The Boundless Deep [Paperback]

Kate Brallier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2008

Philosophers have said that we travel through our lives, past and present, surrounded by the same souls, that we spend each new life trying to mend the hurts we’ve done to one another in the past. In The Boundless Deep, Kate Brallier explores this idea in a combination of strong storytelling and gifted characterization.

 

Grad student Liza has long been plagued by vivid dreams of whaling. Offered the chance to trade her land-locked existence for a summer on Nantucket, the well-preserved heart of New England’s whaling trade, Liza jumps at the chance, eager to see how well her dreams mesh with historical reality.

 

The answer is: all too well. Liza’s dreams become highly sexual; her visions of ship’s captain Obadiah Young grow increasingly intense. At times the past and present mix before her eyes, with automobiles replaced by horse-drawn carriages. 

 

Though skeptical of Liza’s claims of a past life, whaling museum curator Adam is drawn to Liza’s intense desire to know the truth—about herself, and about Obadiah, accused of murdering his beautiful, young wife.  But Adam isn’t the only man with an interest in Liza—handsome Lucian, whose home Liza is sharing for the season, has designs on her as well. 

 

In a single summer, Liza must answer the riddle of her dreams, reunite lovers separated by death, solve a hundred-year-old murder . . . and figure out her heart’s desire.  
 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reincarnation and past-life recall figure in the efforts of Liza Donovan, a young grad student, to solve a 163-year-old murder via her dreams in Brallier's intensely romantic second paranormal puzzler (after Seal Island). Liza and her best friend, Jane Bryant, head for Nantucket for summer break to learn more about the long-dead people Liza has been dreaming about, in particular Obadiah Young, a 19th-century whaler. In a wild coincidence, Jane's Aunt Kitty owns Obadiah's old estate, where the ghost of his wife, Lucy, haunts the stairs she died on. On the resort island, the erotic heat rises in Liza's dreams and in reality as she starts to date Adam Gallagher, a hunky museum associate curator who helps her with her research. Jane's childhood friend and Kitty's godson, Lucian Theriault, offers additional romantic distraction as Liza tries to unlock powerful clues from her dreaming mind about what really happened on those stairs. Mystery buffs may find the action too ethereal, but romance fans should be satisfied. (Mar.)
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From Booklist

Liza Donovan, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, has always suffered from vivid nightmares of her death at sea as a whaling-ship captain named Obadiah Young even though she has never left her home state. Imagine her consternation when she and her impish roommate arrive on Nantucket and discover that Jane’s aunt’s home, where they will be staying all summer, is the very house of her dreams. Complicating matters, many of the folk she meets, including the sardonic lotus-eater Lucian and her enigmatic hostess, Kitty, seem to be reincarnations of people she recognizes from that 1840s life, and the longer she stays on the island, the more convinced she becomes that she must right a past wrong. But what could it be? Brallier’s imaginative contemporary paranormal romance plays well on several levels, with visionary dreams enhancing the carefully researched historical aspects she brings so vibrantly to life and lots of subplots fleshing out the personalities of her various characters. --Lynne Welch

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (March 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765319721
• ISBN-13: 978-0765319722
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,302,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fun paranormal tale, March 11, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boundless Deep (Paperback)

Kitty Bryant invites her niece Jane and her best friend grad student Liza Donovan to spend their summer break on Nantucket. Liza hopes to learn about people she has been dreaming of, especially nineteenth century whaler Obadiah Young. Aunt Kitty owns the Young estate amongst other properties.

On Nantucket Liza meets and dates whaling museum associate curator Adam Gallagher while Kitty's godson Lucian Theriault is also staying with her. Jane has mixed feelings over the latter as he was both friend and pest when she was growing up, but now is quite a hunk. Meanwhile Liza finds her dreams turning towards erotica while also finding her self drawn to the stairs in which Obadiah's foreign wife Lucy died and still haunts. With Adam's help, she investigates what happened to the wife over a century and a half ago; hoping to solve the woman's death and free her from the dreams that haunt her.

More a romance than a mystery, fans will enjoy this fun paranormal tale starring likable modern day protagonists. The story line is fascinating as much of the clues occur in Liza's dreams; giving the plot an otherworldly feel to it and frustrating Lucian who competes with a dead man for Liza's affection. Paranormal romance fans will especially enjoy the well written THE BOUNDLESS DEEP and seek Kate Brallier's previous similarly unique novel, SEAL ISLAND.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly Done, January 30, 2009

By 

Amber Frangos - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Boundless Deep (Mass Market Paperback)

I wanted this book to swallow me in the whale tale, reincarnation theme as promised from the description on the back cover. Instead, I drowned on the poor grammar and weak writing. The characters were constantly shrugging, chuckling, winking, lingering, blushing and nodding. Instead of escaping in the story line, I was bogged down on the bodily actions of the characters. Lucian shrugged, giggled, smoldered, whispered, stammered and tightened. As a genre, Romance is filled with these tags, and I love to read a good romance. The tags usually propel the story forward and add tension between the characters, but in The Boundless Deep the tags were too distracting, bumbling, oafish, and numerous. I am disappointed that such a great story idea was hidden under the writing and The Boundless Deep could have and should have been a better read. The potential, capability, capacity, facility, thought and design were all present, but the words got in the way of making this a memorable work of fiction.

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it. Read it several times over., September 5, 2011

By 

loveflour - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Boundless Deep (Paperback)

Bought her first book about seals. Was intrigued. So I bought this one too. Love it. It was better than the first. I found it to be quite captivating. She takes you through time in a way where you don't get lost which happens a lot when people go back in time.

It's a tale of discovery. A bunch of young folks meet up at the same place by chance. Dreams have a way of revealing their true purposes. Along the way I got a big history lesson in a way that I didn't find to be mundane. Which is saying a lot since I hated history class.

It was truly a very entertaining book. I've read it several times.