When You Loved Me is not just one, but two amazing love stories about two very strong women. Separated by centuries, yet intertwined by sorrow, death, mystery and most important forgiveness and love the story will grab your heart from the first page.
Lucy Cooper comes home from England with her young daughter Elise to unfortunately bury her father and settle his estate. As she looks over the dilapidated mansion she use to call home, she herself a recent widow can hardly believe her father is gone. She is also shocked at the way he died. By going into the ocean near their home on Winthrop Island and never coming out.
For her whole life, her father had been obsessed with a story passed down about a buried hidden pirate treasure somewhere on the land of their estate. He was so preoccupied he let everything in his life come second. The reason Lucy’s mother left him, and they both moved to England. But she was lucky. She got to spend summers with him and for that she will be forever grateful.
After the funeral, Lucy discovers her father was in debt. So much so there is no way she can pay it off, let alone be able to fix everything in the house which needs to be taken care of before she perhaps must sell. She understands his passion was this absurd pirate treasure and that is what he deemed most important. For years all she kept hearing was he was so close to the discovery.
But Lucy is also out of sorts as she has discovered her first love, Ben Ressler is living on the property of her ex best friend Laura Peabody. She thought he was going into football. The last she saw him was actually the worst heartbreak of her life other than the killing of her daughter’s father.
Then there is her brilliant young daughter who has spunk and speaks her mind. She truly believes the pirate story and has herself fallen in love with their neighbor, Ben Ressler much to Lucy’s chagrin.
But not everything is as it seems. A missing laptop, a fire in the house, and someone impersonating her. Why?
The other story comes in the form of a diary of a woman from 1717 named Hephzibah and how her family are invaded by pirates and one who is very sick comes to stay with them. And then they must fight a terrible winter called Great Snow of the Storm.
As the two stories become linked, Lucy must grapple with her past, her late father’s life and trying to put her love for Ben to bed, so to speak. And when the past and present finally collide well, that’s for you to dig into!
Thank you #NetGalley #BallentineBooks #BeatrizWilliams #WhenYouLovedMe for the advanced copy.
When You Loved Me: A Novel: Williams, Beatriz: 9798217094820: Amazon.com: Books
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