Synopsis
Amy Tucker is struggling to put her life back together following the death of her mother. The loss has left the eighteen-year-old heartbroken, and she doesn’t know if her world will ever be whole again.
Meanwhile, in Seabrook, a small town famous for its haunted lighthouse, Ryan Porter lives a simple but busy life, maintaining the ranch which he shares with his father.
Separated by hundreds of miles, yet drawn to each other by forces they can’t understand, Amy and Ryan spend a magical day together and quickly forge a deep connection. But all is not what it seems in Seabrook and when strange events begin happening around town, they question if their meeting really was an accident at all.
Trusting in themselves and in each other, they attempt to unravel the mystery of why fate has brought them together, and in doing so they embark on an unforgettable journey of self-discovery, a journey that leads straight to the heart of Seabrook’s mysterious lighthouse where they uncover the most shocking secret of all… a secret that will change the course of their lives forever.
18 year old Amy is struggling to handle her grief following her mother’s recent death. She’s never been particularly close to her father Kevin, a police detective, however when Kevin is sent out of town on police business, Amy tags along for a couple of days in the seaside town of Seabrook.
In Seabrook, Ryan is a young man with a disabled father. Ryan has tried his best to keep the family ranch going, but medical expenses following his father’s recent stroke have plunged him into serious debt and he risks losing everything.
Amy & Ryan meet in a bizarre way & they bond over the fact that they both have lost their mother. As they spend time together strange things happen – eg Amy’s father goes missing, the lighthouse starts to shine for the first time in decades – and the two help to heal each other, even if they don't realize it.
This is a character driven book, with Amy, Amy’s Dad, and Ryan at the heart of the story. Ultimately the book explores grief, and how different people cope with it, along with dealing with the aftermath of bad decisions. It’s very sensitively done and unusually, all the characters are likeable and realistic – I particularly liked the character of Ryan’s Dad who I felt could have had more page-time! The small coastal community of Seabrook was well described – I could picture it (though undoubtably with a British bias!) & the narrator suited the story.
At the 10% mark, I was hooked – I needed to know more, find out the whole story. By 50% I was still intrigued and was enjoying the way that the story was unravelling – I was not sure where it was going but was enjoying uncovering the new snippets of information and the twists that came at just the right moment. By 80% of the way through the book we were heading for the “and then she woke up and it was all a dream” territory and I started to feel … disappointed? cheated? Lets just say that it definitely didn’t go the way that I had hoped and for me, it totally turned the book from great adult mystery/thriller to YA coming of age with a bit of a supernatural feel. As a consequence I didn’t enjoy it so much and whilst I did really like the way that the book veered away from a “happy ever after” ending, it left me feeling flat.
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