Published By : Llumina Press
Released : Available Now
Details : Paperback , 250 Pages
RATING : 4.5 Dalton Brothers STARS!!
Book Review
By Guest Reviewer :
Carolyn Rolfe
BOOK REVIEW:
BOOK REVIEW:
I can’t remember who it was that recommended this to me, but a big thank you to them. It is a really good easy to read book. And as I have a love of all things lighthouse I was immediately attracted to it.
The Girl in the Lighthouse is set in the late 1860's on the East Coast of America. Lillian is a 10 year old girl who has lived on a remote island with her mother and lighthouse keeper father her entire life. Her father gets transferred into the position of head lighthouse keeper on Jasper Island off the coast of Maine. Lillian finally gets to live on a station where there is not only another family, but that family has 2 boys around her age.
Heath is a handsome teenager of 14 years who aspires to leave Jasper Island and travel to Boston to university and become a doctor. He and Lillian hit it off immediately and become fast friends. Although as the years progress Heath grows up a bit too much for Lillian. Ayden is the same age as Lillian and although he starts off very off-handish and rude to Lillian, he becomes a very close friend to her. Lillian and Ayden share a secret that nobody else on the island is aware of.
Lillian loves being on Jasper Island as she now has friends to play with, can row across to the mainland with the boys and also gets the chance to attend a regular school. Although she does have a disaster on her first day and doesn’t want to go back she sticks at it and thoroughly enjoys herself and is soon skipping grades as she is a very intelligent young lady.
A terrible event in Lillian's life has her shipped off in the middle of the night by her father, to live with her grandmother in Sutton Hall, Savannah and uncovers the dark secrets about her family's hidden past. Yes they even had skeletons in the closet back in the Civil War days. By this stage she is about 13 and starting to develop into a very beautiful young lady.
The only things that keep Lillian going through the dark, torturous days in Sutton Hall are her love for Jasper Island, Heath, Ayden, and her attraction to the mysterious Warren Stone. I really felt sorry for Lillian having led such a sheltered life, then having to endure her grandmother and the horrors that are Sutton Hall. I found she was a little too naive and trusting of men, especially when she met Warren Stone and Richard Parker, and am worried about what will happen to her in the second book. She romanticises everything that happens and it will only lead to trouble, even in the 1870’s.
I did pick the POW that occurred towards the end of the book, as it does become obvious as you are reading. But it is still a bit shocking and revealing and I loved Lillian’s idea of justice.
It is definitely young adult, but some YA readers may not like it due to the era in which it is set and the way Lillian behaves, however I found it to be a really lovely book and can’t wait to read All That is Beautiful.
CAROLYN
I really enjoyed the first half of the story, and the twist in the middle was very interesting. It's very Jane Eyre, which I enjoyed. However, whoever the commenter is who said this is a fine book for young readers might not have been paying attention. Most of the story is in her pre-teens, and she's a pretty lusty pre-teen
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