Yesterday's Tides (Hardcover)

This is a review for Yesterday's Tides by Roseanna M. White which will be released on January 24, 2023. Roseanna White is hands down one of my favorite historical fiction authors. I have read pretty much every book she's published, and so I was super excited when I was asked to be a part of her launch team for her new book Yesterday's Tides! I have been waiting for it since I read her previous book over a year ago, and I was amazed because she wrote another incredibly amazing book! This is book 3 of her Secret of the Isles series but you do not have to read those others to understand it at all! It is one of her best works yet! The book begins in 1942, well into WWII, on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina. Evie Farrow, an island girl who helps her family run an inn that has been in her family for generations, finds Sterling Bertram, seriously injured and unconscious, washed up on her shoreline after a U-boat attack that wreaks havoc on Ocracoke. Evie ends up taking Sterling to her inn, and nurses him back to health, but does it cautiously as she has no idea who he is, or what secrets he holds! Then the story goes back to yesterday, to 1914 where we find Remington Culbreth, an Englishman, who is vacationing on Ocracoke with his family, and who meets the beautiful island girl, Louisa Adair, who is the innkeeper's daughter at the family inn he is staying at, and he finds her fascinating!! He is only there for the summer, but a budding romance begins quickly between the two of them, but war is looming in Europe, which will prove a huge obstacle among others that they must overcome if they want to be together. War wreaks havoc on all of these characters, but they are also dealing with problems in the south during those eras. Reading this book made me feel like war was just part of the story, but I realized that its part of my story as I have many great uncles and family members who fought in those wars for the freedoms I enjoy today, so reading this book gave me a glimpse into what they were going through. Also my son is married to an beautiful lady who is half African American, and in this story, both Louisa and Evie have similar blood, but the laws in the south at the time would have prevented them from marrying a white man, not to mention shutting them out from society if they did, and Louisa

Roseanna M. White has done it again! Her newest faith-based historical fiction novel, Yesterday's Tides, drew me in from the very start and kept me fully engaged to the last page. It is a masterfully written book told from four points of view and set in two time periods, 1914 (World War I) and 1942 (World War II). Both stories take place in Ocracoke Island in North Carolina's coastal Outer Banks region. Although this sounds as if it might be confusing, I found both storylines easy to follow and filled with intriguing, well-developed characters. Those like me who have read some of White's other books will get a special surge of joy when characters we have met previously pop into Yesterday's Tides. However, it is not necessary to have read her other novels to fall in love with this book! Both storylines offer a perfect blend of history, suspense, and romance that really touched my heart. As in all of White's stories, the level of historical research that was done is readily evident, and the characters rely on God to get them through the challenges they face. The timelines weave together in the end to create a beautiful picture of grace, redemption, and forgiveness. I received a complimentary copy of Yesterday's Tides from the publisher. I recommend this book highly to people like me who enjoy reading clean, well-researched historical fiction. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.