Sisters of the Sweetwater Fury
By Kinley Bryan
Three sisters. Two Great Lakes. One furious storm.
Based on actual events...
It's 1913 and Great Lakes galley cook Sunny Colvin has her hands full feeding a freighter crew seven days a week, nine months a year. She also has a dream—to open a restaurant back home—but knows she'd never convince her husband, the steward, to leave the seafaring life he loves.
In Sunny’s Lake Huron hometown, her sister Agnes Inby mourns her husband, a
U.S. Life-Saving Serviceman who died in an accident she believes she could have
prevented. Burdened with regret and longing for more than her job at the dry
goods store, she looks for comfort in a secret infatuation.
Two hundred miles away in Cleveland, youngest sister Cordelia Blythe has pinned her hopes for adventure on her marriage to a lake freighter captain. Finding herself alone and restless in her new town, she joins him on the season’s last trip up the lakes.
On November 8, 1913, a deadly storm descends on the Great Lakes, bringing hurricane-force winds, whiteout blizzard conditions, and mountainous thirty-five-foot waves that last for days. Amidst the chaos, the women are offered a glimpse of the clarity they seek, if only they dare to perceive it.
Three sisters. One storm. A storm that would make the history books with how destructive it was. This novel is about that storm and how it would change the lives of these sisters, forever.
This novel is about an event I know nothing about, and yet, the blurb and the cover reeled me in and I couldn’t help but set my expectations, for this story, high. I was so sure it was going to be a fabulous book, just from reading the blurb! When I turned the first page, I admit, I was a little trepidatious that I had set my expectations too high, and that I would end up being thoroughly disappointed in this novel. This was not the case at all. Somehow, this book exceeded the expectations I had set.
With three different perspectives, some may be cautious about reading this book, as multiple perspectives can sometimes make it confusing to follow a story. Please let me lay such concerns to rest! Having the three sisters, watching the storm unfold from different parts of The Great Lakes, gives an entirely rounded view of the horrors as well as demonstrating just how deadly the storm was. Nearly every chapter leaves you on a small cliffhanger, making you perpetually concerned for the characters, and eager to keep reading, for you will be desperate to get back to each character, which means you are simply longing to keep reading - in other words, you will find yourself devouring this book.
As I was reading, I loved and was scared for the characters as if they were my own sisters. I had to know they were safe, and I absolutely had to know what happened next. This book is written so fabulously, I lived the story.
This is an author to keep an eye on, for someone who can create a masterpiece such as this is certainly someone who has some more tricks up their sleeve.
Head over to your favourite online bookstore to buy your copy.
Kinley Bryan
Kinley Bryan is an Ohio native who counts numerous Great Lakes captains among her ancestors. Her great-grandfather Walter Stalker was captain of the four-masted schooner Golden Age, the largest sailing vessel in the world when it launched in 1883. Kinley’s love for the inland seas swelled during the years she spent in an old cottage on Lake Erie. She now lives with her husband and children on the Atlantic Coast, where she prefers not to lose sight of the shore. Sisters of the Sweetwater Fury is her first novel.
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Thank you to The Coffee Pot Book Club for giving me the opportunity to read this book.
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ReplyDeleteThank you for reviewing Sisters of the Sweetwater Fury! Much appreciated!
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