Title: The Whiskey Sea
Author: Ann Howard Creel
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Release Date: August 23, 2016
Genre: Historical Fiction (1920s), Literary Fiction
Genre: Historical Fiction (1920s), Literary Fiction
Running rum, she’ll risk her life—and her heart.
Motherless and destitute, Frieda Hope grows up during
Prohibition determined to make a better life for herself and her sister, Bea.
The girls are taken in by a kindly fisherman named Silver, and Frieda begins to
feel at home whenever she is on the water. When Silver sells his fishing boat
to WWI veteran Sam Hicks, thinking Sam would be a fine husband for Frieda,
she’s outraged. But Frieda manages to talk Sam into teaching her to repair boat
engines instead, so she has a trade of her own and won’t have to marry.
Frieda quickly discovers that a mechanic’s wages won’t
support Bea and Silver, so she joins a team of rumrunners, speeding into
dangerous waters to transport illegal liquor. Frieda becomes swept up in the
lucrative, risky work—and swept off her feet by a handsome Ivy Leaguer who’s in
it just for fun.
As danger mounts and her own feelings threaten to drown her,
can Frieda find her way back to solid ground—and to a love that will sustain
her?
Filled with historical authenticity, The Whiskey Sea by Ann Howard Creel captures you from the very first impression of the book itself, the cover. That cover is beautiful, in a solemn and poignant way, just as the story reads. The journey filled with struggles in a time period where corruption and risks brings a life uncertain. Well-written and poised with a story line that is as bittersweet as it is predictable, yet still draws you in, till the very last line.The Prohibition period is not a time period I read often, and usually I'd think more on the lines of The Great Gatsby and Julie Lessman's A Hope Undaunted. In truth, flappers and the gentlemen with suave hairstyles and smart tuxes. In The Whiskey Sea, it opens a whole new visual of an industry, illegal it may be and what it meant for those living not in major cities.
In all, a good story that's worth the read.
Scroll on down for your chance to win a copy. For my clean readers, there are some profanity and mentions of intimacy, but not too graphic.
TO PURCHASE A COPY
Ann Howard Creel was born in Austin, Texas, and worked as a
registered nurse before becoming a full-time writer. She is the author of
numerous children’s and young adult books as well as fiction for adults. Her
children’s books have won several awards, and her novel The Magic of
Ordinary Days was made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie for CBS. Creel
currently lives and writes in Chicago.
TO CONNECT WITH ANN: Website
Very well said! It's a very haunting book and yes, bittersweet.
ReplyDeleteInteresting premise. Love the cover. My grandmother told me about some of the prohibition times.
ReplyDeleteThe beach/ocean is my favorite place to visit to I love this cover. It makes me think of dreaming about lands on the other side of all that water.
ReplyDeleteThe cover is beautiful, draws you in. TY for the chance.
ReplyDeleteLove the cover. Interesting topic for book being set during Prohibition. Can't wait to read.
ReplyDeleteI like the cover! :)
ReplyDeleteThe cover is lovely. I wouldn't have expected it to be set during the Prohibition Era based on the cover, though.
ReplyDeleteDianna
I'm not crazy about the era but this story interests me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for being a part of the tour!
ReplyDeleteThe cover is beautiful, it will sell the book.
ReplyDelete