"Spence-Ash has written the novel in eight points of view but each character is utterly
three-dimensional and distinct. This debut novel captivated me from start to finish." -Julia
Quinn author of the Bridgerton Series A sweeping tenderhearted love story Beyond That
the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash tells the story of two families living through World War II on
opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean and the shy irresistible young woman who will call them
both her own. As German bombs fall over London in 1940 working-class parents Millie and
Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter
Beatrix to America. There she'll live with another family for the duration of the war where
they hope she'll stay safe. Scared and angry feeling lonely and displaced Bea arrives in
Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G and their sons William and Gerald fold Bea
seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family learning their ways and
their stories adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boys one older
and one younger and fills in the gap between them. Before long before she even realizes it
life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet spare life with her own
parents back in England. As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new life-summers on
the coast in Maine new friends clamoring to hear about life across the sea-the girl she had
been begins to fade away until abruptly she is called home to London when the war ends.
Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the
Atlantic back to her new old world. As she returns to post-war London the memory of her
American family stays with her never fully letting her go and always pulling on her heart as
she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own. As we follow Bea over time
navigating between her two worlds Beyond That the Sea emerges as a beautifully written
absorbing novel full of grace and heartache forgiveness and understanding loss and love.
