Seascape by Karis Walsh is a contemporary romance about two women who meet accidentally when both wind up in the rural area of Washington’s Northern coast. Marine biologist Tess Hansen is there against her will, forced to come and help her ailing parents in the small town that she escaped from when she went to college. She misses her life at Evergreen College even though she does go to work trying to help the local orcas. She resents having to come back to a place that holds bad memories for her. Chemist Britt James is hoping the isolation will help her figure out how she can make amends for the environmental damage wrought by the chemical company she worked for.
Karis Walsh is an exceptional author. She describes such a beautiful setting that I wanted to push my way into the pages of the book and experience the place first hand. The main characters are well-developed and easy to relate to. Most of the secondary characters are as thoroughly established.
I did have some problems with the story. The book was marketed as a contemporary romance, but there was really not much romance in this story until near the end of the book. The characters hardly communicate for most of the first half of the book. This story was really about the two main characters coming to grips with their pasts and, especially in Britt’s case, trying to find a better future for themselves. I would have loved to see them help each other more, and talk to each other more. There was really very little conversation between the two. This novel needed more dialogue and more interaction between the main characters. I truly believe that would have made it a much better story.
I do want to mention one more positive element of this book. It is something that many reviewers including myself often forget to talk about, but it really is an important part of the book, and that is the cover. A cover can influence sales since it is often the first thing a person sees when they are looking for something to read. A good cover can mean the book catches the eye of a potential buyer. A bad cover could mean the buyer moves on without checking the book out further. I felt the cover of Seascape was beautiful, colorful and eye-catching, exactly what you need to catch the buyer’s eye. To Sheri at Hind Sight Graphics, you designed an excellent cover for this book. Congratulations!
To those of you who like novels that have the characters doing an awful lot of soul searching and you don’t mind a lack of romance in the story, you might like this one. If you are looking for a lot of romance, this might not be for you.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.
Rainbow Reflections 