Laura Tobin Martinez is a hardworking wife and mother of two, who suddenly finds herself being stretched even further when her aloof and demanding mother Helen has a debilitating stroke, and will require extensive rehabilitation. Laura and her mother have always had an awkward and strained relationship, and Laura never understood why she could not seem to please her mother no matter how hard she tried. Despite this Laura is committed to stepping up to the plate to do her best for her mother. She puts her own life on hold, thanks to help of her generous and loving husband and his sister, and in the process of caring for her mom, Laura finds answers to a myriad of family secrets that has haunted her family for decades.

Laura's father Joseph was the love of her mother's life, and when he was killed in 1975 while working for the Associated Press during the Vietnam Era, the event altered the Tobin family dramatically. After Joseph's death Helen found solace at Sea Escape, a beautiful beach home the couple built, and Helen painstakingly decorated to perfection. It is here at Sea Escape, that Laura discovers old letters written by her parents, dating back as far as 1951. It is through these old letters that Laura discovers shocking things about her parents that she is learning for the first time, and the answers to so many questions that she and her brother Holden had had all their lives.

In Lynne Griffin's powerful novel, SEA ESCAPE, the strong dynamics of mother/daughter relationships is put under a fine magnification in a story that is heart wrenching but authentic in its realities of the situations many families find themselves in. In this tale, Griffin offers her readers a glimpse into the lives of these two strong women as she delves into the reasons that mother Helen was like she was, and why she rarely showed her feelings and how this affected her daughter and son. The story alternates between the past and present, Laura's family life and Helen's stroke and recovery, and is a genuine tale that many will find leaves a last impact.