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Mary Deal

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Sea Cliff: A Contemporary Romance Novel Kindle Edition

by Mary Deal (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 30 ratings

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Rachael Connor has great looks, money and a home of her own, but childhood abuse has left her fearful of men.

When Rachael meets Matthew, she begins to rethink her life. He falls in love with her, but Rachael rebukes him, living by the "rules" her father taught her.

She soon has an epiphany about how to overcome her father’s grip on her life. The next time she falls in love, she will know how to deal with it.

But will Matthew let her get away so easily?

Editorial Reviews

Review

5 Stars - Reviewed By Grant Leishman for Readers'Favorite

Rachael Connor, outwardly successful and a buddingauthor, seemed to have it all. An inheritance from her father had assured herfinancial stability and she was able to choose when she worked for wages andwhen she indulged in her one true passion, writing. In Sea Cliff: A Love Storyby Mary Deal, we find that Rachael has a dark secret that rules her life, evennow as an adult and long after her father has died. Rachael and her brotherBrandon were brought up by a tyrannical and abusive father who ruled theirlives with both physical and mental abuse that Rachael still carries to thisday. She is unable to form lasting relationships with men as she simply doesn'tknow how, and consequently has resigned herself to a life of solitude withwriting and meditation as her solaces. Enter Matthew Knight, a successful,ridiculously handsome and well-adjusted man who sets his sights on winningRachael's heart. True love, though, rarely runs smoothly and both Matthew andRachael have to overcome the many barriers that life and their pasts put intheir way before they can truly find each other.

Sea Cliff: A Love Story is a simple, carefullycrafted romance, but what lifts it above others in the genre is its willingnessto address societal issues that might otherwise be glossed over. Author MaryDeal has imbued her character of Rachael with all the angst and fear a suffererof an abusive childhood would feel. As readers, we want to take Rachael andshake her, telling her to "get with the programme." She has a man who clearlyadores her and yet she looks for and finds myriad ways to push him away.Although both of the main characters are too perfectly beautiful/handsome formy liking, there was no stopping me from enjoying the twists and turns theirconvoluted relationship took. The concept of combining the feelings and actionsof the characters in this story with the characters in the story Rachael waswriting had the potential to be trite and clichéd and yet Deal made it workwell. The writing style is simple and unpretentious, which I did enjoy, and Ifound myself flying through this book. I can definitely recommend this story tolovers of romance.

5 Stars - Reviewed By Ray Simmons for Readers'Favorite

If you're looking for a contemporary romance novel,something that will restore your faith in love and life, look no further. Ihave the perfect novel and writer for you. Sea Cliff by Mary Deal is a greatread. Especially if you've been bruised and battered by the struggle of tryingto find the real thing. The thing that will last through all the troubles thatwe know life will throw at us. I don't read contemporary romance much, to beperfectly honest. I prefer the historical version. But Sea Cliff takes place inone of my favorite cities in the whole world. The city by the bay; SanFrancisco. I haven't been there in years, but Mary Deal reminded me just howunique and wonderful the San Francisco Bay Area is.

Mary Deal writes about life. She writes aboutfriendship and family relationships. Romance is something we find whilenavigating our way through all these other important relationships...if we'relucky. I liked the plot in Sea Cliff. These were real modern-day characterswith lives and relationships just like mine and people I know. I loved thesetting. I have lived in the Bay Area and I believe Mary Deal has too. She tookme back to it and I really appreciate that. The characters are great. Notperfect but very real. What I liked most about Rachael, besides her being ared-head is that she is very self-aware and constantly trying to improveherself. That's what it takes in modern life.

4 Stars - Reviewed By Amanda Rofe for Readers'Favorite

Sea Cliff: A Love Story by Mary Deal is acontemporary fiction novel set in San Francisco. It portrays a woman called RachaelConnor who grew up in the farmlands of the Sacramento River Delta. She issomeone who experienced abuse in her childhood and who is now trying torenounce the past. Her brother, Brandon, who suffered similarly, is alsostruggling to come to terms with adult life. While Rachael tries to help him asbest she can, she has her own demons to contend with, in particular how to formhealthy relationships with men. There is one man called Matthew, who pursuesher despite her obvious reluctance to get involved with anyone. In an attemptto work through her issues, she writes a novel which turns out to mirror herlife in more ways than one.

