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    Overseas
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    Overseas
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    Overseas
    Audiobook15 hours

    Overseas

    Written by Beatriz Williams

    Narrated by January LaVoy

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A passionate, sweeping novel of a love that transcends time.

    When twenty-something Wall Street analyst Kate Wilson attracts the notice of the legendary Julian Laurence at a business meeting, no one's more surprised than she is. Julian's relentless energy and his extraordinary intellect electrify her, but she's baffled by his sudden interest. Why would this handsome British billionaire-Manhattan's most eligible bachelor-pursue a pretty but bookish young banker who hasn't had a boyfriend since college?

    The answer is beyond imagining . . . at least at first. Kate and Julian's story may have begun not in the moneyed world of twenty-first-century Manhattan but in France during World War I, when a mysterious American woman emerged from the shadows of the Western Front to save the life of Captain Julian Laurence Ashford, a celebrated war poet and infantry officer.

    Now, in modern-day New York, Kate and Julian must protect themselves from the secrets of the past, and trust in a true love that transcends time and space.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 10, 2012
    ISBN9781101564462
    Unavailable
    Overseas
    Author

    Beatriz Williams

    A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA from Columbia, Beatriz Williams spent several years in New York and London hiding her early attempts at fiction, first on company laptops as a communications strategy consultant, and then as an at-home producer of small persons, before her career as a writer took off. She lives with her husband and four children near the Connecticut shore.

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    Reviews for Overseas

    3.5/5

    201 ratings56 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Love Beatriz Williams books but this one is not my favorite it was interesting and I wanted toFinish it to see what happens but the time traveling premise didn’t sit well with me for some reason. I would still recommend the book but there are others of hers, I liked much better.
    • 3/5
      Read an ARC of this. From the publisher's marketing, I thought it might be like The Time Travelers Wife, fiction with a time travel epic romance plot, but really it's more of a straight up romance with pale shades of Finney's Time and Again. Could have used a lot of editing out of the repetition of the handsomeness and perfection of the hero. I grew bored. It was ok. I recommend people read Finney instead though.
    • 5/5
      This was a delightful read. I had trouble putting it down. I was ready to read it again as soon as I finished it to read it knowing how it ends.
    • 3/5
      Overseas took a while to grab hold of me but once I was in I really wanted to know the secret. I didn't love this book, it could be shorter, in my opinion.
    • 3/5
      Overseas has the potential to be an incredible book. Dialogue is repetitive and bogs down the advancement of the story; lack of historical presence makes the WWI interspersement too brief to explain why it shows up between chapters; and the events taking place in the story need to come to the forefront to better understand why certain actions are taking place. I want details :) Other than that, it's a nice love story that hints at greatness. There are fabulous instances of word usage that gave me pause and showed the potential.
    • 5/5
      Full review to be posted soon:

