When the Black Swallow sinks off the Australian coast in 1877, Australian midshipman Tom Darley rescues English passenger Ada Carmichael from the disaster that claims her entire family. News of the only two survivors enchants the world, but Ada needs to hide before secrets and old foes find her. Tom is chasing big dreams of a crumbling house he will convert into a small hotel ~ but the promising start he’s acquired now sits at the bottom of the sea.
Inexplicably entangled, Ada and Tom lean upon each other to make sense of the tragedy that’s displaced them. But when scheming journalists observe their affection they drag Tom into life-altering riches and a news-worthy romance he cannot resist. So he arranges for Ada’s protection where only he might find her ~ the quiet Phillip Island farm of his friends Shadrach and Finella Jones.
And that’s where real trouble finds them. When heroic promises fail to shelter, and love refuses to be silenced, only surrender will pluck Ada and Tom from where life has wrecked them.
Riveting and masterfully written, Carry Me Away will do just that, immersing you in a devastating storm, a historic shipwreck, and the idyllic hideaway of Phillip Island in Australia. These flesh and blood characters are so finely crafted they feel more like friends, each winning your heart in unique, soul-stretching ways. A poignant, oft suspenseful, and thoroughly romantic journey through the valleys of loss and grief to the heights of healing and hope. –Laura Frantz, Christy Award-winning author of The Lacemaker
About Dorothy Adamek
Australian author, Dorothy Adamek, writes Displacement Fiction ~ the stories of people upended by trauma and tragedy, and the struggle to belong in their new worlds. Couched in romance, her fiction is set in the late Victorian era.
Author of the Blue Wren Shallows trilogy, she lives at Crabapple House in Melbourne with her Beloved and their three children, twenty fruit trees and Gilbert the Cat.
A graduate of La Trobe University, Dorothy studied Literature, History and Education. She taught secondary school English and English As A Second Language. She loves black and white floors, collects blue and white china, and makes apricot jam every summer.
Her favourite holiday destination is Phillip Island, the real life setting of Carry Me Home, book one in the Blue Wren Shallows trilogy.
My Rating: 4 Stars!
Survival is made of many parts. First, your skin will heal. Then your bones.’
1877. The Black Swallow sinks off the Australian coast, a horrific event that leaves only two survivors, Tom Darley and Ada Carmichael. This deftly written novel details the aftermath of that shipwreck, which is inspired by the true story. Ada has lost her entire family and Tom rescues her. Both of these have been through rough waters, so to speak, with forgotten dreams, feared enemies and old secrets.
Soon the journalists of the day converge and clamor for the story from Tom and Ada. Tom arranges for Ada to go to a friend’s home on Philip Island, a beautiful and quiet, peaceful place. We, lucky readers, get a chance to meet old friends again from Adamek’s first novel, Shadrach and Finella Jones. A novel I enjoyed immensely. However, they are not sheltered as completely as they’d hoped from the world’s woes. They must depend on each other and love to rescue them again.
When I read Dorothy Adamek’s debut novel, I thought it was greatly moving and her style continues through to this novel and she will always, I believe, inspire her readers with her deftness of telling the tale. She has written well of courage, healing, redemption and rescue that will grip the reader, and the poignancy of the love is completely heartfelt. As Tom and Ada endeavor to find their home, you will be captivated by the sweeping beauty of Adamek’s writing skills.
*My thanks to the publisher and author for a preview copy of this book. The opinions stated here are entirely my own.
Publisher: Crabapple House Publishing
Publication Date: November 5, 2019
Simply Susan 