Between the Sound and Sea

Set along the barrier islands on the North Carolina coast, this contemporary inspirational novel combines romance, history, mystery, and biblical truth.

Josephina Harris, known as Joey to her friends and family, isn’t sure which way to turn when her father’s construction company’s reputation is damaged after a lawsuit is filed against it. Joey’s own event planning business in their community in Copper Creek, Tenn., begins to struggle as the small-town locals cancel contracts that they’ve made with her because they no longer trust her family.

When Joey learns of a short-term employment opportunity to restore a decommissioned lighthouse on Bleakpoint Island off the North Carolina coast, she decides to apply for the job. When she wins the contract and begins work on the lighthouse, she learns about the legends and ghost stories surrounding the island’s history.

Joey’s discovery of hidden notes in the lighthouse’s walls forges a strengthening connection to her 81-year-old employer, Walt O’Hare; she learns the reason he bought the island and is paying for the lighthouse’s restoration. Walt haltingly discloses his past relationship with the lighthouse keeper and his daughter, who lived on the island during WWII when German U-boats torpedoed hundreds of Allied freighters along the Eastern Seaboard. Joey learns that one tragic night, Walt’s life was forever changed when he was injured and the lighthouse keeper and his daughter went missing.

As Walt comes to terms with his regrets, Joey faces her own misgivings about her family’s hardships and her personal failures. Further complicated by her growing romantic feelings for Walt’s grandson Finn, who carries a boatload of his own regrets, Joey must decide what to hang on to and what to let go of.

Author Amanda Cox explores themes of living with regrets, choosing to forgive others and oneself, and discovering hope within the context of God’s redeeming work in people’s lives. As Joey says to a young friend with regrets of his own, “God meets us right where we’re at. And maybe things in our lives get broken down and beaten up along the way. The good news is that restoration work is kind of his specialty.”

(Revell)