Beth Powning has the gift of drawing her readers into a work. The characters in The Sea Captain’s Wife are enduringly memorable. Set in the 1800s, Powning paints scenes of sea life and its pains, fears, wonders, joys and tragedies. Azuba Bradstock, a young woman from the Bay of Fundy, has recently married Nathaniel, a captain. Although she’s always dreamed of life at sea, when Nathaniel decides not to bring his pregnant wife on board, Azuba struggles through loneliness and worry. After years of only seeing Nathaniel for short visits, she befriends a young minister, developing a friendship that places her in a precarious position and ends up altering the future course of her life in ways she never imagined.