Mary Deal writes a rather unusual love story,bravely tackling the difficult subject of childhood abuse and the impact it hason adults later on in life. She portrays the adult survivors, Rachael andBrandon, sympathetically and with a great deal of insight. The disparitybetween Matthew's rather normal family and Rachael's dysfunctional life hasbeen ably portrayed, adding an edge to the story line. I thought Sea Cliff wasan engaging novel which dealt with very challenging and painful issues. BothRachael and Matthew, the main protagonists, made me feel uncomfortable at timesand I like this in a book. As a point of interest, the title 'Sea Cliff' is afascinating link which runs through the narrative, drawing the story threadstogether.

From the Author

After being rear-ended in a car accident in 1991 and being incapacitated for a while,I realized that at least my mind still worked! I could sit at my PC to write and did just that. It is said that the first book an author writes is mostly about themselves or about incidences that happen in life that leave an indelible mark on them - good or bad. Realizing that, I still had no fear of writing that first book. I managed to change much of the personal material I used so that it was not about me but about a fictional character whose life I could imbue with knowledge and some experiences I had accumulated.

The first draft of Sea Cliff was actually titled The Recluse. It remained that way while the book languished, all 135,000 words of it. After reading it I realized a lot of me was still in there. So I left it alone and wrote and published other books. In 2018, with 11 books published (three already out of print), I decided to take another look. I had already borrowed quite a bit of Recluse to use in my first mystery. So it was a matter of cleaning the entire Recluse manuscript and shortening the story to a salable number of words. In doing so, I realized the protagonist was no longer a recluse. I needed a new title, and it didn't have to be about the character. Hence the title became Sea Cliff because that is where the protagonist's life is depicted.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07DMZJ29M
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Creativia; 2nd edition (June 9, 2018)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 9, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2417 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 349 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #2,542,329 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #11,180 in Women's Literary Fiction
- #42,280 in Women's Romance Fiction
- #63,033 in Contemporary Women Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.4 30 ratings

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Mary Deal

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Mary Deal was an Associate and Contributing Editor of the print magazine, Mississippi Crow, and newspaper columnist for Kauai, Hawaii's local newspaper, The Garden Island. She was Founder and past President of Kauai Writer's Roundtable. She has become a multi-genre author in both fiction and nonfiction. She writes the stories in whatever genre her Muse presents. Her books and other writings have won numerous awards.

She is the author of six suspense novels: "The Ka," a paranormal Egyptian suspense and Amazon Best-Seller, "River Bones, Sara Mason Mysteries Book One," set in her childhood hometown area. "Down to the Needle," a thriller, taking place along the West coast. "Legacy of the Tropics," is set in the Caribbean and Hawaii Islands. "The Howling Cliffs, Sara Mason Mysteries Book Two," set in the Vietnam jungle and on Kauai in Hawaii. "Dead to Life - Sara Mason Mysteries Book Three" is set in Honolulu, Hawaii. "Off Center in the Attic - Over the Top Stories," a collection of short stories and flash fiction pieces. "Write It Right - Tips for Authors" is a reference volume of writing tips for authors from fledgling to published and beyond. Another nonfiction is "Hypno-Scripts: Life-Changing Techniques Using Self-Hypnosis and Meditation." "Sea Cliff," a contemporary romance, is set in San Francisco, California.

"River Bones - Sara Mason Mysteries Book One" was a Finalist in the 2011 National Indie Excellence Books Awards and received an Honorable Mention in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. "Write it Right - Tips for Authors - The Big Book" was a Finalist in the 2015 National Indie Excellence Awards. "The Howling Cliffs - Sara Mason Mysteries Book Two" won a Bronze in the 2015 Global Ebook Awards. "Hypno-Scripts: Life-Changing Techniques Using Self-Hypnosis and Meditation" was a 2016 Finalist in both the National Indie Excellence Book Awards and the International Book Awards. It won a Silver in the 2016 Global eBook Awards. "Down to the Needle" won a Bronze in the 2017 Global eBook Awards. "Down to the Needle" was the Winner in the Suspense category in the 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Sea Cliff was a Finalist in the 2019 National Indie Excellence Awards.

Her short story, "The Last This I Do" was nominated for the coveted Pushcart Prize. Her first feature screenplay, "Sea Storm," was a Semi-Finalist in a Moondance International Film Festival Competition.

Her Web site, www.marydeal.com offers writing tips with examples, covering topics to aid authors to smooth out their own prose. She accepts articles and short stories from published authors. The site also promotes authors of any genre.

Mary Deal, a native of Walnut Grove in California's Sacramento River Delta, has lived in the Caribbean, England, the Hawaiian Islands, Arizona, and now resides in Winterville, North Carolina. She is also an artist (painter) and photographer maintaining two online galleries.

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4.4 out of 5

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Turned into a page-turner!