      Wonderful and intrinsically romantic book!
    • 5/5
      Title: OverseasAuthor: Beatriz WilliamsPublished: 2011Genre: Literary Fiction, time-travelRating: 5 out of 5Read Again Award!Summary: Kate falls in love with Julian; ninety-one years earlier, Julian falls in love with Kate. Review: I totally fell in love with the characters. All four (I mean two) of them. Beatriz Williams is a master crafter at character introduction, dialogue, and emotional suspense. I couldn't put the book down. Literally. I read it in one day. Well, two, But that was because I stayed up until two a.m. (the next day) to finish it.The cool thing about time-travel books that are also love stories, is you get to see BOTH parties falling in love. They BOTH get a turn at being the protagonist. And the reader gets to see BOTH of them, at separate times, act awkwardly, ache for the other, behave stiltedly with secrets, want to move forward and dive in, but hold back. It is a bittersweet agony to watch them interact with each other."Overseas" is told with humor, delicious sensory detail, and great plotting.I'm not big into science fiction OR romance genres, but combined in a literary fashion as they are in "Overseas," I couldn't help but flow from mystery, magic, jealousy and suspense (and witty dialogue) to an exciting and lovely ending. Also? I don't think I would need a 'spoiler alert' to say that I appreciated that the time travel aspect wasn't a scientific thing. It happened in a totally different way. My *only* wish for the book -- during the reading of it -- was that not quite so many people needed to 'travel' in. It seemed to diminish the uniqueness of the "miracle", if you will. BUT, at the end, in retrospect, it couldn't have happened any other way.I'd definitely read it again.
    • 4/5
      "Overseas" is Kate and Julian’s love story tortured with twists of mystery, time travel, and danger. She is a contemporary New York City woman – educated, feisty, and working in banking investment. He is an old-fashioned English man from the early 1900s – cultured, wealthy, and romantic. They represent different cultures, ideologies, and values, but they learn to trust each other and fall deeply in love. Will they be able to bridge the gaps or will they find it necessary to make sacrifices that will pull them apart? This is an easy read pulling the reader forward at a quick pace. The theme obviously demands a suspension of realism. The characters are too perfect – too privileged. I’m guessing that is what romantic novels are all about. A bit of fluff… a good summer read.
    • 4/5
      Look, you either can suspend disbelief and go with the time travel bit or you can't. I did and I enjoyed the book. The story is unique and yes, it is kind of hilarious and half-nauseating when the hero keeps referring to the heroine as a "little minx". But his old-fashioned dialogue is supposed to be part of his charm, right? I noticed other reviewers have a fair amount of quibbles and I did too. However, after taking a break mid-book I returned to the story and by the last third, I was gobbling it up because at its core, it's a very sweet romance.
    • 3/5
      Sappy love talk
    • 5/5
      Worth listening twice!!

      I love this story, actually listened to it last year, and then again over this past weekend. Well worth a "re-read"!!
    • 3/5
      This book goes back and forth in time between 1916 and 2007, although most of the action takes place in the present. In 2007, we first meet Julian Laurence, who is 33, gorgeous, a billionaire, a “living legend” hedge-fund manager, and oddly fixated on Kate Wilson. Kate, 25, works as an investment banker but in the lower echelons. She doesn’t find herself particularly good-looking, but her friend and colleague Charlie tells her “You rock the whole sexy librarian thing.” Julian, who could have "anybody" as Kate marvels, seems to have fallen in love at first sight.We know something more is up, however, since the book actually begins with modern Kate traveling to Amiens, France in 1916 to find Julian and give him a message.Although this is a time travel book, it also tends to bring to mind Fifty Shades of Grey. The main couple, Kate and Julian, are very reminiscent of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. The dialogue is similar in quality [sic], and there is even lip biting by the heroine, but not a whole lot of S&M. You won’t miss it; you’ll be too busy wondering how the same unrealistic lines could be repeated so often.Also on the minus side, there is the relationship between Kate and Julian - never quite understandable even when it was explained; all the “you little minx” lines from Julian and the “you’re so beautiful” lines from Kate; the brief forays into "50 Shades" territory (as in: sex is even more exciting when it’s rough and forced!) and the lack of clarity regarding Julian’s evil/not evil BFF.Nevertheless, for some reason I found the book to be compulsively readable, I suppose because I love time travel stories, and the part about World War I was rather well done. Evaluation: A kinder, gentler Fifty Shades of Grey with a time travel twist.
    • 3/5
      Amiens, France, 1916: Captain Julian Ashford, a British officer in the trenches of the Western Front, is waylaid in the town square by Kate, a beautiful young American. Julian’s never seen her before, but she has information about the reconnaissance mission he’s about to embark on. Who is she? And why did she track him down in Amiens?New York, 2007: A young Wall Street analyst, Kate Wilson learned to rely on logic and cynicism. So why does she fall so desperately in love with Julian Laurence, a billionaire with a mysterious past?What she doesn’t know is that he has been waiting for her...the enchanting woman who emerged from the shadows of the Great War to save his life.
    • 5/5
      Just simply an awesome book. I read this book after I had read A HUNDRED SUMMERS ,an early readers review. I wondered, after reading the cover page, how this book had gotten past me, promptly ordered a slightly used copy from a vender off of B & N and even asked how long it would take to get it shipped… little did I know the next day I would find the hard cover misplaced alphabetically by me and read it in a couple days. Not your typical time travel book and I will say no more to spoil the story!
    • 2/5
      I enjoyed a Hundred Summers (2013) by Beatriz Williams, so looking forward to reading Overseas. I was not excited about this book from the beginning, as not my cup of tea. I tried to force myself to enjoy it; however, just not there. Not crazy about dual timelines (unless it is something exciting), and being transported into 20th century (was not a fan of Time Traveler Wife either.)

