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    Two If by Sea
    Two If by Sea
    Two If by Sea
    Audiobook12 hours

    Two If by Sea

    Written by Jacquelyn Mitchard

    Narrated by George Newbern

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    From Jacquelyn Mitchard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean, the “suspenseful, otherwordly, and nearly impossible to put down” (People) story about an unlikely hero whose life is transformed when he rescues a boy with an extraordinary gift.

    Just hours after his wife and her entire family perish in the Christmas Eve tsunami, former police officer Frank Mercy pulls a little boy from a submerged car. Not quite knowing why, Frank doesn’t turn Ian over to the Red Cross. Instead he makes up a story about where the boy came from and takes him home, where Frank realizes that Ian has an otherworldly gift—an extraordinary ability to transform lives beyond anything he’d ever imagined. Awed and confused, Frank confesses Ian’s secret to Claudia, a beautiful champion rider who is training for the Olympics. They join together to fight the sinister forces gathering to take Ian back. In a final confrontation, Frank and Claudia will risk everything—their love, their family, their very lives—to save this boy they now love as their own son.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMar 15, 2016
    ISBN9781442395374
    Author

    Jacquelyn Mitchard

    New York Times bestseller Jacquelyn Mitchard's novels include The Deep End of the Ocean, Twelve Times Blessed, and The Breakdown Lane. She is also the author of The Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship, a collection of her newspaper columns. She lives with her husband and six children in Madison, Wisconsin.

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    Reviews for Two If by Sea

