A Winter by the Sea by Juli Klassen

 Four sisters, Sarah, Emily, Viola, and Georgiana, along with their mother make up the main characters in this second book in the series "On Devonshire Shores". In the last book, Viola has married, but lives next door. Sarah is the responsible one determined to make their guest house a success; Emily wants nothing more than to publish a book and marry her childhood sweetheart, and Georgiana just wants to enjoy life to the fullest. 

The story is told in a back-and-forth manner between Emily and Sarah and I just really enjoyed it. It's historical fiction in the fact that the Duke of Kent truly did winter in Sidmouth, but the rest I will not mention since it gives away a little too much of the story if you don't know the history. 

These sisters are so likeable you just want to root for them, you just want them to succeed. They are struggling to make their guesthouse a success so they can survive and yet they are more than willing to give to help those poorer than then, especially Sarah. 

Emily has some lessons to learn in this book including the need to lean on God and to pray for wisdom and for others. She needs to learn to think outside herself a little more. She learns what qualities really matter in a man Someone in the family needs to learn about loyalty and love and what that looks like in the culture of her time when any threat of scandal was hastily hushed and the perpetrators dashed away to isolation. But what really is important in family? I hope the next book answers that question for all of us. 

I received this book from Bethany House via NetGalley and was not required to write a positive review.  All opinions expressed are my own.