      Primarily written from Kate’s point of view and a love story and mystery for this duo. Not realistic and weak at its best. Not a huge fan of WW time period – for those who enjoy this subject matter, I am sure they would recommend.
    • 4/5
      "Overseas" is Kate and Julian’s love story tortured with twists of mystery, time travel, and danger. She is a contemporary New York City woman – educated, feisty, and working in banking investment. He is an old-fashioned English man from the early 1900s – cultured, wealthy, and romantic. They represent different cultures, ideologies, and values, but they learn to trust each other and fall deeply in love. Will they be able to bridge the gaps or will they find it necessary to make sacrifices that will pull them apart? This is an easy read pulling the reader forward at a quick pace. The theme obviously demands a suspension of realism. The characters are too perfect – too privileged. I’m guessing that is what romantic novels are all about. A bit of fluff… a good summer read.
    • 4/5
      Read from July 4-6, 2012I'm not entirely sure why these two people loved each other, but I still enjoyed reading about their love. The flashbacks to the war period were so perfectly placed that I always wanted more and the ending was great (even with that bit of sadness). (I stayed up WAY too late finishing it because I NEEDED to know what was going on.)I definitely think this is a great read for fans of Outlander, A Discovery of Witches, and The Time Traveler's Wife. It isn't quite as epic as the first two, BUT it's a nice standalone break between books in those huge series. (Of course, it'll probably end up becoming some kind of series like everything does these days...but until then!)
    • 4/5
      I received an advance copy of this book from Shelf Awareness. Overseas was a great book! I had a very hard time putting it down, even when I had to, and really found myself caught up in the story. It begins in France during the First World War. A young woman is waiting for an English captain. She knows who he is, but he is completely unaware of who she is or why she has come to find him. There is a hint of attraction from the very start between the captain and the woman who ends up fainting into his arms. The story then fades to current time in New York and we meet Kate, a young investment capital broker. She is part of a team that has prepared a report for an illusive, handsome billionaire bachelor. Although she doesn't get the chance to present it to him when she is upstaged by one of her senior partners, he hunts her down in the office to thank her for her work and thus begins this brilliant romance that bridges time and circumstances. The story is lovely with the action switching back and forth between the two time eras. Very slowly the author reveals the connections between the two, but she kept me guessing until the end as to how it would all tie together and wind up. Somehow she brings all the loose ends together in a most satisfying way. Overseas was a delightful read, and one I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys romance with a touch of mystery.
    • 1/5
      I had great hopes for this book. It's supposed to be so romantic, and I love time travel and, of course, WWI. But the hero is incredibly, impossibly gorgeous, and that annoyed me. And then, after a scene or two in Amiens, suddenly we're in New York, where she is the typical 30something single falling in love with an incredibly gorgeous, filthy rich, mysterious man, blah, blah, blah.
    • 2/5
      The only reason that I'm bothering to write a review for this is that I figure if I don't, I'll never get another ER book! This took me no fewer than FIVE attempts to finish, over the course of many months, and when I was finished I felt like I needed a strong cup of coffee to take the saccharine taste out of my mouth.I have no objection to novels with a hefty dose of romance in them (I read a lot of chick lit, for instance), but I do want it to be believable. Even accounting for the problems with the time travel plot line (I'm a big fan of Connie Willis' time travel books, and just finished "11/22/63") in this novel, the romance simply wasn't convincing. The characters, Julian and Kate, were two dimensional and ultimately tedious -- I simply ended up not really caring what happened to them, which is the kiss of death for any novel. The 1.5 stars are really because it could ultimately be finished. It wasn't simply that this wasn't my cup of tea, but that the author didn't seem to invest enough time or energy in making her characters vivid in their own right, turning them into people and not stock characters from some romantic drama. If you don't mind feeling as if you've seen these characters with other names, other costumes in other books, you'll be fine with this. If you are looking for something more, all I can say is "avoid".
    • 3/5
      "Overseas" intrigued me with the time travel aspect within a romance storyline. An easy quick read that I enjoyed in the beginning, but the longer I read the harder time I had in the believability of Julian and Kate.
