2016 Christy Award Winner (Contemporary novel category)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 … 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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Don’t miss this book that came before the transcendent “Before We Were Yours.” It’s a beautiful, multilayered story of past and present–romantic and wonderfully wrought–a story to treasure.
An engrossing story, rich with detail, history, intrigue, and characters that emerge from the pages as if they are long lost friends. If you enjoy epistolary fiction, this novel is sure to please. Immersive and captivating and beautifully written.
When I started to read Lisa Wingate’s newest novel, The Sea Keeper’s Daughters, I found I could say with her character, Whitney Monroe: “I could no more resist it than if it’d been a gold coin, just waiting for me to grab it up and put it in my pocket.” Lisa interweaves the story of Whitney’s desperate need to save her restaurant business in Michigan with the story of her inherited run-down hotel on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She also masterfully ties the tale of her relative Alice into the plot via old letters she discovers in the hotel. Alice’s letters reveal fascinating historical facts about the Federal Writers Project and a group of people identified as the Melungeons. The climax of this magical saga is both surprising and riveting. I highly recommend The Sea Keeper’s Daughters!
Just as I learned so much of United Stated History while reading Before We Were Yours, I learned so much reading The SeaKeepers Daughter. We all learned of the CCC and the PWA during the Depression, but who learned anything about the Federal Writer’s Project other than a brief mention?
Great book!
A mixture of fiction and surprising facts and the discovery of the Mulengeon people and how they were shunned by the people of the Blue Ridge Mountains with a totally surprise ending.
I just finished this book, as I didn’t put it down for 2 days. Not exactly suspenseful, but I just wanted to know what she would find next, what decisions the main character would make. I learned about a whole historic government program that was created after the depression, which I hadn’t known about before. Loved the history and the whole story line. totally enjoyed, and am now wanting to buy the other 2 books in the series!
I have not read the first books in this series but this one was very good on it’s own. Whitney is a confused young woman who is an amazing cook that is trying to start a restaurant with her cousin. She receives a call that her step-father is not in good health and she returns to Manteo, NC, to take care of the hotel that her mother owned before her death. What follows is an amazing story of finding one’s self. Decisions and choices that once seemed so easy don’t continue to be that way. I loved this book from the beginning. I would recommend this book to anyone.
I received a free copy of this book for my honest review from bookfun.org
All Lisa Wingate’s books are great.
Well written clean romance that introduces a cast of likeable and true-to-life characters.
Every story by Lisa Wingate impresses me more. She has such a wonderful way of weaving a tale. This book is the third in the Carolina Heirlooms series. Not only is it a story unique in itself, it ties back to the first two books completing the woven image.
In this book, readers are introduced to one of FDR’s alphabet agencies whose mission was to record the stories of the people living in each state. The focus of these characters was North Carolina Appalachia. We learn about their travels through letters written and discovered years later. As the main character reads the letters, it takes her on a journey of self-discovery. This is a story of building, restoring, and realizing relationships.
I enjoyed the elements of faith and trust in God found in this trilogy of books. They were interesting and refreshing reads!
This book was very interesting with a lot of history, some mystery, bit of difficulty figuring who the bad guy was and why people had the attitudes they had.
Exclusive.
My favorite of Lisa Wingate’s so far. I had never heard of the WPA Federal Writer’s Project or Melungeons. Loved the combination of Alice’s story in the 1930’s and Whitney’s in present day. What a great ending!
This book was very interesting and original. I would read more like this.
Wonderful book. Loved the story and characters.
The main character, Whitney was in the restaurant business with her cousin in Michigan, they had one great restaurant going and were in the process of opening a second one when everything that could go wrong did. She had to go to the N.C. Outer Banks to sell an old glitzy hotel that belonged in the family or find some historical treasure that she could sell. Of course there is romance in the book, something was always going on and you never knew what was going to happen next. Great read.
The Seakeepers Daughters was an lovely, thought provoking story. It introduced fact-based historical information that I found fascinating.
I loved the unfolding of the story, the discovery of history. The characters could have been a little more developed.
A good story but too many details in the background story. Literally had to make myself finish the book
Too many subjects. 3 books could have been written with all of the plots she used and in the end she didn’t tie everything together