About the Book:
Every family has its secrets. Josephina "Joey" Harris wouldn't mind if her family still had a few of their own after a lawsuit tarnishes their name. When an opportunity opens to become a temporary keeper of a decommissioned lighthouse on a North Carolina island, she takes the opportunity to escape the scrutiny of her small town to oversee its restoration.
Soon Joey discovers strange notes tucked deep in the crevices of the lighthouse's old stone walls--pages torn from a keeper's log recounting harrowing rescues at sea. When things start to go amiss on the island, locals are convinced that it is the ghost of the lighthouse keeper and his daughter who were lost at sea during World War II.
As Joey sifts through decades of rumors and legends and puts together the pieces of the past, a love story emerges--one that's clearly not over yet.
My Thoughts:
“I’m not sure going backward is ever the answer. We learn what we can from the hard tame and keep moving forward.” (Joey pg. 263)
Joey encapsulates the heart of the matter every single character in this novel wrestle with throughout the entire narrative. What appears to be a questionable and seemingly pointless pursuit to elderly Walt, to his grandson, Finn, questioning life foals and relationships to Joey’s u-turn in her career and family dynamics – Amanda Cox has built a story on the universal truth of everyone’s search for purpose and meaning. Cox vividly illustrates the forward march of time in spite of the willingness to receive the gift offered to us through circumstances – chosen or forced upon us.
Choosing an historic lighthouse restoration project a literary and spiritual focal point for the reader to embrace. The two families on the main stage of the novel are similar in their dysfunction and throw Joey and Finn together to navigate Walt’s literal and physical restoration. The uncertainty that thrums through the storyline rolls back through decades and includes myth, legend and a world war that played itself out along the East Coast of the U.S in the 40’s. Cox uses an unexpected source of chaos on the worksite to tie all the threads of the story together and enables multiple mysteries to be solved as the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.
There are many moments along the journey where the reader will be both encouraged and challenged to examine their own responses to hardship and consider the possibilities that lie ahead if honesty and forgiveness are given and invitation to blossom. Cox’s writing will draw you in quickly and create character you will really love. Recorded history is rich in revealing the best and worst of the human condition, and Amanda Cox offers an honest, hope-filled and redemptive story! I am so grateful to all this beautiful story to my bookshelf!!
About the Author:
Amanda Cox is the Christy Award-winning author of The Edge of Belonging, The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery, and He Should Have Told the Bees. She holds a bachelor's degree in Bible and theology and a master's degree in professional counseling, but her first love is communicating through story. Her studies and her interactions with hurting families over a decade have allowed her to create multidimensional characters that connect emotionally with readers. She lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with her husband and their three children. Learn more at AmandaCoxWrites.com.
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