    • 3/5
      I had high hopes for this one. Time travel, a WWI romance thing mixed with a modern day romance, what's not to like? But there was a lot I didn't like about this, especially on audio. The syrupy dialogue began to irritate me to no end, and I couldn't help thinking Kate was a major drip and wondered what Julian saw in her that kept him going for all these years after only knowing her for what - a matter of days? Sorry, I just didn't buy it. The love of the century? She was so annoying! The constant back and forth between them was dreadful too "I'm sorry, darling, it was all my fault. Can you forgive me, darling?" How many times do we have to hear this from Julian? His same words of endearment to her were used over and over as well - minx - uggh, I think I hate this word now. Darling. Then to add to it, Kate is always saying that it's her fault! It's like these two were vying to be the biggest martyr that ever lived! She spurned his wealth and jewels and the way he wanted to pamper her - such the paragon! Uggh, she was much too saintly, as was he. The epilogue was simply torture to listen to as well, with all their ooey gooey love talk of how much they adore each other and how perfect they are. Maybe in print it wouldn't have been as bad, but it was too much for me to listen to, plus the narrator made Kate sound so blah. The scenes from WWI were much better, but overall this books was a big disappointent that I was only too glad to finish!
    • 3/5
      I could have sworn I wrote a review on this right after I read it, but nothing is showing up, so here goes again....Several months after reading this book, my lasting impressions are that it was an enjoyable enough read, but not particularly memorable in the long run. I was intrigued to read it based on the time travel premise (I loved [Outlander] by [Diana Gabaldon]), and because it was partially set during WWI, and time period that I'm interested in. Overall, the book to me was a book version of "Pretty Woman" -- incredibly handsome, wealthy, witty man meets innocent, loving, earnest, but a-bit-down-on-her-luck girl and sweeps her off her feet. The time travel was just an added wrinkle that got a little confusing in the end.
    • 4/5
      This was a nice story (I didn't think it was great but it was definitely above-average), but I found it very hard to read for prolonged periods of time. It was easier to listen to the audiobook than to read, at least for me. I don't think this will be a story I re-read at any point in the foreseeable future simply because it dragged at time, and I just lost focus.
    • 5/5
      Title: OverseasAuthor: Beatriz WilliamsPublished: 2011Genre: Literary Fiction, time-travelRating: 5 out of 5Read Again Award!Summary: Kate falls in love with Julian; ninety-one years earlier, Julian falls in love with Kate. Review: I totally fell in love with the characters. All four (I mean two) of them. Beatriz Williams is a master crafter at character introduction, dialogue, and emotional suspense. I couldn't put the book down. Literally. I read it in one day. Well, two, But that was because I stayed up until two a.m. (the next day) to finish it.The cool thing about time-travel books that are also love stories, is you get to see BOTH parties falling in love. They BOTH get a turn at being the protagonist. And the reader gets to see BOTH of them, at separate times, act awkwardly, ache for the other, behave stiltedly with secrets, want to move forward and dive in, but hold back. It is a bittersweet agony to watch them interact with each other."Overseas" is told with humor, delicious sensory detail, and great plotting.I'm not big into science fiction OR romance genres, but combined in a literary fashion as they are in "Overseas," I couldn't help but flow from mystery, magic, jealousy and suspense (and witty dialogue) to an exciting and lovely ending. Also? I don't think I would need a 'spoiler alert' to say that I appreciated that the time travel aspect wasn't a scientific thing. It happened in a totally different way. My *only* wish for the book -- during the reading of it -- was that not quite so many people needed to 'travel' in. It seemed to diminish the uniqueness of the "miracle", if you will. BUT, at the end, in retrospect, it couldn't have happened any other way.I'd definitely read it again.
    • 4/5
