Erica Boyce

This is a story about crop circles – yes, those otherworldly designs that appear in fields of corn or wheat. This plot line provides the basis for a greater story both Daniel Green, the crop circler, and the family he creates it for.

This is ultimately a story about family and forgiveness. There’s a bit of symbolism in the design that Daniel creates, where circles intersect and overlap each other, just as the stories overlay and intersect each other. As such, the story is told from multiple points of view, primarily by Daniel, Molly (the wife of the farmer who hires Daniel), and Nessa, Molly and Sam’s daughter. Boyce does well to balance the voices so no one story outweighs the other, and she handles the switching of narrators well.

There is a lot of emotional stuff going on here: terminal illness, the fallout of infidelity, addiction, the effect of psychological issues on both the sufferer and those around them, and multiple strained parent-child relationships, the search for forgiveness and the sacrifices we make for others. (I did tell you that you’d need a tissue or two.)

I don’t want to give any spoilers, but there is a passage about one character’s illness, and the imagery of a pebble in a shoe is perfection. There is raw honesty in the exchanges.

While I wouldn’t call this a light and cheery book, The Fifteen Wonders of Daniel Green IS a beautifully told tale. The characters are real and flawed. Details and hints are dropped left and right, but they don’t begin to fall together at first. Instead, the pieces slowly tumble and roll around until they spill together in this incredible mosaic of a story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing me with an advance copy of this book. All opinions (and typos) are my own.… (meer)

Being a fisherman’s wife in a small town has its advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages include support from all of the families living in the town when a fisherman goes missing or when he dies at sea.

The disadvantages include everyone knowing everything about every family including secrets.

When John Staybrook goes missing, his daughter doesn’t believe he is gone because he promised to come home after each trip.

Ella was determined that her father didn’t go out to sea on that stormy day and tries to find him with Lacey unwillingly helping in the search.

There are many sub topics addressed with one being drug addiction as we were taken back to the main character's years as a teenager and how drugs ruined her acceptance to Brown and a glimpse into the rehabilitation system.

Alcoholism was also addressed, as well as getting some insight into how the adoption process works.

LOST AT SEA touches on family, choices, hope, and secrets kept.

It took a few chapters to get connected and to see where the story was going, but everything connected and came together in the end for a satisfying read with many memorable characters.

The title also seems to have two connotations for me...LOST because of the ocean’s power and LOST because of the power of addictions. 4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.… (meer)