The Lightkeeper's Daughter by Colleen Coble

Title: The Lightkeeper's Daughter (A Mercy Falls Novel)

Author: Colleen Coble

Publisher: Thomas Nelson 2009

Genre: Historical Fiction; Christian; Romance

Pages: 306

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Historical Fiction; A to Z Authors: C; Support Your Local Library

Addie Sullivan leads a quiet life in a northern California lighthouse. She mourns the death of her father and endures her mother's bitterness, until the night a storm brings an injured stranger and a dark secret to her home. The man insists she is not who she thinks she is, but rather "Julia Eaton"—the child long lost and feared dead by her wealthy family. Seizing the chance to be reunited with the Eatons, Addie leaves her lighthouse home but decides to keep her true identity a secret until they can unravel the mystery.

Addie loves the Eatons' palatial home tucked away among the California redwood forests. She feels secure with the jovial family, adores the young boy who is her charge as governess, and finds romance with his father John, a young widower. But sinister shadows overtake Addie's joy. As dusty rooms and secret compartments give up their clues about her past, Addie finds a faith and a love she could never have guessed. To embrace this new world of promise is to risk her life; but to run away is to risk losing the greatest love she's ever known.

I read a lot of Christian historical fiction.  It's quick, easy, and guaranteed to have a good message.  Unfortunately, a lot of the genre falls into a very formulaic structure.  By the end, I often want to chew my arm off because of the predictability.

That being said, The Lightkeeper's Daughter was a refreshing change.  Maybe it was because the characters weren't stereotypes of people.  Maybe because the writing, specifically the dialogue, didn't seem forced and from an 8th grader.  Maybe because the story had many twists and turns to which I didn't know who was the villain.  Maybe because the story was saved from being overly sermonized (is that a word?, it is now); the Christian message was still there, but subtle.

Whatever the reason, I enjoyed the book immensely.  I found out there was another book released in the Mercy Falls series.  Of course, I ran to the library to get that one too.  It's next on my reading list: The Lightkeeper's Bride. I give The Lightkeeper's Daughter 4 out of 5 stars.  I definitely recommend to anyone loving mysteries with a bit of romance and without all the sex and violence of my other authors.  Enjoy reading!  And don't worry I won't give away the ending. You just have to find that out for yourselves.

Mercy Falls

1. The Lightkeeper's Daughter
2. The Lightkeeper's Bride
3. The Lightkeeper's Ball

2011 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Already love historical fiction, so why not?  I found this great challenge from Historical Tapestry:

After 3 years organizing the Historical Fiction Challenge, the girls of The Royal Reviews gracefully passed over this exciting event to our team at Historical Tapestry. We will do our best to continue doing a great job and create a wonderful place to share and discuss our favourite (and less favourite) historical fiction books for the next year.

Each month, a new post dedicated to the HF Challenge will be created. To participate, you only have to follow the rules:

• everyone can participate, even those who don't have a blog (you can add your book title and thoughts in the comment section if you wish)
• add the link(s) of your review(s) including your name and book title to the Mister Linky we’ll be adding to our monthly post (please, do not add your blog link, but the correct address that will guide us directly to your review)
• any kind of historical fiction is accepted (HF fantasy, HF young adult,...)
• you can overlap this challenge with others kind of challenges
• During these following 12 months you can choose one of the different reading levels:

1. Severe Bookaholism: 20 books
2. Undoubtedly Obsessed: 15 books
3. Struggling the Addiction: 10 books
4. Daring & Curious: 5 books
5. Out of My Comfort Zone: 2 books

I have decided not to overdo the challenge and sign up for the "Struggling the Addiction" level of 10 books.  My choices are (with any cross listings):

1. Dragonwyck - Anya Seton
2. The Winthrop Woman - Anya Seton
3. Roses - Leila Meacham
4. City of Glory - Beverly Swerling
5. Bellfield Hall - Anna Dean
6. The Poison Maiden - Paul Doherty
7. The Six Wives of Henry VIII - Alison Weir
8. The First Princess of Wales - Karen Harper (A to Z: H)
9. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell (TwentyEleven: Way Back When; Pages to Screen)
10. The White Mare - Jules Watson

As usual, reviews will follow each book read.  Looking forward to stepping into the past.

2011 Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge

Lately I have found myself reading a lot of romance.  So I thought, why not join a reading challenge focused on romance.  I find this challenge interesting because it's supposed to be straight romance, no paranormal, no fantasy, etc.  This will make it much more difficult and hopefully give me some more authors and series to check out. The reading challenge can be found at Romance Book Maven.  Here's the introduction and guidelines:

Last year Pearl of Pearl’s World of Romance hosted the first Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge. With the new job she started recently, she decided not to host the challenge this year but I offered to host it in her place because this was one challenge I really enjoyed doing this year and I didn’t want to see it end already. Pearl had no problem with my suggestion so I’m pleased to say that CRRC2011 will still be around.

I’m basically copying what Pearl had for the challenge last year because I’m not changing anything of the challenge. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, you know?

1. By contemporary romance I mean straight contemporary, so without paranormal, fantasy or time-travel elements. Sexy, steamy contemporaries are eligible and so are category romances. (i.e. Harlequin Blaze, Harlequin Presents, Harlequin Super Romances, Silhoutte Desires, etc.)

2. Read at least 10 contemporaries between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011

3. You don’t have to pre-select your books, you can just add them as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed. Nothing is set in stone! Also, the books you choose can crossover into or from other challenges you are participating in.

4. Feel free to grab the button below for the sidebar of your blog. It would be great if you would link it back to this post so others can find their way back to this post and join the challenge.

5. If you decide to join this challenge be sure to create a post telling others and feel free to add a link back to this post so others can join in the fun.

6. Add your name and post URL to Mr. Linky below.

Have fun & Happy Reading!!

My choices for the reading challenge (with any cross listings):

1. Impulsive - HelenKay Dimon
2. Seven Day Loan - Tiffany Reisz
3. Precious and Fragile Things - Megan Hart
4. The Icing on the Cake - Alison Kent
5. Inside Out - Lauren Dane
6. Holding Out for a Hero - HelenKay Dimon
7. Shaken - Dee Tenorio (A to Z: T)
8. Hard to Hold - Julie Leto
9. Personal Research - Cari Quinn (A to Z: Q)
10. Jinxed - Inez Kelley

Reviews will follow.  I may change some of these choices as the challenge begins.  Just wait and see.