The Ocean Between Us
-
- $1.99
Publisher Description
Grace Bennett has it all–three wonderful children, a devoted husband and a life of adventure and travel. But beneath the calm demeanor of an efficient Navy wife, Grace stands at the crossroads–of her life and her marriage. She's tired, out of shape and feeling invisible. Somewhere between her husband's demanding career, raising a family, the constant uprooting and the Navy's routine, Grace has lost her sense of self. Something needs to change. She needs to change.
Steve Bennett simply can't understand the unraveling of his wife's heart. He thought he was proving his love to her with each promotion. But he now realises they were seeing their marriage through different eyes. And when a nearly forgotten secret resurfaces, Grace's discontent comes into sharp focus. Now Steve must try to make their marriage right again before his next deployment. For himself. For his family. For the twenty years of shared history that have always anchored him to home. Then duty calls.
Separated by an ocean of regrets and longing, Grace and Steve take a hard look at their faltering marriage, the love that brought them together and the family they cherish.
But just as they come to grips with it all, the unthinkable happens–a disaster aboard Steve's aircraft carrier shatters Grace's world. As she gathers her children around her and waits for news, she faces the cold truth that life's biggest chances can slip away while you're looking for guarantees.
'A human and multilayered story exploring duty to both country and family.'–Nora Roberts
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A midlife marital crisis threatens the stability of a squeaky-clean navy family in Wiggs's latest, which overcomes a listless, saccharine start thanks to a rousing finale aboard an aircraft carrier. Steve and Grace Bennett look like the perfect military couple: Steve, a former pilot, has become an ambitious officer, and Grace successfully cares for their three bright, talented kids while he's deployed. But rips appear in the marriage fabric when Grace, seeking more in life, starts a relocation business, begins a fitness program and buys a small but lovely house near the Seattle base they temporarily call home. Wiggs's light, engaging style keeps the story moving in the first half, despite too many syrupy family scenes and a far-fetched subplot in which Josh, a fledgling pilot under Steve's command, is revealed to be his long-lost son from a brief, ill-advised teen marriage. This revelation widens the gap between Grace and Steve, who never told her about wife number one, and Wiggs balances their turmoil with a subplot involving their oldest daughter, Emma, and a hunky but predatory high school boy whose father is Steve's boss. But the tension isn't all emotional: Josh goes on a training exercise that nearly turns deadly, and Steve, trying to stop a deadly fire aboard his aircraft carrier, gets swept overboard into the icy Pacific. While Wiggs tends to nip suspense in the bud and linger on overripe romantic sentiments, her characters are sympathetic and her tale of frayed loves mended is sure to strike a responsive chord in a maturing audience.
