Still reeling over reading this debut novel by Laura Spence-Ash.

Spence-Ash tells this sweeping tale through 8 points of view, in short chapters that span from the years of WWII, through the 1950s, into the civil rights era of the 1960s, and concluding in the late 1970s.

Millie and Reginald make the heart-breaking choice to send their only child, 11 year old Beatrix, to the USA to keep her protected and safe during WWII London. Beatrix is welcomed whole-heartedly into the Gregory family, finding love, coming of age with her 2 "brothers," William and Gerald, spending long summers in Maine, and growing up before returning to England, after the war.

I was pulled deeply into this story, and each of its intrinsically linked characters with the continual passage of time.

Highly recommend, 5 stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

Beyond that, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 💫

WWII historical fiction stoked my love of historical fiction. Beyond that, the Sea is a lovely addition to the genre. Told through multiple POVs over decades we follow a young English girl sent to America for safety during the war. She goes to live with the Gregory's, a typical New England family, with two young boys. Beatrix spends her formative years in her temporary American home and sends her life in an unavoidable direction.

The short chapters told through the characters' POV lent richness to the story. As a mother, I can't imagine the anguishing decision to send your only child to safety. The impact to Beatrix's parents was visceral to me. Then the separation from the Gregory's at the end of the war was heartwrenching as well. There is so much loss woven throughout the novel. Those losses compound upon each other. Those losses are shared and carried within each of the characters.

One piece of the book stood out to me, especially with my dad's birthday coming up this week. After the death of a character, "What a beautiful day, he says, I can never decide. Is it better or worse when the world looks like this? Does it mitigate the loss when the world is so insistent on being beautiful?" The sun shone sooo brightly the day my dad passed last year. I was distraught that the world decided to be gorgeous while I felt so awful.

Happy pub day to this beautiful book! Thank you @netgalley and @celadonbooks for providing me this book for review!

Thank you to the publisher for the early Advanced Reader Copy. I heard about this book on one of the many book podcasts that I listen to and knew that I had to read it. I wasn't disappointed - this book was....WOW. The premise of European families sending their children to the US was extremely interesting and something that I hadn't heard of before. The character development and description of family was wonderful. I read this book in a single sitting and enjoyed every minute of it. If you like historical fiction and family drama with a touch of sad, this book is for you.

“She understands now that death has a way of providing freedom.”

I. Loved. This. Book. 🗣️

Beyond That, The Sea is an epic character driven historical fiction story about two families and the one young girl that ties them together, set in the time of WWII. It spans decades and generations and continents and is just so fantastically written. What a heartfelt and engrossing tale. I enjoyed every single word of it.

The audiobook was superb. I was so lost in this story I swear I know these people. I could feel their love and pain right along with them. The narrator did the accents, both for British and American, seamlessly.

If you liked We Are The Brennans then I think you will love this one!

Thank you to Netgalley, Celadon Books, Macmillan Audio, and the author for the #gifted copies.

If, like me, you read *a lot* of historical fiction - with a WWII timeline, with female narrators, with women on the cover, you know the type, then you might be excited to know that this book did actually feel different than most in the genre! Outside of young adult fiction, I had not read a novel about a child being sent away for safety during WWII, particularly somewhere as far away, and familiar to me, as America. I loved the duality the author explored in this exciting new adventure for the main character and the many points of view. Bea is traveling to America alone and meeting her new family, and making new friends, but this excitement is juxtaposed with the heartbreaking sadness of being separated from her true parents and for them their only child, during such a turbulent time.

After finishing reading "Beyond That, the Sea" I gave the book three stars, for reasons discussed below - but when I first started reading the novel I would've said it was a five-star read for sure. I absolutely loved the unique story and perspective. I also enjoyed the different storylines weaving together and everything felt very well constructed. I was excited to see what would happen in the main character's adventures in America, how her parents back home would adjust, how her new parents would as well, and what her new "brothers" would think of her. Yes, it was warm and cute but also there was a degree of emotional complexity, but in the end maybe not enough?

I absolutely love the characters that Laura Spence-Ash created for this novel. Their situations, personalities, and struggles all felt very real. We get a sneak into all of their perspectives allowing the reader to connect in different ways with each one. I would love to see a film adaptation of this movie to see who would be cast in each role, particularly the Boston mother, Nancy. She was such a warm and truly good presence in the book and in each of the characters' lives as a mother and friend. You don't see characters like hers often in modern fiction and it was a comfort and encouragement to read her parts of the story.