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2023

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It took me a minute to get a feel for the main characters, Rachael & Matthew, but once I did I couldn't put the book down for long before picking it back up!

It's an interesting and complicated tale of their relationship over the course of a few years, that forever kept me guessing as to the outcome until the very end!

An otherwise successful business woman, being a victim of childhood abuse made for a rocky and uncertain adult life for Rachael when it came to personal relationships. Her journey traversing the uncharted waters when Matthew comes into her life is was a well rounded story that will invite a gamut of emotions, from betrayal to ecstasy.

I look forward to reading more by this author!

One person found this helpful

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Berk Rourke

Great Read

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2019

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Mary Deal's mysteries absorbed me. Another of her books gave me a sense of sea animals I never had before, it being fiction, but thrilling nonetheless. In Sea Cliff she has created a love story which absorbs, thrills, frustrates, but I won't tell you how it ends. Suffice it to say that Rachel and Matthew are two beautiful people with pasts which have measurable impact on their romance. Mary's characterization of Rachel leaves the reader wondering if she lived some of the troubles attributed to the character? One small portion of the book struck me as being pure Mary Deal, that being frustration felt by Rachel over an interruption in her writing. Every author puts something of themselves in each book they write. It is not possible to avoid doing so. It may be an attitude or an action, or a thought process, no matter it is there. Reading more than one of Mary's novels gives one the impression she has shown her readers many things about her life in the guise of her characters. This story is well constructed, maintains flow, allows the characters to weave through its threads seamlessly. Any reader will enjoy no matter their age. A tour de force from Mary Deal.

2 people found this helpful

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Eve Gaal

A Bay Area Beauty!

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2020

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This book grabbed me by the collar, as if I were there, experiencing the deep emotions felt by the main characters. Lovely Rachel, is a bookkeeper, novelist and the owner of a stunning home perched above the bay, called Sea Cliff.

Handsome and hunky Matthew Knight wants to sweep the redhead off her feet, but wasting time with some guy who might be playing the field, isn’t her style. Before she gives away her heart, Rachel has to make sure he’s the one. Her past is riddled with hang ups about her father and bad memories. The more time she spends with Matthew, the more these memories play with her mind. Plus, there’s Linda, Britt and old boyfriend scars from a guy called Rodney.

Without giving away too much, I have to shout praise to the author for sublime, poetic descriptions of the Sacramento River, earthquakes, a car collision, even New York and San Francisco.

Meanwhile, Rachel needs to free up her mind, clear away the internal clutter and study some books she picked up at the San Francisco Public library. Only then, can she finish writing her novel, also titled, Sea Cliff. Will it be a bestseller? Read this book and find out!

One person found this helpful

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Rita M.

A Compelling Read

Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2021

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I'm not usually drawn to what I would call romance novels, but I really liked this one. This is not strictly a romance novel per se, although it gives you the history of a great love between two people that were destined for one another - but there are many obstacles in their way. It's also a story of overcoming an oppressive upbringing and finding your own way in the world to become the person you want to be. There are many twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat and draw you into the engrossing story. This is the first book I've read by this author. Mary Deal is an excellent writer, and I can't wait to read her other novels!

One person found this helpful

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Gamblin' Gal

Pure Creativity

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2019

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“Now you’re left to try to understand how life comes at you and how you react to it.” This quote from the book summarizes the whole story. When Mary Deal adds child abuse remembrance to an accident blending in an earthquake, family bonds, and renovations…she keeps Sea Cliff riveting with surprising twists and turns. Meanwhile using her creative talents to make one of the main characters into a writing muse. Throughout the pages, I felt I was alongside Rachael and sympathized and empathized with her. As much as I enjoyed the story, I wished Deal would have interjected Matthew’s POV once in a while. Overall, great job!

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Sea Cliff

Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2021

Verified Purchase

Very interesting title and the description of the sea cliff home was great. The story line held the attention through to the end. This is a picture seen thru the eyes of the characters lives so affected by their upbringing. Rachael and Brandon raised by a violent father, Matthew by loving sometimes overprotective parents, seeing life conflicted by the differences. Enjoyed the emotional descriptions.