    3.5/5

    54 ratings10 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Frank did not expect a tsunami to take one family away and give him another, but it did. Now he is back in the United States with the boy he rescued and claimed as his own. Author Mitchard follows Frank as his learns to live with sorrow and Ian learns to use his special talents to save his new family. This is a quick read with a few illegal activities, mixed emotions, and a couple of bad kidnappers thrown in to make it interesting.
    • 3/5
      Retired American police officer and ex-pat, Frank Mercy, is spending Christmas Eve at a hotel in Brisbane with his pregnant wife and her family. When he leaves to have a drink with his brother-in-law, a tsunami hits destroying the hotel killing everyone including his wife. Frank is a volunteer first responder and, despite his grief, he heads out to rescue survivors. He comes across a quickly submerging car and sees a young child inside. However, when he tries to rescue him, the child insists he take his younger brother because ‘he is important’. He takes the boy from the older child’s arms but before he can save this older boy, the car is swept away. Frank knows he should turn the boy over to the Red Cross to be delivered to family if any still exists but for some reason, Frank cannot give the boy up. Instead he tells the authorities that he and the boy are related and takes him to the US. This decision will have profound consequences because the boy has certain powers over both humans and animals and there are others who want what the boy can do and will stop at nothing to get him.Two if By Sea by Jacquelyn Mitchard is an interesting tale about love, loss, and devotion. I really enjoyed the first part but somewhere near the middle, it seemed to lose direction. It seemed as if the author couldn’t decide where to take the story so threw everything at it to see what would stick. There’s romance, horse training, mysterious nefarious strangers, a move to Ireland, a touch of the supernatural etc. and much of this seemed extraneous to the plot. What started out as a fairly straightforward story about the power of love even in grief became less focused and less compelling. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the book; it’s just that the second half didn’t have the same emotional impact as the first part of the story.
    • 2/5
      This book was twice as long and therefore half as good as it should have been. Endless family dinners followed by more endless family dinners including a litany of the dishes served, and all the different guests and sometimes all their (totally unimportant) different relatives. And oh-so-occasionally, some action. The author writes well and if she didn’t waffle on about nothing, she could have rated four stars.
    • 4/5
      Good book that explored the question of those who have extraordinary gifts as Ian does.It is wrapped in a suspense novel/ love story/ cop story.
    • 4/5
      From start to finish, Two if By Sea was impossible to put down. The characters, the situations, the writing... everything came together to where I couldn't stop thinking about the book, and recommended it over and over again even when I was only halfway through.And then, it ended. And there, that was the one problem with the book... As much as I loved nearly every moment of the book, the ending came abruptly, and not entirely satisfyingly... almost as if Mitchard just didn't know where to go next, or what came next, and had found something of a partial conclusion... so it stopped.I won't say that the ending ruined the book for me. The book was a wonderful read, and something that will stay with me... but the ending kept it from being something I'll want to re-read, or re-experience, and may make me think twice before I recommend it again or pick up more of Mitchard's work, which is disappointing, as for a while there I really thought I'd found a new favorite writer.So, if you find yourself thinking it sounds interesting, and/or you appreciate a wonderfully told story with characters who you can't stop thinking about, this might very well be worth looking up... but be aware the ending doesn't quite live up to what comes before it, I'm afraid.
    • 4/5
      Picked this up on a whim and found it to be quite intriguing, and also quite sad for a number of reasons. I also really thought I'd written a review of it, but apparently didn't, and have read a number of books in the interim. Learned a lot about international adoption, and the woods of Maine. It must have been pretty enthralling though, because I read it in a day.tags: good-but-made-me-sad, made-me-look-something-up, read, taught-me-something, thank-you-charleston-county-library
    • 3/5
      Two If By Sea, Jacquelyn Mitchard, author; George Newbern, I think it is hard for an author to write a novel that is similar in theme to another of her successful books, even years later. It invites comparison, and it is hard to measure up. “The Deep End of the Ocean” also involves a child that is missing. In that one, the child was taken and kidnapped. In this one, a child is stolen, taken after being rescued, not necessarily kidnapped. In both, there are evil people who must be brought to justice. Both books carefully examine the behavior and justification of the victims involved. Both stories tug at the reader’s heartstrings, but this one sometimes stretched credibility with some pretty odd occurrences. At first, the book seemed to be about a tragic tsunami, and for sure, the beginning of the book begins with one that will bring to mind the horrible tragedy in Phuket, Thailand, in 2008, but this tsunami, never actually occurred. It supposedly took place in Australia in 2011, as Frank Mercy and Natalie, his Australian wife of about two years, were celebrating Xmas Eve with her family at the Murry Sand Castle Inn on Bribie Island in Brisbane. On that night, they announced to all of their relatives, that they would soon be having a child, a son. Married late, both 40 years old, they were not sure they would ever have children, and they and their extended family were ecstatic. However, as my mom used to say, Man plans and G-d laughs, and indeed, G-d must have been having quite a time. The terrible disaster that the author created wiped out all but one of Natalie’s family, her brother Brian, who had not been in his room asleep, as the rest of the family were when the wave came. Frank also survived because he was on a viewing platform overlooking Bribie Island Beach and not asleep in his room either. Suddenly, he was a widower, completely bereft. His wife and future son were both lost in the disaster. Their plans to move back to America were dashed. His future was totally altered. It was the before and after moment of his life. Frank joined the rescue effort as a volunteer, hoping that by some miracle Natalie had survived with their unborn child. While attempting to save a family that was trapped in a partially submerged car that was being swept away by the flood waters, he only managed to save one of the children, a small child of about three years old. He watched as the older brother and the driver of the car were carried off by the force of the water. This rescued child forms the crux of the story, but romance also imbues the tale. It took me by surprise because it seemed to happen very quickly after his loss, but nevertheless, it engaged my interest.Frank Mercy, aptly named, took the child he rescued to the hospital. Neither he nor the child seemed able to part with each other. He named him Ian, a name he thought had just popped into his head, and against his nature, since he was once a law enforcement officer, he arranged for false papers and took the child to his family farm in Wisconsin, leaving his memories of the tragedy and his former home in Australia behind, as well as leaving any family Ian might have had, to search for that missing child in vain. Frank’s family had horses, and he intended to become a trainer. He transported his horse, Glory Bee, with him on the plane he took to the United States with Ian. Soon, Frank and others noticed that Ian had some kind of a special gift around the horses. He managed to calm people and other animals and was able to influence their behavior, simply by being there. There was a peacefulness and serenity about him, and so he was well liked by everyone he met. He truly seemed to have the wisdom of an adult. Because he used simple hand signals to express himself, and he had not spoken at all since his rescue, Frank and others simply assumed he was mute. Once they settled in at the farm, Frank was introduced to a beautiful young psychiatrist, Claudia, who asked him to help her train with her horse Prospero, for what might be her last opportunity to compete in the Olympics. Like his lost Natalie, she too was a doctor, and she also had a strong personality. Soon, one thing led to another and their relationship blossomed. As Ian, once again, found his own voice, Frank learned more and more about his past, about his unusual lifestyle, about his brother and his parents and about the “bad” people who frightened and chased him. Soon Frank discovered that they were all in danger from these “bad” people, who were after Ian, but he seemed reluctant to face it or deal with it. He simply ignored the danger, although it was obvious that it was not happenstance. It was here that the book failed a bit for me. It became a bit melodramatic and implausible. After all, Frank, a former cop, now bereaved, became suddenly preoccupied with a new romantic interest and his stolen child, completely ignoring or perhaps even recognizing, the ever present signs of danger. He did not report the crimes that occurred, even when they involved violence and loss of life. He seemed to just go on as if nothing untoward had happened, as if he was living in an alternate reality, a place where nothing troublesome or tragic had occurred. The book began to feel very much like a fairy-tale.Still, the narrator was really good, especially with accents. He was able to alternate voices so that each character had its own identity. With the themes of magic and a bit of fantasy, including people who had special mind controlling gifts, it held my interest. It was Ian’s gentle personality, though, that seemed to pervade the entire narrative, endearing himself to me as he made even the most violent scenes tolerable. It felt like he was the glue that connected me to the narrative and kept my "pages" turning as I listened to the audio.
    • 4/5
      Always love her books!!!! This story almost seemed a bit to far fetched, but I still enjoyed it very much!!!
    • 4/5
      I love Jacquelyn Mitchard and always look forward to her books. I also really liked this book and did read it in one day. Literally hours after his wife and her family die in a tsunami in Brisbane, Frank Mercy is pulling a young boy out of a submerged van. While he doesn't understand why, he keeps the small boy and takes him home to his family's farm in the Midwest. This is a very special little boy and there are people who want him and will stop at nothing to get him back. There was one thing that bothered me and that was the speed that Frank appeared to get over his first wife's death and move on. Other than that though, I enjoyed this book. I especially liked reading one of my own books for a change! I think that I will start reading one of my own books between each library book (if I can!).
    • 4/5
      Two If by Sea by Jacquelyn Mitchard is a highly recommended novel about a grieving man, a young boy with a special ability, and horses.