The reader who thought this would be a five-star read was pretty disappointed by the end of the book that seemed to drag out forever. I think a good chunk of "Beyond That, the Sea" could've been cut out. But then after a long middle, the ending also felt fairly rushed. I don't tend to like books that try to tie everything together very neatly in the end. I don't need to see characters through to the very end of their stories - and this book definitely does that. There also weren't any sharper edges to this book. The plot and characters felt soft and fluffy even in its sadder moments, the emotional complexity from the beginning of the novel didn't carry throughout the story.

I'm not someone who is typically bothered by authors breaking convention and deciding to not use quotation marks, but this one started to frustrate me by the end. In "Beyond That, the Sea", all of the conversations between characters are in italics, without quotations, and also without explicitly stating who is saying what. You know the characters fairly well, so you can discern who is saying what 80% of the time, but the other 20% where you have to guess really didn't add anything for me, and just became frustrating by the end. Whatever the purpose of this was it wasn't worth the repeated confusion for me as a reader.

I was so thrown off by the start of this book, there are maybe three pages where the main character, Bea, is looking back on her time in Maine. Because you don't know any of the characters yet it is just confusing; there are many character names and random information to absorb without any context. This introduction thankfully did not match the tone of the rest of the book, which I found very easy to follow. I almost set the book down to read something else, but I'm glad I didn't, so don't let the first few pages scare you off.

Beyond That, the Sea is a beautiful story that begs to be discussed. The novel begins in 1940 London when eleven-year-old Beatrix's parents make a heart wrenching decision. Because of the danger they are living in due to constant German air raids, they decide to send Beatrix to America to be adopted by a family for the duration of the war. Once Beatrix adapts to her new home Boston she comes to enjoy life with her two "brothers" and temporary parents. She develops strong feelings for both boys. Eventually Beatrix feels more comfortable with this life then the one she left behind. She especially loves summers on the family's island off the coast of Maine. After the war Beatrix returns to London and builds a life there, but the depth of the feelings for her Boston family never fades. The novel is told from the point of view of many different characters and this only strengthens the reader's connections to them all. This thought provoking debut novel will make Spence-Ash an author who is difficult to forget.

Beyond That, The Sea, Laura Spencer-Ash’s DEBUT book of historical fiction is eloquently written like a seasoned author.

It’s 1940 WWII and German bombs are falling in London. It is no longer considered a safe place. Reg and Millie Thompson make the heart-wrenching decision to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrice (Bea), to the United States to live with the Gregory family until the war is over. Bea and many other British children traveled through the seas together to reach America.

Bea easily fits into the Gregory family. Nancy, Ethan, and their two sons William and Gerald, treated her like she’d always been a part of their family and Bea flourished. Bea and Nancy kept close contact with the Thompson’s during this fragile time. However as five years passed, Bea begins to think of America as home.

After Bea returns to London, she moves forward with her life, as did the Gregory’s. However, the relationships that were made while Bea was in the states, forever change the lives of each character.

The author takes the reader through an emotional roller coaster of life-altering events. I felt every emotion along with each character.

This book is more about family and relationships than the details of the war. The characters take turns narrating each short chapter. I enjoyed this format immensely. The characters are eloquently developed, and I could clearly picture each scene.

I loved this book and whole-heartedly and would highly recommend it. I look forward to Laura’s future books.

I am grateful to Author Laura Spencer Ash, Celadon Books, and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to review this Advanced Reader’s Copy. This is a voluntary review, and all comments and opinions are entirely my own.

A lovely story of love and loss spanning 30+ years. Beginning with World War II, touching on the Kennedy"camelot" 1960's and ending with the civil rights era of the 1970's this historical novel follows of lives of two families forever intertwined.

This was my first book by this author and I loved it!! Loved the back and forth timeline! Amazing storyline with wonderful characters! Highly highly recommend

I went in with really no idea what this book was about, except that it was historical fiction. I'm not typically a big historical fiction fan, but this was done in a way that was mostly character driven. I really liked it more than I thought I would! Such a sweet story. I loved the relationship between Bea, William and Gerald. A story about love, relationships and hardships.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Books for gifting me a digital copy of this beautiful book by Laura Spence-Ash - 5 stars!

It's 1940, and bombs are beginning to fall around London. Millie and Reg Thompson make the horrible decision to send their 11-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America to live with another family until the war is over and it's safe for her to return. Bea is scared but finds that the Gregory family - parents Ethan and Nancy, sons William and Gerald - fold her seamlessly into their home and lives. She becomes close to both boys and spends summers at their Maine island, living a life she never even dreamed of. So when the war is over and she's called back to London, she doesn't seem to fit in there any longer.

