Headstrong but as mercurial as the sea she loves, Frieda is determined to be her own woman.

I feel like I’ve read more historical fiction for the 2023 Around the Year in 52 Books Challenge than I have for the previous 5 years of reading combined. Not because I don’t like the genre, but because it’s just typically not something that gets added to my queue to review. Novels like The Whiskey Sea remind me why I should take steps to read more, especially of certain time periods.

Frieda makes for a wonderfully headstrong woman, especially for the mid 1920s and being the daughter of a notorious woman of the night. After losing her mother very young, her stubbornness both works for her and against her. She blazes a path where few women have ever tread, and she excels at it.

The author of The Whiskey Sea handles both dialogue and narrative with finesse. The interpersonal relationships Frieda has with her younger sister and the caretaker that took them both in when they lost their mother were some of the highlights for me. Those relationships being more dynamic than many characters I’ve read played a big part. Depictions of the actual rumrunning and Frieda’s unique take of the world around her drew me in and kept me.

What keeps me from running around telling all fans of historical fiction they have to read this though is the presence of two pet peeves. I do not like ‘flash forwards’ at the beginning of novels. I understand so many writers are told to start ‘in media res’ or in the middle of the action. Starting with a prologue that is way ahead of the rest of the story so that we are playing catch up to the first scene is not the way to go about this. In this case, we are playing catch up until over 90% of the novel is done. So my first pet peeve is that the prologue turns almost the entire thing into a flashback. My other pet peeve is that a strong, wonderfully written woman of a protagonist loses so much of her luster the moment a handsome man starts looking at her.

Overall, I did very much enjoy this latest read for the challenge. The rum running adds a layer of excitement and intrigues that’s supported by just how strong many of the characters making up the cast is.

The Whiskey Sea is available to buy on Amazon.

Verdict:

READABLE