The Eighth Sea by Nancy Sprowell Geise was a historical romance that I downloaded as one of my monthly picks for March. I'm not very far into this book yet but I was impressed by a series of embedded flashbacks the author used to quickly show the past of the main character. Nineteen year old Brenna's abusive and drunken father harshly reveals that she is not his real daughter after his wife passes. The first flashback shows the reader Brenna's real parents, Emily and Weston, with their infant daughter in Emily's arms as they discuss the baby's blanket. The second flashback unfolds a scene of a pregnant Emily making a quilt for the baby. She proudly shows her husband the squares she has made for the quilt. The first square depicts Weston's parents. The story proceeds to a third flashback of Weston as a boy, speaking to his own father. Suddenly the boy brings us to our fourth flashback as he reminisces of a previous home they had moved from. At first, I was crying whiplash from all of the flashbacks, but after further consideration this is an ingenious way to reveal a lot of information in a relatively short frame of time. As I have often said, I'm not a real big fan of romances, but this one has definitely captured my curiosity.
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