Beyond That, The Sea has all the feels. I really felt like I ran through the whole gamut of emotions when I was reading this book. It begins in 1940, when Reg and Millie decide to send their young daughter Beatrix to America to keep her safe during World War II and to allow her to have some semblance of a normal childhood. And to some extent she does, growing deeply intertwined with the Gregory family that welcomes her into their family and their home. This also has long-reaching consequences as Bea struggles throughout her life to figure out just where she fits in. Just as she has become a member of the Gregory family, she is summoned back home to London, to a world she hasn’t been a part of for the last five years. The book then moves past the war years, which are really more a backstory for the first part of the book. The second half of the story follows Bea and her families on both coasts, and how she and they struggle to figure out their paths. Some succeed, some really don’t-which is sad, but feels so true to real life. The emotional connections are a powerful part of the story, but they’re nicely offset by little details that help ground those connections in the people of the story. The chess game and bobble head are two of my favorites. I love the disconnection between the two families as well, where Bea is the only thing they have in common. The reader just seems to know as the book goes along that Bea’s true chance for happiness is dependent on if these two very separate families can become one. I loved almost every part of this story.