This is just a gorgeously-written book - a character study of loss and love, moving forward, forgiveness and acceptance. We follow along as time moves on for all the characters, and we see how they are pulled towards each other throughout the years. While this is a historical fiction book and takes place during wartime, its focus is on families - the pain of turning a child over to another generous family and the bonds that result. I loved spending time with this book and hated to see it end. A must read!

This quiet but lovely novel has a historical setting, but really is more about the characters’ lives than the history happening around them. It begins during WWII, when an 11 year old girl named Beatrix is Seth by her parents to escape London during the Blitz by going to live with a family in the US. The book is told not just from Beatriz’s perspective, but also her two parents back in London, and all four members of the family she goes to live with, the parents and two brothers close to her age William and Gerard. A little less than half the book is set during WWII, but again is more a coming of age story than a war story, while the rest of the book covers the next few decades.

It’s a slow quiet book, but the writing is absolutely wonderful - think Ann Patchett or Ann Packer - and it’s hard to believe it’s a debut novel! While there are a lot of perspectives, I never got confused between them, and the very short chapters keep the narrative going. I will say I preferred the first part of the book about the war years, but the rest of the book was well done too and the ending was just perfection that left me crying. I will definitely keep an eye out for whatever Laura Spence-Ash writes next!

Thank you @celadonbooks and @netgalley for this advance copy. This story begins when 11 year old Beatrix is sent from London to America during World War II. We then follow the lives of Beatrix, her parents, and the family she lives with in America over the next several decades. I absolutely loved the first half of this novel. It is primarily character driven, but the short chapters and changing POVs gave it a propulsive feel. The second half of the story really seemed to change course and was not as strong for me, but I did enjoy the epilogue.

Bea is sent to live with an American family during World War II to escape the bombing of London. There she lives with the Gregorys and becomes a part of the family as she settles into her new life and finds peace in a time of turmoil. When the war is over and she returns to London somewhat reluctantly, she finds it difficult to reconnect with her mom and her old life and feels somewhat adrift. As the years pass, the lives of the two families diverge and yet are still strongly connected from the time Bea spent in America, particularly between Bea and the two Gregory children. Overall, a well-written historical fiction novel that focuses on the sacrifices made during the war and the strength of finding family.

I have to say I was quite an emotional mess when I finished this book. It was a roller coaster ride and I definitely didn’t want to get off. I read it as part of a buddy read group and while my friends sped through it because they couldn’t get enough I actually put it away because I didn’t want it to end. That’s a testament to the beauty, aching tenderness, sadness, and pure heart that went into Laura Spence-Ash’s DEBUT novel, Beyond That, the Sea.

I went into this reading blindly, only knowing it was about WWII and a young girl coming to America. I will try not to give away too much because truly, the story deserves to be read as such.

In 1940, German bombs have been to fall in London. Reggie and Millie make the difficult decision to send 11 year-old Beatrix to America for safety, along with other British children. She comes to live with Ethan and Nancy Gregory, “Mr & Mrs G.”, and their two sons, Gerald and William in Boston.

As the war ends she must return home, but what is home anymore?
“The girl in the tale is different from the girl at home, and this will all become something that once happened to her in a dream.”

The book ranges from 1940 to 1965 (with the epilogue in 1977). The chapters alternate between the POV of the different characters. In my opinion, although it is technically a book that takes place during a historical event I wouldn’t necessarily classify it a historical fiction novel. I mean, technically it is one because it’s about the past (in the same way that Carrie Soto is one) but I’m more apt to classify it as a coming-of-age/Bildungsroman as we see Beatrix go through a huge change from age 11 to 36. (But I’m not a publisher so 😂)

I read this as an immersive read with the digital version and the audiobook. Ell Potter was a delicious narrator. I want her to read absolutely everything to me. She embodies Bea.

I can’t wait to read Laura Spence-Ash for years to come. The debuts this year have been phenomenal!

Thanks to Netgalley, Celadon for the eARC, and Macmillan Audio for the ALC!

Beyond That, the Sea: A Novel by Laura Spence-Ash

In her debut work of fiction, Laura Spence-Ash charts the lives and longings of her characters during the World War II years, and in subsequent decades, as relationships and connections and identities shift. As a young girl, Beatrix is shipped by her parents to the Gregory family in Massachusetts remove her from the dangers of the London Blitz. The reluctant evacuee’s assimilation into the upper-class American household, a sharp contrast to her own, is complicated but eventually solid and complete. Each of the section is identified by its viewpoint character—Beatrix; her parents; each of the adult Gregorys; their vastly different sons, Gerald and William, and others entering the story later. The Maine cottage where Beatrix and her hosts spend every summer serves as an anchor and a talisman, until financial straits and advancing age take a toll on family members. Living up to expectations, one’s own and those cherished by others, and the attendant difficulties, are a consistent theme.

