Heart of the Ocean by Heather B. Moore

Heart of the Ocean by Heather B. Moore

Summary from Goodreads:
A dark secret . . . a grieving ghost . . . a handsome stranger . . . What more could Eliza Robinson want?

Except for maybe her life.

In Heather B. Moore’s enthralling 1840’s historical romance, Heart of the Ocean, Eliza Robinson has turned down the very pretentious Mr. Thomas Beesley’s marriage proposal. As a business partner of Eliza’s father, Thomas quickly discredits the family and brings disgrace to the Robinson name.

While her father scrambles to restore his good name in New York City, Eliza flees to the remote Puritan town of Maybrook to stay with her Aunt Maeve. Although relieved to be away from all- things-male and unforgiving gossip columns, odd things start to happen to Eliza, and she is plagued by a ghostly voice. Her aunt’s explanation? That Eliza is being haunted by a woman who died of a broken heart twenty years ago.

After Aunt Maeve is tragically killed, Eliza's life is put in danger as she tries to uncover the mystery of her aunt's death. She encounters Jonathan Porter in Maybrook, whose presence in the town seems suspicious, yet she finds herself drawn to him. When she discovers that Jonathan’s dark secrets may be the link between the dead woman who haunts her and her aunt’s murderer, Eliza realizes that Jonathan is the one man she should never trust.


5 Stars

Read March 2014

Received e-book from the author for an honest review

My Review:
When I first heard that this was a ghost story I was disappointed.  I'm not a huge fan of ghost stories.  However, as you can tell by my rating, I loved this book.  Even though this book had a ghost, it was not what I consider a ghost story.  This story had mystery, romance, suspense and drama.  

I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and ghostly aspect of the story.  It was the backdrop and setting for the two main characters to experience their own story.  That part of the story was set in a Puritan town in Massachusetts.  It is not an area of the country I am familiar with and the author described the area well enough that I could picture the setting without the setting becoming the main focus.  

This book brought two people together that from the beginning look like they are so different.  However, as we the reader get to know these characters we realize that they have more in common than we thought.  I liked seeing the two main characters working together and the wonderful, fleeting moments they had together.  There were lots of twists and intertwining of the two lives that was unexpected.  I was definitely routing for them and hoped that their fleeting moments would lengthen out.

Warnings: Some violence described and some read/dreamed/remembered (including murder and rape)

I would let my 16 year old read this book.