      Frank Mercy lost his pregnant wife and her entire family when a Christmas Eve tsunami hit in Brisbane, Australia. He was part of the volunteer search and rescue team, so even while grieving, before he knew if his wife or any of her family had survived, he set out to help rescue others. During his efforts he saves a little boy, age 3, and calls him Ian. Frank believes that Ian has a telepathic gift to make others, animals and people, calm down, relax and "be nice." Ian quickly attached himself to Frank and needs to be by him all the time.

      An American expat, Frank decides that he is going to return to his family's horse farm in Wisconsin. He sidesteps the law and takes Ian with him, telling people a tale of how they are vaguely connected and having a lawyer friend acquire proper paperwork. They arrive in the USA, along with a horse named Glory Bee and a former jockey and set in training horses at the family farm.

      Frank and Ian are healing and settling into life cautiously when Frank meets Claudia, a psychiatrist and champion equestrian, and they quickly form a close connection as she trains with Frank for the Olympics. Franks family and Claudia have notice that Ian has an unexplained ability. It also becomes clear that someone or a group of people are after Ian. Frank knows that Ian's gift could be used for evil or personal gain by unscrupulous people. He doesn't know who the people are who want Ian, but he clearly knows that they are watch and nearby.

      This is a solid 3.5 for me. The story is engaging, and the writing is great. Mitchard does an excellent job developing her characters describing the setting. I did have several niggling complaints about elements of the plot. These might not bother other readers, or you might be able to set them aside, but they were bothering me. Often I can overlook improbabilities and suspend my disbelief, but I just couldn't do that here.

      The first is Frank getting the paperwork to take Ian to the USA without using the same lawyer and his ability to handle sketchy paperwork to legally adopt Ian. I don't want to think it would be that easy to take a child out of a civilized country. That he did so bothered me all the way through the novel, even though I realize Frank had good intentions.

      The second bothersome point was that Two If by Sea felt like it wanted to be a love story after great tragedy, with lots of horses involved in the plot. But Ian and his gift were added to the plot to create a tension and suspense. It never felt like all the elements gelled for me into a cohesive whole. I was never fully convinced that Ian's "gift" was all that necessary to the story. Plus his age, 3, seems a bit young for this great gift to be so proven that bad guys are after him. Just think about a 2 or 3 year old and let the idea of a psychic ability to make people and animals "be nice" sink in for a moment and you'll likely feel the same way I did.

      The story would have made more sense to have Frank rescue Ian, adopt him, try to make a new life in the USA, train champion horses, and become a new family with Claudia. A different story, but the direction that Two If by Sea felt like it wanted to take, except the supernatural psychic bits were added.

      I did read the whole novel. It is well written and I wanted to know what happened next, thus the 3.5, or rounded up to 4 because of all the things Mitchard did right.

      Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from Simon & Schuster for review purposes.