Customer Reviews

The Lightkeeper

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In purchasing this book, I paid more than I typically do for a novel, but it was worth every penny!

Mary, pregnant and unwed, washes ashore after a tragic boat crash. Though she considers herself "damaged goods" and has, as an Irish immigrant, suffered cruel and prejudicial attitudes, she's a very charming and lovable character, bursting with life and love and vitality.

Jesse, the reclusive lighthouse keeper of Cape Disappointment, finds himself a reluctant savior to Mary when he rescues her on the shore of Cape Disappointment. Jesse's pregnant wife died 11 years ago, and he has held himself, solely, to blame ever since, abandoning a carefree life of privilege and high society for a lonely monk's existence, deprived of any joy or human contact, as, for penance, he keeps watch, nightly, over the ocean which took everything from him.

Embittered, hardened, and self-loathing, Jesse's character is very deeply tortured (puts me in mind of Jane Eyre's Rochester) and fights desperately against the flame that Mary's unexpected presence in his life is rekindling within his heart while she recuperates in his home.

Jesse avoids Mary, but she seeks him out; he tries to put her off with his scowls and harsh words, but she continues to draw out the kind and loving man lurking beneath the surface against his will. Slowly, her companionship, affection, and love begin to thaw the heart he has deliberately frozen and hardened over so many years, and it terrifies him.

This book was so beautifully written and so very deeply touching and filled with such raw, human emotion, passion and desire, I still find myself reflecting on it, days after I've read it. I found myself rooting for Mary and Jesse from the beginning and still cheering for them in the end. Fantastic!

In 1876 at the mouth of the Columbia River in the Washington Territory, lighthouse keeper Jesse Morgan notices a body has been washed ashore. When he reaches the beach, he realizes that the person is alive and pregnant. He takes her inside his home where his assistants tell him that he must watch over her as part of Law of the Sea. Jesse, who lost his spouse to the sea, prefers to be alone, but apparently is stuck for awhile with the injured woman. When she regains full consciousness, she tells him that her name is Mary Dare, that she is all alone in the world, and she was a stowaway on the ship that just sunk.

There is obviously a man in Mary's life, who will come for her. To Jesse's chagrin that man turns out to be his former business partner, Granger Clapp, who is also married to Jesse's sister. Jesse, who wanted no woman in his life, is now deeply in love with Mary, who returns the feelings. However, can Jesse risk living again by reaching out to Mary? If he does, the couple still must deal with Clapp before they can find happiness together.

Susan Wiggs can always be relied upon to provide an exciting historical romance that adds luster to the sub-genre. All the characters are well written, but especially interesting are the local townsfolk (think Northern Exposure). The story line is a fast-paced intrigue cocooned in a nineteenth century Americana back drop. THE LIGHTKEEPER is a novel that will illuminate the darkest night.

Harriet Klausner

This isn't exactly a review (what can I say? I love this book!) but a special note to readers. First of all, thanks to everyone who has written to me about this book. I'm so sorry you've had a hard time finding a copy! The good news: I'm delighted to report that it will be back in print in a few months, complete with new cover art (gorgeous). The isbn is 1-55166-880-7, and I believe the cover price will still be $..., thanks to my very excellent publisher. There's a complete, up-to-date listing of all my books at my web site, www.susanwiggs.com. Thanks again, Susan Wiggs, author of THE LIGHTKEEPER

This is the first book I've read from this author and I must say I enjoyed it quite a bit. The story is very well written and the characters are well developed. There is sex but its not the focus of the story.

The story starts out with our hero, Jesse, finding a shipwreck survivor on the beach. Jesse is the lighthouse keeper and is a very tormented soul. He blames himself for his wife's death 12 years earlier in a shipwreck so he keeps vigil at the lighthouse to make up for it. The survivor is the heroine, Mary. She is alone and pregnant and needs Jesse's help to survive. She soon discovers that Jesse needs her just as much but it unwilling to to admit that he needs anyone or that he deserves any happiness in his life.

