Aphrodite's Whisper by William Charles Furney
How had things gone so wrong?
Caelyn's small hands, raw with broken blisters, were no longer able to grasp the oars. It mattered little that the wind was dying and the sky was almost clear. Without fresh water, they would not survive. Exhausted, she rested against the oar handles crossed in an X before her and sobbed, cursing the strange aversion that kept her from doing the one simple thing that might save them. But only for a few moments. She may not be stronger than her phobia, but neither was she weak of constitution and determination. The tears shed were seen by no one and the release of pent-up emotion gave new hope. Settling in next to the unconscious rescuer to share body warmth against the growing cold, Caelyn prayed to the only gods that had ever afforded her comfort.
Aphrodite's Whisper is an epic story that begins in the winter of 1903 with the grounding of a private yacht during a brutal nor'easter on North Carolina's dreaded Diamond Shoals. Caelyn Canady, a moneyed-class misfit from New York, becomes a castaway forced to save herself and the man who should have rescued her. During her journey home, she finds love on the desolate dunes of the Outer Banks, witnesses man's first flight, and becomes the woman she knows she is meant to be.
Ethan Roberts, her would-be rescuer, is a veteran of the Spanish-American War tormented by the deaths of his best friend and an innocent woman. In becoming a surfman, he has found refuge in the untamed isolation of Cape Hatteras where the next call for help may be the one that finally frees him from his guilt and pain. Whether it be through redemption or death he no longer cares - until the stoic Missourian's passion for life is rekindled by the slight woman who saves him.
Reminiscent of sweeping historical fiction such as Legends of the Fall and Cold Mountain (with a little Bridges of Madison County woven into its literary fabric), Aphrodite's Whisper transports the reader to a seldom-explored time and place. Though painstakingly researched, the book's historical detail serves only as the canvas on which the characters come alive. In short, Aphrodite's Whisper is a timeless tale of two people who share a love so strong it survives betrayal, war, and even death.
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