      Take Fifty Shades of Gray (minus the whole BDSM-thing), add The Time Traveler's Wife, plus a dash of Erin Duffy's debut novel Bond Girl, and a pinch of Maisie Dobbs' WWI mysteries, shake them all up in a box, and you get Beatriz Williams' imaginative debut novel Overseas.Young analyst Kate Wilson has a summer job at Sterling Bates bank, a Wall Street institution. When she attracts the attention of superstar hedge fund billionaire Julian Ashford, sparks fly and they begin a relationship, much to the consternation of her hated boss Alicia, who aims to do Kate in.But what does this have to do with Captain the Honorable Julian Laurence Spencer Ashford, WWI British Army hero who wrote a famous love poem, Overseas, to his fiancee back home and died tragically on the battlefield in France? Are the two men distant relatives or something more?Julian and Kate begin a relationship, only to have Julian dump Kate soon after, without warning or reason. When Julian reappears months later, saving Kate from an attack in Central Park, they reignite their relationship, although Julian acts very mysterious, paranoid even.Kate is accused of violating insider trading laws and fired from Sterling Bates, and she believes that Alicia is behind it. Julian offers to help her find out what happened, and whisks her off to his country home in Connecticut where their relationship grows deeper.Julian loves Kate, almost from the first moment he saw her, and he showers her with affection and gifts. Kate understands the affection, but the expensive gifts make her uncomfortable. There was one line I adored, something that explains the deep relationship between true soulmates. Julian says:"There's a difference between giving and sharing, darling. I'm not giving you anything. You're a part of me. It's all just yours."But Julian is keeping secrets from Kate, and there are men following her. What is behind all this? The mystery behind who exactly Julian is and why people seem to want to hurt Kate and him is well drawn-out and comes to a convincing conclusion.This imaginative book defies categorization, with aspects of mystery, romance, fantasy, and a little science fiction all carefully put together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that, when finally finished, brings great satisfaction.It's not a book that when described to me I thought I would choose to read, but I'm glad I opened my mind and heart up to it. The storytelling is very clever, and I would have loved to seen the editor's pitch for this book. My only criticism would be that it may have been a bit too long, with too many scenes between Kate and Julian establishing their relationship.That said, I look forward to Beatriz Williams next book; she has a lot going on in that creative mind of hers.
    • 5/5
      Overseas is the story of Julian and Kate, somehow connected through time and always in love. When Julian meets Kate she already knows everything about him. And when Kate meets Julian he already knows everything about her. So the story unfolds as, in two different time periods, the same romance plays out in opposite ways but always with the same outcome - someone always travels through time.I loved every word - the rush of the beginning as the book opens up (blossoms, really) into a torturous love-hate relationship between two charismatic characters. And then the two timelines were so fundamentally different and frustratingly difficult to wrap my mind around! How could the same two people exist in 1916 and 2008?? But that suspsense, the mystery, and the seemingly impossible romance make this book impossible to put down. The underlying theme that no matter when they meet they are always in love is so poignant and the grand scale of emotion and love is charming and breathtakingly beautiful. The relationship between Kate and Julian was infinitely romantic. There was not a page in the book that did not add to the mystery and suspense of this improbable love. Even more impressive was Beatriz Williams' ability to express clearly these emotions on paper.As weird as this story was at times (trying to be suspenseful, though coming off more as having ADD by switching back and forth between time periods) the emotion between Julian and Kate was the constant pull that kept me enraptured until the very last page.Such a unique idea and so well explained. The time travel aspect was handled beautifully and at the exact right moment the story unfolds from a frustrating time-warped love affair to a brilliantly perfect romance. This story is the most romantic thing I've ever read.
    • 3/5
      Kate Wilson finds herself wrapped up in a whirlwind romance with millionaire hedge fund bigwig Julian Lawrence. As their romance unwinds, the reader learns that their love story transcends the decades. Kate tries to understand her attraction and immediate connection to this man who quickly professes his love for her. Julian spends his time trying to convince Kate that what they feel is real and lasting and true. It is only when Kate discovers Julian's secret that she finally gives in to their love wholly, and later finds herself in a battle for him and their love.Well, I’m not a big romance reader, and I am a bit skeptical of love. I know that love exists, and have even experienced it myself on more than one occasion. But I believe that true, deep love is rare, and usually people are more consumed with lust than love, or it is a result of a co-dependent personality finding someone to enable or someone to enable them. So I find the light fluff of romance novels to be something a bit too unrealistic for me to be able to deal with most often. It’s the dialogue in romance novels that kills me most. It’s so flowery and effusive. People don’t really talk like that, do they? Am I just cold-hearted? Because