The Whiskey Sea

Written by Ann Howard Creel

Narrated by Angela Dawe

Running rum during Prohibition, she’ll risk her life—and her heart.

Motherless and destitute, Frieda Hope is determined to make a better life for herself and her sister, Bea. The girls are taken in by a kindly fisherman named Silver, and Frieda begins to feel at home on the water. When Silver sells his fishing boat to WWI veteran Sam Hicks, thinking Sam would be a fine husband for Frieda, she’s outraged. But Frieda manages to talk Sam into teaching her to repair boat engines instead, so she has a trade of her own and won’t have to marry.

Frieda quickly discovers that a mechanic’s wages won’t support Bea and Silver, and is lured into a money-making team of rumrunners supplying alcohol to New York City speakeasies. Speeding into dangerous waters to transport illegal liquor, Frieda gets swept up in the lucrative, risky work—and swept off her feet by a handsome Ivy Leaguer who’s in it just for fun.

As danger mounts and her own feelings threaten to drown her, can Frieda find her way back to solid ground—and to a love that will sustain her?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Aug 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781522639701

Ann Howard Creel

Ann Howard Creel was born in Austin, Texas, and worked as a registered nurse before becoming a full-time writer. She is the author of seven books for children and young adults as well as four adult novels, including The Whiskey Sea and While You Were Mine. Her children’s books have won several awards, and her novel The Magic of Ordinary Days was made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie for CBS. Creel currently lives and writes in Paris, Kentucky, where she is renovating an older house. Follow her at www.annhowardcreel.com.

Reviews for The Whiskey Sea

[Maria Scheib · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I couldn't relate to the main female character at all. At least not at the very end. All this self loathing ... I really think she made sound decisions most of the time.
The book seemed too forced-melancholic to me.

[castlelass · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Coming of age historical fiction about rum-running during the Prohibition era in the northeastern United States. When we first meet protagonist Frieda, her mother has died, and she and her sister are taken in by a kindly fisherman. She grows into a young woman determined to build an independent life for herself and take care of her family. She learns to fix engines and challenges the conventional role of women of the day. She is wary of men due to her mother’s past and finds herself in unfamiliar territory when she falls in “first love” with a man from a different social background.

The author’s writing style is refined and descriptive. I was able to vividly picture life in this small New Jersey coastal town. It is a character-driven novel about a strong-willed young woman, filled with risk-taking, romantic attraction, and, personal growth. I particularly liked the author’s ability to depict struggles with such topics as whether the end justifies the means, the perils of first love, and whom to trust. It occasionally ventures into somewhat maudlin territory, but overall it came across as poignant story of the heaviness of loss, learning from experience, and the ramifications of decisions. I didn’t quite feel transported to the era due to several contemporary figures of speech, but it was close.

Recommended to readers that enjoy character-driven stories of personal development. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Memorable passages that convey the writing style:

“When the bay was furious and churning, those frothing waters pulled the resentment right out of her and fed it to the waves. And when the tides stopped surging and the bay became silver and flat, it was as if some almighty power had smoothed her rough edges while leveling the surface of the sea with big, broad hands. She felt as if she could sail out past the land and lighthouses and float on forever.”

“It was the tiny chill in the predawn air, an indication that summer was nearing a close, a sign of change to come. She felt it on her arms—not a breeze but a shift in the air. The long sultry nights were over. Every sunrise and sunset was another little slip toward September, a month that loomed as desolate and unwelcome as sleet.”

[bostonterrio-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very glad I took a chance on this audio book! I think I purchased it because of a low price. I did so believing even if I did not like the book I would only be out a small amount of money. I do this often and this time it paid off!

Generally my taste is more modern books but this story set during the prohibition era totally captivated me. Both the story line and the characters held my attention! The main focus is a young girl, who became orphaned along with her younger sister, after their mother passed away. The mother was a prostitute who succumbed to an STD. The girls are taken in by a local clammer who tries his best to prepare them for their future. The oldest rebells and finds unconventional ways to support her family. The story is filled with excitement, risk taking and even romance. It is not really a happily ever after story but is not a total downer either. I highly recommend give this book a chance!

