A Heart Adrift by Laura Frantz REVIEWED

 About the Book:

It is 1755, and the threat of war with France looms over colonial York, Virginia. Chocolatier Esmée Shaw is fighting her own battle of the heart. Having reached her twenty-eighth birthday, she is reconciled to life alone after a decade-old failed love affair from which she's never quite recovered. But she longs to find something worthwhile to do with her life.

Captain Henri Lennox has returned to port after a lengthy absence, intent on completing the lighthouse in the dangerous Chesapeake Bay, a dream he once shared with Esmée. But when the colonial government asks him to lead a secret naval expedition against the French, his future is plunged into uncertainty.

Can Esmée and Henri's shared vision and dedication to the colonial cause heal the wounds of the past and reunite them?

Review:

"Her fervent prayers went the way of her hopes and dreams and became floating wreckage." (p, 69)

Esmee Shaw's inner dialogue regarding her failed relationship of the past collide with a reality that takes she and her family to the brink of war.  This is a story that draws your heart in and refuses to let go.  Laura Frantz drops breadcrumbs all along the path to lead the reader into a story that far surpasses what they could ever imagine!  Romance, history and intrigue combine in the most unexpected ways, and you will be hard pressed to lay the book aside!

As I write this, it's been a few days since I finished the book, and, as I thumb through its pages, I recall the characters and their relationships vividly!  Esmee's family became dear to me as did Captain Lennox and his lighthouse.  There are elements of relational conflict that work themselves out in sometimes painful ways.  The point is, that they work out as they need to, and not without consequences.  This book wove a close family dynamic into the story in a way that really appealed to me, and it worked to make the historical context all the more poignant.

I don't want to give away the plot, but I will say that I was thrilled over and over again with the personal integrity of the main characters and their selfless love for one another.  Their relationship had far reaching effects on everyone else in the story!

This is a beautiful, exciting, historically intriguing novel that will appeal to a large audience!  I am happy to recommend it to you!!

About the Author:

Laura Frantz is a Christy Award winner and the ECPA bestselling author of a dozen novels, including An Uncommon Woman, Tidewater Bride, The Frontiersman's Daughter, Courting Morrow Little, The Colonel's Lady, The Lacemaker, and A Bound Heart. She is a proud mom to an American soldier and a career firefighter. When not at home in Kentucky, she and her husband live in Washington State. Learn more at www.laurafrantz.net.