Congrats Sonja
on the release today of
The Family Ship!
The Family Ship by Sonja Yoerg
Print and e-book, 411 pages
Published February 23, 2021 by Lake Union Publishing
Chesapeake Bay, 1980. Eighteen-year-old Verity Vergennes is the captain of the USS Nepenthe, and her seven younger siblings are her crew. The ship—an oyster boat transformed into a make-believe destroyer—is the heart of the Vergennes family, a place both to play and to learn responsibility. But Verity’s had it with being tied to the ship and secretly applies to a distant college. If only her parents could bear to let her go.
Maeve and Arthur Vergennes already suffered one loss when, five years earlier, their eldest son, Jude, stormed out and never returned. Now Maeve is pregnant again and something’s amiss. Verity yearns to follow her dreams, but how can she jump ship now? The problem, and perhaps the answer, lies with Jude.
When disaster strikes and the family unravels, Verity must rally her sibling crew to keep the Nepenthe and all it symbolizes afloat. Sailing away from home, she discovers, is never easy—not if you ever hope to find your way back.
My thoughts about The Family Ship ~~
(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)
First line—"PROLOGUE Jude 1962 Jude's earliest memory was of the day his sister was born, as if becoming a big brother made his brain decide it needed to start keeping track for the long run. As if a promise made at four was meant to be honored forever."
This story absolutely blew me away! Such great characters and such a unique, captivating story-line!
The Vergennes family is like no other family I have ever encountered before—in real life or on the pages of a book. This family of 10 has a ship in their front yard, and their lives are centered around living a shipshape existence. That is until the older children want to stretch their sails (see what I did there?) and try to live their lives outside the family ship.
The drama that continued to befall this family kept me turning the pages and the love that they had for one another endeared them all to me. As they struggled with the tragedies that happened to this close knit family and as they pulled together to support one another, I fell more in love with everyone. So much heartache, and so much love.
Once again, Sonja has written a story that pulled me in, a story with a cast of individuals who captured my feelings, and my heart. I am totally amazed at the stories that she creates, stories that are so different from what is out there, and so different from her previous work. I know when I read one of her books, that I am going to be going on a journey that I have not been on before!
I highly recommend The Family Ship! I loved it! I loved the story, I loved the characters, and I loved the adventure that whisked me away, allowing me to escape to another time and place.
About the author
I grew up in Stowe, Vermont, the daughter of a ski instructor and a history teacher. In my first incarnation, I was a animal behaviorist who studied learning in blue jays, hyenas and kangaroo rats. I wrote a book about that. Now I make stuff up.
I've published several novels, including True Places, a Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller. Yeah, typing that makes me smile because reaching readers is the point, right? My upcoming release, The Family Ship, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Watch for it on February 23, 2021.
When I'm not writing or pretending to be writing, I run, garden, cook, eat, drink wine, then run some more. My husband and I live in central Virginia with a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's quiet and pretty, like Vermont.
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That cover is so dramatic, I totally expected this to be a thriller.
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