Like a Ship on the Sea

The Hilton Legacy, Book 1

By: Kellyn Roth

Narrated by: Lisa Lynn Sandlin

If God asks you to confront a storm, how dare you stay in the harbor?

Lady Mary Cassidy O’Connell has a dream that can be summed up in three connecting ideas: a loving husband, adorable children, and a home of her own. Her mother’s lack of care makes life difficult for Cassie, and an escape is necessary. The plan? Marry Aubrey Montgomery, the man her parents have chosen for her, and find the peace she craves.

Unfortunately, Cassie is uneasy about marrying Aubrey. Her apprehension grows as she witnesses her dearest friend’s loving marriage take place. At this wedding, she catches the eye of Patrick Hilton, son of a wealthy American. Like Cassie, he’s also set to marry a woman chosen by his parents—only, Patrick claims, he is content with this choice.

Torn between her desire for happiness and the knowledge that God is leading her in a different direction, Cassie confronts the impossible decision. Is a loveless marriage of obligation better than being alone, or will she set sail on a voyage without a safe harbor?

Like a Ship on the Sea is the first novel in The Hilton Legacy, a stand-alone trilogy featuring characters from the author’s first series, The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy.

©2023 Wild Blue Wonder Press (P)2025 Wild Blue Wonder Press

Enjoyable Story

The biggest lesson this book teaches is to Trust God when things are stormy. This is the first story by Kelly that I have read, from my understanding Cassie’s story is a spinoff of Kelly’s other series The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy. But even without knowing anything about that series I highly enjoyed this story.

This story was good. It did take me a while of listening before I fully got into it but once I got to know Cassie and Patrick I did fully enjoy them. They don’t have the exploding chemistry that we see sometimes in romances, but I do feel like their chemistry is there, it is just softer. And I enjoyed that.
The narration by Lisa as always was amazing, I enjoyed her pacing and her mannerisms while reading helped me stay interested.

I received a free ARC for my honest review.

Long, thoughtful jouney

I liked a previous book by Roth much better, but the writing and character development are still great with this one. I hate to rate this a 3, because I don't want to make an excellent writer feel bad. But this book just never grabbed me and felt too slow. So much introspection, lots of internal struggle, which I totally understand, but the lack of action just went on too long for me. However, I am still interested in reading others of her books!

A beautiful Christian Romance

I loved seeing how God played an important role in each of their lives. It was beautiful to see the characters grow and choose His way over an ungodly domination from their respective parents.

If you enjoy Christian romance with faith woven into many scenes, this book is for you!

Well written and well narrated.

Amazing new series start!!

If you are reading the Alice and Ivy Chronicles by the same author in book 3, there is an incident that happens to Alice and her best friend is privileged to this information. This is the story of that best friend. We find out that Mary is struggling with going through on her engagement and end up meeting this very handsome American. Both of them are in the same impossible situation, but can both of them be able to come out and be able to live the life they want. This was an excellent book. It starts in the Alice and Ivy Chronicles book 3 and arcs over books 4 and 5 as well as you get all the information from those. I do not believe you have to read the Alice and Ivy Chronicles to enjoy this book/upcoming series but know that if you read this before the Alice and Ivy Chronicles, it will give spoilers for books 3, 4, and 5. I was also blessed to be able to listen to the audiobook, which is narrated by Lisa Lynn Sandlin and when you listen to this, there will be no accents and it makes absolute sense because the Chronicles of Ivy and Alice take place in the UK whereas this majority of this book takes place in the Americas where we have our own weird accent or lack of an accent. I absolutely enjoyed Lisa bringing this book to life. It was wonderful to read a spinoff series to a series I love.

Really enjoyed this story

I listened to Like a Ship on the Sea during my vacation. It took me only 2 days to finish and was such a fun story. The contrast of the main character, Cassie, living in Europe with a royal title, to living in Cincinnati as a commoner was an interesting historical setting for the book. This book just flows and I didn’t want to put it down. The 2 main characters, who are such likable people, are learning to rely on God as they struggle through some issues. I highly recommend it.