One person found this helpful

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Sandy V

Beautiful Story

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2020

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This whirlwind of storytelling included pain, suffering, heartbreak, and healing. Not a typical love story, Rachael has an abusive past to overcome before she loses the one man she has come to love.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

A modern courtship?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2023

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Can you explain love? When one of my favourite crime writers boldly announces a romance novel, I had no choice but to read the book. I’ve read all Mary Deal’s books and love her intricate plotting, scene setting, and absorbing narratives.
So, how will a romance work?
I was not disappointed, this is no ordinary romance novel. Of course the clue is in the title; ‘a contemporary romance.’ Not quite a dysfunctional story of two damaged lovers attracted to each other, Rachel scared, Mathew hypnotically fascinated.
Maybe this is a modern courtship?
“Letting go of fears is healthy” Mathew says as he tries to find out about why Rachael is reticent, despite an obvious attraction.
The story unfolds via a book that Rachel is writing, names changed to protect the players. The book is a cathartic experience for Rachael, it enables her to channel her thoughts, but then does it drive her actions? A wonderful concept. Here is a man who cares enough to not rush her. Cares enough to help her spiritually. We learn that Rachael has been abused as a child and in adolescence. How can Mathew help her emerge from her shell?
Like most ‘real’ relationships, bodice ripping is replaced in this case by sensitivity; Mathew is going nowhere and, he has his own history. How do they both break free of their past:
Rachael, “I want to be alone” she thought of herself as Greta. Will the book bring her closer or close her further. Will it open up her heart and break down the barriers. Her book was mirroring her relationship with Mathew, at first unaware, but soon it becomes a hidden expression; safe. Her writing, this book was the most important thing, yes?
Mathew, How to distinguish between desire and a growing love?
As I would expect from such a consummate writer, the narrative is beautifully, and sometimes painfully, exquisite. I found myself totally absorbed. Recognising feelings that so often get ignored but need to be understood and dealt with in order for a true loving relationship to be formed; a foundation on shaky ground set in the earthquake risk zone of San Francisco and Mathew is determined in his task until his own past catches him up.
My word, what a mess we weave when we try so hard to do right, to break down barriers constructed over years, and of course there will be collateral damage, the ‘modern’ part is how to deal with this.
Sea Cliff is a swirling cauldron of emotions that had me engaged from start to finish – maybe crime writers’ should write more romance? Thank God for a ‘real’ love story – recommended – 5 stars.

yop

A good read

Reviewed in Spain on June 11, 2021

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The beautiful Rachael Connor appears to have it all: good looks, money and a beautiful home called Sea Cliff, but despite outer appearances, she is hiding something. Her domineering father has left her scarred in more ways than one. She has a huge hang-up regarding relationships and isn’t prepared to throw herself at the first man to cross her threshold.

When Rachael meets Mathew, she believes he could be “the one” but the good looking builder also has a past and Rachael becomes embroiled in it.

Due to her father’s strict rules and constant preaching about saving herself for marriage, Rachael spends the entire novel edging towards him and then backing away. One step forward and three steps back. At times I wanted to scream at her: “He loves you, damn it! Just go for it!” but I realised it was her abusive childhood upbringing that held her back. Her fears and past rejection constantly playing on her mind.

Rachael’s hang-ups are so well documented that I found it hard to believe this was pure fiction. Throw an arrogant brother with problems of his own into the mix and you know you are in for a good read; one that you shouldn’t miss out on.

Sandra Jackson

A Touching Story

Reviewed in Canada on July 26, 2019

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Sea Cliff is the story of child abuse survivor Rachel Connor. Rachel is also an author working on a new book. The story she is writing revolves around a female character who shares many of Rachel’s history including abuse and emotional scars. Without having had a personal experience with men and relationships, her male character is based on a man she regularly sees at the park where she like to spend her time writing. The problem is, this man, Matthew, has noticed Rachel, and she feels as though he is hitting on her. Something Rachel is not comfortable with.

As the weeks and months go by, Rachel and Matthew become more than just acquaintances, but can their relationship withstand Rachel’s past? Will Rachel’s novel become the success she hopes for and will it help heal her scars?

Sea Cliff is a well written and touching story with some interesting turns, and I wasn’t always sure where the story was going.

I do have to say I couldn’t get stuck into this book as I have with other stories by this author. It is a good story and the pace was fine, but there were times where it didn’t hold my attention. And yet other times I wanted to find out what happened next.

In any case, if you do like a nice story with a happy ending this is a good read.

Sashadoo

The sins of the father?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2018

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Rachael meets Matthew. He falls for her, she keeps him at arm's length, as memories of childhood abuse cloud her ability to love or be loved. Even when a terrible accident leaves Matthew close to death, she is inabke to admit to her true feelings. Will she ever learn to give herself and at the same time allow a man to give her the love she deeply needs? A perfect example of the sins of the father being revisited on the children. Tense and almost tragic with pathos and a hint of thibgs unspoken. Definitely not the usual boy meets girl romance story.

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