Sci-Fi Adventure Beyond the Ocean

In 1940, as the German bombs rained down on London, Millie and Reginald Thompson, a middle-class English couple, made a heart-wrenching decision: to protect their 11-year-old daughter Beatrix, they would send her to America.

Welcomed by the affluent Gregory family in Boston, Beatrix found a comfortable home with Nancy and Ethan Gregory, and their two sons, William, 13, and Gerald, three years her junior. Nancy, who had always dreamed of having a daughter, took Beatrix under her wing and treated her as her own child.

Beatrix thrived in her new environment, attending the best schools, making new friends, and spending her summers at the Gregory family's vacation home on an island in Maine. Though she continued to write to her parents weekly, the bond between them gradually began to wane.

As the war came to an end, the question of Beatrix's homecoming arose. Would she be able to find her place in a country that was both familiar and foreign to her? Particularly as a budding romance had blossomed with William.

Over the course of two decades, Laura Spence-Ash's debut novel follows the story of this young woman, torn between two cultures, two families, and two countries, and ultimately, between two brothers. Told from multiple perspectives, the sensitive narrative offers a captivating tale from start to finish.

"A magnetic debut novel," praised Kirkus Reviews, while Julia Quinn, the author of the Bridgerton series, described it as "a captivating story from beginning to end."

Beatrix's journey explores the complexities of identity, belonging, and the power of familial bonds, both chosen and inherited. As she navigates the shifts in her life, she is forced to confront the question of where her true home lies, and the sacrifices she must make to find her place in the world.

Spence-Ash's lyrical prose and multi-layered storytelling have earned her debut novel critical acclaim, positioning it as a must-read for fans of emotionally resonant fiction that delves into the nuances of the human experience.

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