Waterwoman

Even as a child, plain, boyish Annie Revels had everyone's role in life figured out. Everyone's, that is, except her own. Her mother was sickly and needed to be taken care of. Her little sister Rebecca was remarkably beautiful, where Annie was not. Her father was a waterman, a free-looking life Annie deeply envied and could've had, if only she'd been born a son. Tiny, remote Yaupon Island knows nothing of the partying, gin-soaked Roaring Twenties which grip the rest of the country. The Revels family depends on the coastal waters to make a living, and tragedy is always only a bad storm away. As Annie notes, "In order to live on the Shore, you need to understand that good weather always follows bad." But when her father dies, suddenly it falls to Annie to take his place aboard the oyster boat and support what's left of the family. Out there, she finds the only life she thought she could ever really fit into: being a waterman. Until one day, out on the water, she meets Nathan . . LENORE HART is the author of seven other novels, including ORDINARY SPRINGS, BECKY: THE LIFE AND LOVES OF BECKY THATCHER, and THE RAVEN'S BRIDE. She lives on the Eastern Shore with her husband, novelist David Poyer, and teaches in the Wilkes University MA/MFA Creative Writing Program.