once that starts, I just sort of roll my eyes and tune out. And it's funny. I used to enjoy a good romance novel by Kathleen Woodiwiss or Danielle Steele back in the day, but since then I haven't found one that I could really lose myself in. Have I changed? Or is it just those authors that can really speak to me?So there were quite a few times when I thought about just putting this book down, as the romance was a little over the top for me and hard to swallow. However it was the “mystery” that kept me hanging on. I wanted to understand what was really going on here. I wanted to see how this all panned out, and whether all the loose ends would be neatly tied up.And they pretty much were.The characters were pretty well developed, but certain things would bug me. Like the way that Julian would speak. Hey, maybe that's how good English gents really speak, calling their loves "minx" all of the time, and the whole "pip, pip, cheerio" kinda thing. I mean, what do I know. The author spent time in London and presumably knows the Brits better than I do, so maybe that really is how they speak. But it lacked a little realism for me.I don't want to delve too deeply into the plot and give anything away, but suffice to say that it is one of those plots that keeps you guessing a bit. Have you ever seen them explain string theory? Well, that's what this reminded me of. Everything all twisted up together, the ability to just hop from one loop in the string to another. A little hokey plot, but also a little clever.The cover is attractive, being a deep blue and black depicting the night sky over New York City, but something about it just made me think of the TV show "Bewitched"!And I must warn that there is periodic vulgarity and there are some sexual situations.My final word: Overall I found this to be a unique twist on the traditional romance plot. It was original and restrained, sentimental and intriguing. However I found the dialogue at times to be too fussy, and even redundant and superfluous. It was a bit on the dull side at times, but overall a good effort and worth my time.
    • 4/5
      Overseas is the story of Kate and Julian from France in 1916 to New York in 2007. How is such a romance possible? Well, there is time travel involved. I'm not usually a romance reader unless it sneaks in to some of my urban fantasy or paranormal fiction so it was the time travel aspect of the story that initially drew me to Overseas. What kept me reading, however, was the characters. Kate is a fantastically modern woman with a strong independent streak and a temper that flares quickly when she feels coddled. Julian is a traditional British gentleman with impeccable manners and a protective nature. Together they are a dynamic pair, drawn to each other more strongly that either can understand. Their connection may be inevitable but that doesn't mean they don't have the usual relationship problems along the way. They also face a larger threat to their happiness, although neither realizes the source.I loved how the modern story of Kate and Julian was initially established by alternating the modern chapters with flashback chapters to France in 1916. This was a great set up to the story because it made it clear that the Kate of the past knows more than she shares initially and the same for the modern Julian. I felt a bit disoriented at first but I think that is because I wanted to rush the revealing of all the information instead of letting the story unfold naturally until everything comes together. Once I settled into the story, letting it unfold at the pace it was meant to, I was able to fall into the world of Kate and Julian and enjoy the development of their relationship.As I neared the end of the book, I began to fear that the mystery of how the time travel happened wouldn't be revealed and I would just have to believe it to be possible. I think that would have ruined the ending a bit for me. Without giving anything I away I will say that I was thankful this was not the case and the time travel was explained to a degree. The ending chapters once again tie the modern story to the past in a way that brings everything full circle and wraps up all the lingering questions.Overseas is the first novel from Beatriz Williams and I'm sure it won't be the last. The writing is excellent with great descriptions, well-developed characters, and a fantastic storyline. With the new baby, it has been taking me a lot longer to read books this year than usual but I was enjoying Overseas so much that I made more time to read and finished it faster than I've finished much shorter books. This really tells you how much Williams captured my attention and drew me into Kate and Julian's world.
    • 3/5
      This book and are were a bad match. From the initial blurb, I was expecting a little more science fiction and a little less romance. I had a lot of trouble feeling sympathy for Kate, who the author seems to be trying to depict as a bit of a victim. Julian came off as a cookie cutter heart-of-gold type hero. Not my taste at all, but I'm sure it'll be a good fit for someone else.