Heartwarming, warm and uplifting - the ultimate in comfort reads. Great characters that draw you into their lives and leave you completely invested in their stories.

The characters in the book bring the story alive and leaves you wanting to hear more about them. A solid four stars.

This book is absolutely wonderful. It is about love, it is about life, it is about friendship. It is so heartwarming and uplifting and utterly wonderful.

A wonderful uplifting story about friendship and helping each other in times of need. With a delightful cast of characters, this was a pleasure to read.

Three and a half stars.

Maddy appears to be living a charmed life with a strong Instagram following every minute detail of her beautiful home and garden. But a missed phone call from her estranged son Jamie on Christmas Day and discovery that her husband is having an affair with one of her close friends lead her to abandon her current life and move to Brighton to try to find Jamie.

Living in a dreary Airbnb apartment, she meets a diverse group of women one day while walking her neighbour's dog on the beach. The women, the Sea-Gals, swim in the sea all year round. They include former sailor Helga, widow Dominica, vegan Lesbian Tor, and later harassed mother-of-two Claire. each woman has her own troubles, her own fork in the road to navigate, her own decisions to make. Together they find that sea-swimming helps to put life into perspective.

I liked this, but I didn't love it, perhaps because I had already read The Wednesday Morning Wild Swim which has a similar vibe. Also, I felt the ending was a bit unrealistic. (view spoiler) However, it did really make me wish that I lived by the sea so that I could go sea-swimming, even though I am a poor swimmer, don't like the cold, and don't really like swimming in the sea!

Josie Lloyd has said that this book is based on her own experiences during lockdown, living in Brighton and taking up sea swimming and the authenticity shows. Also, while I might roll my eyes at the way in which there is a character representing different aspect of a woman's life (the single woman, the mother, the divorcee, the widow, the crone), Brighton is the sort of place where you could easily find a group like this.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This was a uick, easy and cute read that just scresmed positivity. I loved everything, the writing was great, the story was engaging and inspiring and the characters were relatable and loveable. I loved it.

Absolutely love the positivity of this book. Love the message the book portrays to be grateful for the every day and all the little things surrounding us too.

This is a fabulous character read set amongst a group of sea swimmers in Brighton. Seventy something Helga is resisting her nieces attempts to get her settled in a nice retirement village, Dominica is grieving for her husband, Tor has a difficult relationship with her family, Claire feels unhappy with herself and taken for granted and Maddy has recently fled to Brighton to try to find her estranged son. All are fantastic characters and it’s great to read their stories progress and how their friendships help and support each other. The theme of homelessness and home is well explored in this as is mental health and the impact of social media. This is a great feel good story that’s about way more than sea swimming. 9/10

I have read this authors books since the early 90s and and was thrilled to be able to read this one and it certainly didn’t disappoint. This was a book that covered a lot of sensitive and life changing topics and as always with this author they were done in a very relatable way with the right amount of humour mixed in along with some heart wrenching and heart warming moments along the way.

The characters were amazing ladies who found strength and determination from each other and also from the courage they gained from swimming in the sea and coming together as the sea-gals which is what brought them together and gave the book community spirit and chameraderie and showed how so much more can be achieved with the support of friends and enabled them to find confidence in themselves and to make fresh starts.

This is so far one of my best reads of 2022 and a book that will stay with me for a long time. A positive yet life affirming read and a reminder to be grateful for all the little things we have in our lives and for the power of friends and doing things we love.

I loved this book. I am an a Josie Lloyd fan. All the main characters had complicated lives and sea swimming brought them all together. Set in Brighton. It had a missing son and finding old love . Absolutely brilliant. Made you want to go swimming

A lovely warm story about the power of friendship. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review this book.