Sea Escape: A Novel

Acclaimed novelist and nationally recognized family expert Lynne Griffin returns with Sea Escapean emotional, beautifully imagined story inspired by the authors family letters about the ties that bind mothers and daughters.

Laura Martinez is wedged in the middle place, grappling with her busy life as a nurse, wife, and devoted mom to her two young children when her estranged mother, Helen, suffers a devastating stroke. In a desperate attempt to lure her mother into choosing life, Laura goes to Sea Escape, the pristine beach home that Helen took refuge in after the death of her beloved husband, Joseph. There, Laura hunts for the legendary love letters her father wrote to her mother when he served as a reporter for the Associated Press during wartime Vietnam.

Believing the beauty and sway of her fathers words will have the power to heal, Laura reads the letters bedside to her mother, a woman who once spoke the language of fabricof Peony Sky in Jade and Paradise Garden Sagebut who cant or wont speak to her now. As Laura delves deeper into her tangled family history, she becomes increasingly determined to save her mother. As each letter reveals a patchwork detail of her parents marriage, she discovers a common thread: a secret that mother and daughter unknowingly share.

Weaving back and forth from Lauras story to her mothers, beginning in the idyllic 1950s with Helens love affair with Joseph through the tumultuous Vietnam War period on to the present, Sea Escape takes a gratifying look at what women face in their everyday livesthe balancing act of raising capable and happy children and being accomplished and steadfast wives while still being gracious and good daughters. It is a story that opens the door to family secrets so gripping, you wont be able to put this book down until each is revealed. See more