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Over the years, it has almost grown into a physical and palpaple thing; my longing for the sea. It overpowers me when I least expect it, making the pavement and the apartment buildings cave in around me to the point where I can hardly breathe.

I grew up by the sea. By the wild, roaring and fierce powers of Denmark's Western Coast. And when I close my eyes, I'm still there. Listening to the waves crashing in.

It's a hard thing to explain, this odd connection between the forces of nature and one's home. Yet Montgomery still manages it in the opening story of this collection, The Magical Bond of the Sea. Here a young woman tries to leave her homestead for better options and a brighter future � and throws it all away, just to be able to return.

In this short story collection, many of Montgomery's characters travels to the sea in order to spend a carefree holiday by the shores � some resulting in marriages or even tragedy. Many hearts get broken and mended, but the stories that truly touched me were the ones where Montgomery explores the fierce nature of the sea and the power it holds on its inhabitants.

Montgomery always excels in poetic descriptions of nature, possessing the ability of a photographer to magnify even the smallest details. As evidenced in quite a few of these short stories.