Together they must heal each other's emotional scars and fight to stay together.

This story is very tender and sad in spots and passionate and fiesty in others. I really enjoyed it and plan on reading others by this author.

This book had it all. It was touching, sensitive, funny, erotic - really pulled at your heartstrings. It evoked all kinds of feelings. Susan Wiggs really gets us into Jesse's head. The book enthralled me from the first page to the last. I didn't want it to end. It showed what mature, real, deep love is all about. I just loved it.

The romance between Mary Dare, the pregnant and shipwrecked heroine, and Jesse, the hero, never clicked with me. From the time he found her, the reluctant and brooding Jesse essentially felt forced to keep her. First, to nurse her back to health, and later it was because all of the other characters in the story kept pushing Mary onto Jesse (Mary included). And when Mary has recovered enough strength to finally move out on her own, she doesn't. She sees Jesse as a handsome, convenient solution to her own problems so she is determined to stay put.

When Jesse finally reveals his reasons for his self-imposed exile, I felt like he deserved it! Any sympathy I had for him went out the window with his revelations. Mary's constant insinuating herself in Jesse's life got very annoying. In the end, I didn't care if these two ever got together.

Combining unlikable characters with a forced love story is the death knell for me in a romance novel. However, I give the story two stars for the vivid descriptions of coastal scenery and lighthouse history.

I found the book to be an up-all-nighter. it surprisingly breaks free from the romance genre and all the rules with characters who are flawed, but coping with it, people portrayed with a mixture of prejudices, with the line between good and evil drawn by the reader, not the writer. I am reading all of her work now. I don't think the stories will ever let me down.

I don't review many books. But this is one of the best romance books you will ever read. It makes you want to cry. The love between all of these people is amazing. It is tender and poignant. So be sure and read this one it's a keeper.

This book kept repeating itself to the point of agony. I wanted to scream, "OKAY! I'VE GOT THAT POINT ALREADY!" -Also wasn't really crazy about the way-too-brooding hero or the overly-chirpy heroine. The whole thing wasn't really a romance (although those two definitely deserved each other), it was more the intertwining story about 4 pretty selfish people. Everyone makes mistakes, but these folks were repeat offenders.

I was surprised that coincidentally a few days after I finished the book, our local newspaper featured an article about no other than Cape Disappointment in Washington state! And indeed, it showed a picture of a beautiful lighthouse against a rocky shore.

The story was very well written. Wiggs poured a lot of thought and energy into developing each of her characters. We learn early on that our hero, Jesse, has been grieving the last 12 years over the untimely death of her wife and unborn child, blaming himself over the circumstances by which she perished. By the end of the book, we have an intimate look of Jesse's youth, family dynamics, and all that created him into the person he was at the start of the story.

Enter Mary, whom Jesse rescues as she was washed ashore after a terrible shipwreck. The mystery woman, who was also pregnant, was fated to enter his life, and lift him from the solitary mire that was his self-imposed incarceration for his past sins. He resisted her attempts to love him, and draw him out of his misery. All the while, she had her own tragety and losses which has made her truly alone in the world, yet she was blessed with a strong and optimistic personality. Joy was found in flowers, the sky, the waters, the hills, and her tenacity allowed her to share that healing spirit with Jesse whether he was opened to it or not.

The Lightkeeper was a good story in theory, and I enjoyed the prose, and the character developement. However, for reasons I can't pinpoint, it didn't touch me in a personal level as I think the writer intended. I couldn't relate to Mary's infallible optimism, nor Jesse's gruff aloofness. I couldn't feel Jesse or Mary's pain, though I know in my mind, how awful they were. I found myself midbook, wishing Jesse would just forgive himself (for Pete's sake, its been 12 years, and the weather was also to blame!!) and allow himself to love Mary. But alas, finally, the book ended happily as all love stories ought, but because I never truly got into the characters, it was easy to put the story out of my mind completely (except when the newspaper featured Cape Disappointment).