[bdartnall_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Historical romance: Frieda Hope, orphaned at age 5, is taken in with her baby sister Beatrice by a grizzled solitary fisherman, Silver, who raises them as his own. When Frieda grows up , she refuses a "regular" girl's life on the shore, getting married, having a family. She longs to go out to sea in Silver's boat, but that dream is dashed when he sells it to another stalwart family friend, Hicks. Feeling like her dreams were betrayed, Fried sulks and then decides to become a boat mechanic, & convinces Hicks to take her on as his apprentice to learn the trade. Set in the 1920s on the shore across from glittering New York City, Prohibiton provides the struggling fishermen, & village folks with another source of income as "rum runners". Frieda is invited by an ambitious & high skilled skipper, "Dutch" to be his mechanic on his swift rum running boat. The pay outs are huge, and Silver needs medical care in his old age after his stroke. Bea dreams of going to college to be a teacher & Frieda is determined to give that to her. In spite of Hicks' warnings and Silver's mute but unmistakable disapproval & worry, Frieda signs on & begins a dangerous but exhilerating job with Dutch & Rudy, the mate; one more addition arrives that summer- a casual, movie idol handsome young man who Dutch introduces as "Princeton". He's seeking adventure before buckling down to study law at Harvard as his wealthy family expects. Inevitably, in spite of Frieda's "tough guy" exterior, she is drawn to Charles Wallace III & as they gradually fall into a summertime romance, Frieda realizes how much she does want to be loved, & especially by this sophisticated, cool-headed New Yorker. At one point I thought Creel was going to weave in Jay Gatsby "back story", & "Princeton" would turn out to be him!! Not so...Some unsupported characterization changes weakens the novel's overall believability -esp Frieda's & eventually, Bea's. The 1920s Prohibition East coast, Gatsby-esque atmosphere is intriguing complete with specific details of the 1920s scene, fashion, drinks, dances & the life of rum runners and their suppliers/buyers, including the gradual infiltration of what must be the mob, gangsters who will kill to seize the everyday "runners" boats, money, and the bootleg liquor. Definitely needed better editing: several glaring errors both in typographical repeats and simple plot details - Hicks drinking iced tea on the porch and he's now sitting down his lemonade glass two pages later??... The danger, suspenseful scenes and poignant coming of age longing for our protagonist make this a good read, but not great.

[whitreidtan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Many, many years ago now, my mom read a book by Ann Howard Creel called The Magic of Ordinary Days and needed to talk about it. In fact, it was this book that inspired the creation of our now long standing summer book club, so when I was offered the chance to read Howard's newest book, I was intrigued. The Whiskey Sea, Howard's latest, is quite different in topic from that earlier novel although it does share some similarities in theme. Like the earlier novel, it would make a wonderful book club choice, begging, as it does, for discussion.In a small, seaside fishing town not far from New York City, Frieda Hope is the oldest daughter of the town prostitute. No one knows who her father is. When her mother dies, Frieda and her younger sister are left alone in the world until a solitary fisherman named Silver takes them in. Growing up in Silver's care, the girls are cherished and cared for. Frieda is drawn to the sea and wants nothing more than to go out fishing once she's finished with school. She's prickly and defensive, wanting to survive and thrive in a man's world, so when Silver sells the boat she'd hoped to one day own to provide her with the money to go to secretarial school or the like, she is crushed. Even for the love of this crusty old fisherman, she cannot bring herself to give up her dream. Apprenticing with the boat's gentle new owner, she learns to work on engines, earning a reputation as a skilled mechanic. And when she's offered the lucrative job of being the engineer on a bootlegger's boat, it's a position she can't and won't turn down despite the disapproval of those closest to her. It is the only way she can continue to support her sister's academic ambitions and pay for the care that Silver, incapacitated by a stroke, needs. But descending into the illegal world of rum-running changes her life in more than just financial ways, testing her courage, introducing her to an intoxicating love, and revealing things about the past and her own character she might not have wanted to know.Frieda is a tough character. She knows what she wants and she will bulldoze her way to it if anyone stands in her way. She is unconventional and stubborn and she holds a grudge against the town for their treatment of her mother in life and in death. She tries very hard to minimize her femininity not only because of her desire to do "man's work" but also in an effort to be something other than her mother was. Her damn the torpedoes personality can be a handicap to her when she doesn't consider all of the potential outcomes of her choices, not the people she could hurt, nor how she might hurt herself. But Frieda's character shows a tremendous amount of growth throughout the novel, going from a determinedly unthinking woman to more thoughtful one able to consider others beyond herself. The backdrop of Prohibition and the evolution both of flouting the law and of enforcing the law add a unique and interesting angle to the story. Creel does a good job conveying not only the thrill of the danger but also the sick feeling, the monotony, and the fear that accompanied each and every trip out to pick up contraband. The secondary characters in the novel were foils that highlighted the growing that Frieda was doing but they were charming or interesting in their own right, written briefly but as real people. The novel is a quick read, only bogging down a bit during the love story. Creel weaves in issues of surviving in difficult times, coming of age on one's own terms, and love of many types into the story. This is a compelling read for fans of historical fiction with an interest in the Prohibition and for those who appreciate strong women.