Seth Callahan has led an interesting life. One way it’s interesting is by being born in 1946, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Another way is by spending time in two foreign countries. Yet another way is his many experiences with women, what he describes as his “category five hurricanes.”
Now, though, over fifty years after he married the woman of his dreams, she has made a request he can’t deny. She’s dying of cancer, and to ease the pain of losing her when she’s gone, she wants him to write the intriguing story of his life, including the astounding way they eventually met and fell in love.
Seth’s not sure about her request. At seventy-eight, he sometimes wishes he could join her. Regardless, as he starts his story, he finds solace as the words pour from him. The main question, he knows, is how will he cope when he’s finished writing, because life without her, despite experiencing all of those category five hurricanes, is entirely too hard to bear.
Book five of J. Willis Sanders’ Outer Banks of North Carolina series returns us to the simple life in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Back then, in the 1950s, kids walked along sandy trails through live oak woods to the Up the Road school, attended the Methodist church in the area called Down the Road, and visited the general store for the mail and the latest news. Well removed from mainland North Carolina, Outer Banks residents worked hard, played hard, and, like Seth Callahan, loved to the depths of their souls.
J. Willis Sanders lives in southern Virginia, with his wife, three banjos, three resonator guitars, and one acoustic guitar.
With thirteen novels published and more on the way, he enjoys crafting intriguing characters with equally intriguing conflicts to overcome. He also loves the natural world and, more often than not, his stories include those settings. Most also utilize intense love relationships and layered themes.
His first novel (not this one, but he plans to publish it) is a ghostly World War II era historical that takes place mostly in the mid-western United States, which utilizes some little-known facts about German POW camps there at the time. It's the first of a three-book series, in which characters from the first continue their lives.
Although he loves history, he has written several contemporary novels as well, and some include interesting paranormal twists, both with and without religious themes.
He also loves the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and he has written three novels within different time frames based on the area, what he calls his Outer Banks of North Carolina Series. (Yes, they'll be published too, and he has more idea about the area.)
Other hobbies include reading (of course), vegetable gardening, playing music with friends, and songwriting, some of which are in a few of his novels.
I enjoyed this heart warming love story. The closeness of the neighbors. Good friends that care for each other. The story leaves a picture in your mind of the area they lived in. In the end love triumphs and sisters are best friends.
I enjoyed this book and its many references to the Outer Banks where I had the incredible opportunity to live for a short (15 years). This story is intriguing and keeps you rooting for the main characters and tells a story of love and a life well lived.
If your like me and often wonder what someone’s life has been like as they near the later years, then this book is for you. I found it an easy read yet chuck full of information on the Outer Banks Area. The author has a way of writing that makes you feel as if your right in the heart of the area seeing the beloved wild horses run free on the beach, sitting on the pier listening to all those who visit the now very busy tourist area. I felt like I too was comfortable in a rocker listening to Seth Callaghan’s life story, his loves and heartache, his pain of loss and his pure unconditional love of a hero that will transform his past into a distant memory. This book is also a book of choices and how those choices impact not only us but all those who walk our path with us. And in the end how those choices can and in some cases prove to be the best most amazing stepping stones to not only our life but those hero’s choosing to walk through the pain to find that true path meant just for them. I was so blessed with a copy of this book but was not asked to leave a review, I’m happy to suggest this read as I know many will find this story a blessing just as I did. As always Happy Reading!