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***** Whales Will Swim With You                        Review by Rox Burkey

Mara Purl sets the stage for a collision between several people too wrapped up in their own issues to remember the world is far more extensive.  The dynamics between these humans and the whales bring the destructive ways of mankind front center.

Miranda Jones, an artist, and environmental advocate agrees to house sit for her friend Shelby Larrup. She is also taking care of Tortie, the cat, which adds realism to this story. While visiting the area, Miranda intends to some whale watching.

Miranda’s character feels and visualizes everything. Her nature is to ask questions and watch everything around her. Research on whales was done in part for her next commission of painting a Grey for Palos Verdes on the Net, a Los Angeles Non-Profit. She is my favorite character in this story.

Miranda comes from an upper-class family that has succeeded in business. With her focus on art, she sometimes feels criticized. She is searching to meet life on her terms with a different kind of success with her art.

Mara Purl masterfully leverages the various viewpoints to get the reader to feel the ocean giants’ plight. The characters are created perfectly to allow the conflicts to feel realistic. I want to sit with these characters and talk. In my mind, I have been to Milford-Haven and experienced whale watching.

“The Sperm Whale rocketed toward the light, his fins tucked against his sleek, gray skin, aiming his fifty-ton body in a perfect trajectory upward.

Light streams . . . sky-through-water.

He burst through the glassy surface, waiting till the last possible second to open the valve on his blowhole.

 Inhale! Expand . . . dilate . . . infuse . . . stretch . . . swell. . . .

His explosive breath rent the atmosphere off California’s Central Coast, his hinged ribs expanding to accept a gulp of kelp-scented, ion-rich air before his sixty-two-foot length splashed back into the sea. There, he floated just below the surface, resting for an oversized minute, the cauldron of spermaceti that filled half his massive head—now liquefied at the warmer surface—a perfect built-in flotation device.

Float . . . wait . . . rest. Rolling stillness of morning. Pillowed buoyancy.”

I highly recommend this excellent story to find out more about whales and how to protect them from extinction. You will walk with Miranda and swim with the whales. Mara Purl doesn’t let you stop until the end of the story, which will linger in your mind. 

Don’t miss the recipes, discussion notes, and details at the end. These are pure Mara! If you want more Mara Purl, there are lots of Milford-Haven stories for you.

About the Author

Mara Purl is the best-selling author of the popular and critically acclaimed Milford-Haven Novels which so far have won more than 30 book awards. Mara is published by Bellekeep Books, which premiered the hard-cover launch of her series with book one, “What the Heart Knows” and continued with book two “Where the Heart Lives.” Book three “Why Hearts Keep Secrets” will be published next. Soft-cover and e-book editions are also published and available.

The series also includes Kindle best-selling novellas and novelettes “When Hummers Dream”, “When Whales Watch”, “When Otters Play.” and “When the Heart Listens.” And it includes Holiday Novellas “Where an Angel’s On a Rope”, “When Angels Paint” and “Whose Angel Key Ring.” Her beloved fictitious town first appeared as Milford-Haven, U.S.A.©, the first American radio drama ever licensed and broadcast by the BBC where it reached an audience of 4.5 million listeners throughout the U.K.

Mara wrote for the Associated Press and the Financial Times of London, among many others. As an actress, she’s best known on television as Darla Cook on “Days Of Our Lives” and as Julia in “Becoming Julia Morgan” on stage.

Mara is also a well-known Audible narrator of audio books and audio dramas. Mara is a national spokeswoman for Women’s Fiction and matters of the heart. She also speaks on creativity and personal transformation.

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