At the conclusion of the war, Beatrix is reclaimed by her surviving parent, returning to a London altered by time and destruction. Unable to feel wholly at home, she must forge her own professional path while struggling to find a compatible partner in romance.

The only (relatively minor, but recurrent) flaw is an accurate degree of Englishness in the English characters, whose Americanisms in speech and narrative can be jarring. Overall, the writing is beautiful and insightful, and tragedy and heartbreak are exquisitely rendered throughout. (Celadon Books, 368 pp., hardcover/ebook/audio, March, 2023)

I really liked this story of about Bea, a London girl who moves in with a Boston family to escape Nazi bombing during World War II. As the war ends and Bea returns to her old life, she begins to realize that she doesn’t really know where or with what family she belongs.
Beyond That, the Sea is a bittersweet story about the changes that happen over the passage time, and makes you realize that there’s really no such thing as going home again.

"𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 - 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔."
- 𝑶𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑾𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝑺𝒓.

beyond that, the sea is a debut historical fiction novel written by Laura Spence-Ash that centers around a girl named Bea during WWII that is forced to leave her parent's home in London to live with the Gregory family across the ocean in America.

Thank you #partner publisher Celadon Books and Laura Spence-Ash for the #gifted copy. I was given a free ARC copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

𝘐 𝘌𝘕𝘑𝘖𝘠𝘌𝘋...
• The beautiful prose of this story. It was so smooth and flowed effortlessly.
• The character development was pristine and I was emotionally invested in each character.
• Maine! Mainers are proud people and we love our state. It is magical and there is no other place like it. Thank you for reflecting that love into your novel.
• This coming-of-age story felt like a big hug. Especially how welcoming the Gregorys were towards Bea.
• I did enjoy the multiple POVs. Normally, I would shy away from that many POVs but it worked for me. Every character in this book is notable with no risk of confusion to the reader.
• The year markers on the bottom of each page were so helpful in keeping track. This novel spans over thirty-seven years.
• Reading about the character's relationships in the past and how they continued onward was beautiful.
• The short chapters were exclusively one character's POV and that added the cherry on top. There was no way I was going to be confused over who or when.

𝘖𝘝𝘌𝘙𝘈𝘓𝘓...
This is an amazing and well-executed story! I absolutely recommend reading this book. Matter of fact, I'm going to purchase a copy for my Mom who will be making her way back to Maine for the summer very soon. Just like the Gregorys.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲
🥧 Historical Fiction
🥧 Coming of age stories
🥧 Where the Crawdads Sing
🥧 Home baked goods
🥧 Maine
🥧 Communication by postal letters
🥧 Love and heartbreak

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 4.5/5 (8.86/10 CAWPILE)

Beyond That, The Sea is a novel about eleven year old Beatrix, who is sent from London to live with a family in America to escape WWII. I wanted to love this one, but it missed the mark in some areas for me. The chapters were very short, rushing from one character to the next, which I found hard to keep track of. Most of the chapters were very short, some only a few pages, which didn’t give much time to fully know the characters. The storyline overall seemed very long and drawn out, without any climax or anticipation. I’m personally a hopeless romantic and I just felt like Beatrix’s love life flatlined and in the end she settled. Overall, I’d give it a 3/5.

Many thanks to Laura Spence-Ash, the publisher, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Beyond That, the Sea is an epic debut novel by @laura_spence_ash that spans two coasts and many years. Beatrix is sent to live with an American family during WWII to stay safe from the bombings in London. She has an American host family with two boys, one older and one younger. Their mother is thrilled to finally have a girl in the family.

It takes some time for her to get to know the family, but soon it’s like she was always meant to be with the Gregorys. She makes her own friends and enjoys the family’s vacation home in Coastal Maine. She writes letters weekly to her family and she misses them dearly. But she loves the US and as she gets older she begins to have a crush on William the older brother, but she’s very close with Gerald, the younger brother too.

The story follows the two families over decades including tragedies and romance. I really enjoyed the novel- it has ver short chapters and I couldn’t wait to read more. It’s a lighter WWII novel, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t tug at your heartstrings. I’m really looking forward to more from the author.

My husband’s family is from Boston and often talks about the Jordan Marsh stores and their famous blueberry muffins! I have the recipe myself and they are every bit as delicious as advertised.

Thank you @bookishfirst and @celadonbooks for my gifted copy. Beyond That, the Sea is out on March 21!

5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️