This was a different beach read then I usually see and read and it was quite good. Taking you from the woods of NC to the shores of NC a woman gets to help someone and experience new adventures for herself. ( )

Not your average beach read!
Beautifully written with realistic characters, this story touches on so many topics. Lilliane is 38 years old, and weighed down with emotional baggage that's kept her rooted in her home town. When an intriguing job offer comes along, she is swept away into a world of new possibilities.
As the plot unfolds, she discovers new friendships and a new path in life. A very heartwarming and uplifting book about self discovery, overcoming adversity and moving forward. ( )

Lilliane Moore lives in the same house in the mountains that she'd grown up in. She's just lost her job and isn't sure what to do next when she is offered a two week job at Emerald Isle NC to be a companion to an over 90 man. The money is good and she knows that it will help her repair her roof and maybe even put in air conditioning -- plus she's never seen the ocean so she excitedly accepts the job. When she gets to the beach, she finds that the man she is going to help is a cankerous grouchy person but since she's a happy go lucky person who always looks on the bright side of life, she decides to be herself and see how he responds to her.

I loved the main character and seeing her grow and begin to approach things in her past that had held her back. I really enjoyed her excitement at seeing the ocean for the first time. I was well into my 20s when I first saw the ocean and understood her awe at the beauty and strength of the Atlantic. This was an emotionally powerful book that celebrated the changes that people can make no matter what age they are. ( )

Lilliane Moore has just settled, has accepted what she thinks is her lot in life. She doesn’t so much devalue herself as think she has reached where she is supposed to be, to move out or move on would be to disrespect her parents and her memories, to disrupt too much. So she’s stayed in the old family home for almost twenty years, ever since her parents died. She hasn’t gone to college or developed a career. She tried marriage but it didn’t work out so she thinks it’s just not meant for her. She has friends and is well-regarded in town, but she has no family and isn’t really close to anyone. It is tragic to watch, because Lilliane has the heart and soul of a poet, an artist, and you can see she has so much to give. She’s a spunky, strong-willed woman, maybe not quite ready to speak up for what she wants, but certainly willing to speak up about what she doesn’t want. So she settles, but she doesn’t even realize she’s settling. We can see it, though, and from that start we hope and wish and pray that she’ll see just how worthwhile and deserving she is, how she can be anything she wants to be, go anywhere she wants to go, and how much others will and do value her.

The story of her time with crabby, cranky, old Mr. Merrick Dahl, who has driven away many companions, is sweet and vastly entertaining. She gives as good as she gets with him. She speaks up when she disagrees, but she is not rude, and she does not accept rudeness in silence. So the interaction between them is fun to watch. He’s settling also, resigned to what he thinks will be the rest of his life, living with his regrets. Lilliane doesn’t have regrets as much as acceptance of the choices she has made and those she has let pass her by. Like the possibility of something wonderful and magical with Merrick’s friend Davis McMahon. He feels an attraction and so does she. He lets her know he would very much like to see where this might go, but her response is what’s the point? Experience has taught her that things don’t last, and then you’re worse off. “'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" is not her motto. Instead she believes you can’t miss what you never had. Why start anything? Eventually she would lose Davis and then she would be even more alone than she is now. How sad her view is. And how much we want her to start living life.

Lilliane only travels a few hours from her beloved forest, her comfort zone, to the ocean. But it’s a journey of a lifetime, of discovery, of awakenings. Merrick Dahl was once a famous author. His books aren’t really her style, but when he gives her the beginnings of a book he says Davis asked him to read and critique, she is hooked. She’s never been a reader but she sure is now. She can’t put these pages down. She’s pulled completely into the story. And now we have a story within a story, a bit of a mystery developing about the roles everyone is playing. And who can be trusted and who can’t.

Author Grace Green paints beautiful word pictures of the forest, the hills, the ocean, the beach through Lilliane’s thoughts and experiences. I felt as if I was viewing the ocean and burrowing my toes in the sand for the very first time right along with Lilliane. At one point in the story someone tells Lilliane she has the “explorer gene” and it’s true. She just doesn’t know it yet. A Barefoot Tide is a heartwarming, intense, poetic story, full of wonderfully developed characters, an engaging, intriguing plot and gorgeous word pictures. It’s a special book, a joy to read. Thanks to the author for providing an ARC for my reading pleasure and honest opinion. I loved this story and recommend it without hesitation. Add it to your stack of marvelous Grace Greene books. You’ll be glad you did. All opinions are my own. ( )