“My sister has been dead for nearly fifteen years when I see her on the TV news.” With that fantastic opening line, we drop in to the story of 2 sisters, one presumed dead and one barely living. Two little girls, Josie and Kit, are raised by parents so enthralled with each other that they neglect their children, leaving them largely unattended in a little cove by their home. During a storm, a broken and unwanted teenage boy appears as their door, offering the girls a bit of security and stability but he has his own issues of neglect and abuse. Josie dies in a terrorist attack, or at least seems to, until 15 years later, when Kit and her mother see her on the news. But Josie isn’t Josie anymore. Kit goes half a world away to track down her sister and get some answers. The description of the events of these two lives, abuse, neglect, death, catastrophe and ultimately rebuilding of a sort, is like being battered by wave after wave, with periods of calm just long enough to catch your breath. The ocean is a central theme in the telling of this story but also in how it’s told, the ebb and flow of past and present, the switching narrative of sister to sister. O’Neal does a beautiful job with language, immersing the reader into the ocean, the atmosphere and even the food. I could have done with less of the sizzling romance although I realize that it was important to show Kit letting her guard down and being open to reevaluate her life. I feel that this particular bit of story line as the story of Sapphire House detracted from the main plot, turning it from a 4 star to a 3 star for me.
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