Rising Tide

Leo is a fisherman from Alaska. After the deaths of his brother and father and questions from authorities, he leaves and heads to Portugal, the land of his mother, to search for the saboteur of his father's boat.  Piper is a fisherman from Northern England. Moved from place to place by her father, a chance meeting and broken bus has her also heading to the same village in Portugal, to find her past and her family.

The magnificent detail given by author Susan Roebuck to the seafaring life is so spot-on that readers will smell the fish and the salt water! Leo and Piper were both lied to by their fathers, their pasts hidden from them, and both for very good reasons—to protect them. There are only two issues with this book, but they are large ones.  The first is that of the dialect written for Piper’s father. His accent is so thick and heavily written that it is almost impossible to understand. Most readers would have never heard it spoken, and might be skipping entire pages of dialogue because it is virtually unreadable. Hints of dialects and accents can flavor a tale, but this one completely overpowered it. The second issue is that of the characters' memories and flashbacks being written in the same tense and not offset. It isn't until the reader is halfway through, every time, that it was figured to be a memory, or a flashback. The information is vital to the story but is not presented well. The happy ending is only between Leo and Piper, as many sad endings and pitiful lives are wrapped around their journey, but their beautiful ending makes it all worth it.

Julie York