"The Lightkeeper's Bride" Review

The Lightkeeper’s Bride was sent to me by Thomas Nelson Publishers as a review copy. It is the second book in the Mercy Falls series by Colleen Coble. You can read my review of the first book, The Lightkeeper's Daughter, here.

Katie Russell enjoys her life as a telephone operator living in Mercy Falls, California. While working the phone lines one evening, she overhears a possible kidnapping of a friend, and she rushes to investigate. Katie’s search leads her to befriend Will Jesperson, the new lighthouse keeper in Mercy Falls. As the two get more involved in solving the crime, Katie and Will realize that their partnership might lead to something more.

Although Katie is attracted to Will, she has known all her life that her parents expect her to marry well and secure their financial situation. A lowly lighthouse keeper is not what Katie’s parents would consider ‘marrying well,’ and so she is pushed toward another.

As Will and Katie discover more secrets surrounding the town of Mercy Falls, they will need to have the courage to face the danger and the faith to follow their hearts.

This is only the third book I have read by Colleen Coble, but I think she will be an author I will seek out in the future. I really liked the suspense/mystery aspect of this novel. With a kidnapping, an abandoned child, secrets from the past, and even pirates, this story was complicated but engaging.

As for the characters, I really liked the character of Will. I felt this character was well-developed and had more personality than the main male character in the first novel.  His faith in God was solid, too. Although I thought Katie sometimes acted too impulsively, that trait made her more realistic as opposed to the way I felt about the character of Addie in the first novel. As I mentioned in my review of the first book, I felt the two main characters in all three books fell ‘in love’ too quickly. The whole story takes place over just a month or so and yet they are ready to be married by the end. (Oops…did I give it away? I’m thinking you can tell how this one is going to end up from the title of the book!) Granted, they go through some pretty perilous situations, and going through those types of things can make you realize what you want a lot more quickly than normal.

For me, this book was just fun. It was like reading an adventure story with pirates and secrets and buried treasure. The dangers that are encountered are sometimes unbelievable (it seems as if these characters survive falling off cliffs and drowning A LOT!), but it does provide for a great storyline. Actually, that is what I want from a book – entertainment. When books are too real, that is when I find them depressing, and I get disinterested.

Historical fiction is my favorite genre of book to read, and when you throw in a mystery, I like it even more. The Lightkeeper’s Bride was all of these things and more.

I will give The Lightkeeper’s Bride … 4 BookWorms

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this is accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255:  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”