also provides Whitney with a different viewpoint of her grandmother and how those long ago events shaped her into the woman she came to know. She also sees how her mother's past experiences influenced her decisions later in life and this new perspective helps Whitney make peace with her loss.

The Sea Keeper's Daughters by Lisa Wingate is an incredibly well-written and compelling novel of redemption. It is a marvelous tale that weaves fact and fiction into an enthralling story of love and healing that I highly recommend to old and new fans of the Carolina Chronicles. ( )