A Heart Adrift by Laura Frantz

My thoughts:  The setting for this grand read takes this reader very close to my home roots - Coastal North Carolina. While a tad further up the coastline, the island and cities or villages of Virginia are much the same as my North Carolina beaches and historical city of Wilmington. So I felt very much at home in A Heart Adrift.

Having actually visited historic Williamsburg Virginia and walked the streets reconstructed to very much resemble the 1700s when Esmee lived and ran her chocolate shop, I can experience mentally her life during those uncertain times.

Having spent many days on the beach and living through raging hurricanes and seeing first-hand the terrible destruction they can cause, I can imagine how horrific it must have been when the tumultuous storm swept over their lighthouse island.

Historically, the time was ripe with breeding a strong continental backbone of naval and authority figures that would play major roles in American Independence soon to come though that was not afoot during this book. Seafaring, privateering, treasures were the order of the day during this time period; and A Heart Adrift had it characters cast into major roles of those that go to sea and those who stand and wait.

I totally enjoyed reading A Heart Adrift, and it proves again that a book by Laura Frantz is worth the wait. I highly recommend.

About the book: It is 1755, and the threat of war with France looms over colonial York, Virginia. Chocolatier Esmee Shaw is fighting her own battle of the heart. Having reached her twenty-eighth birthday, she is reconciled to life alone after a decade-old failed love affair from which she's never quite recovered. But she longs to find something worthwhile to do with her life.

Captain Henri Lennox has returned to port after a lengthy absence, intent on completing the lighthouse in the dangerous Chesapeake Bay, a dream he once shared with Esmee. But when the colonial government asks him to lead a secret naval expedition against the French, his future is plunged into uncertainty.

Will a war and a cache of regrets keep them apart, or can their shared vision and dedication to the colonial cause heal the wounds of the past? Bestselling and award-winning author Laura Frantz whisks you away to a time fraught with peril--on the sea and in the heart--in this redemptive, romantic story.

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a review. Opinions are mine, alone and are freely given.