SOLVED. YA: It starts with the MC being old and talking to a little boy who appeared in her house. The love interest of the MC (when she was young) is called "Feather". I believe that they end up getting married. The ending is sad. Spoilers ahead. [s]

[Gabriella]

I read this a while ago (2015?) so I don't remember a lot, but here is what I remember:

- The girl meets her love interest, Feather, on the beach. Feather doesn't seem to have a home and is always found on the beach with the birds

- Location: Obviously by a beach. It may be in England or America
- The MC comes from a rich family


SPOILERS:



- The girl gets pregnant after she marries (?) Feather but then loses the baby. Feather is indifferent about the loss (he's kind of a jerk)


- I think that after this the girl attempts to commit suicide in a nearby lake.


-The MC then can't find Feather everywhere. She goes on a "quest" to look for him. This quest takes her sailing across the sea (on a raft?). She hallucinates from drinking the saltwater and not having food. Along the way, she hallucinates a turtle or a whale talking to her and telling her where Feather is. She is told that Feather is on an island

- This island is a magical (?) island that is removed from time.

- Once the MC finds him she begs him to come but he won't



I don't remember much after that except this:

(also a SPOILER)
At the end of the novel (back to the old women from the start of the novel), the little boy takes her hand and the old women dies. The little boy was assumed (at least by my teacher when I read the book for school) to be the angel/soul of her miscarried baby from her youth



Please help me find this book! I read this book in middle school. I remember not liking it much, despite my teacher loving it and saying it was the best book ever created, but several years have passed since then and I'm willing to give it another try now that my tastes in books has matured a bit

[Kris]

The Ghost's Child by Sonya Hartnett seems to match your description. There are different cover images.

Google search - site:www.goodreads.com fiction "feather" "beach" pregnant "old woman"

[Kris]

Great. Glad you found your book, Gabriella.