Currently Reading: The Lighthouse — Part One
Apparently, going to the cottage requires more than coffee, a Keurig machine, a questionable quantity of beads and the firm belief that you really will sit down and relax at some point.
It also requires a book.
The book that made the trip to the lake house with me was The Lighthouse by Jessie Newton. And honestly, it seemed like the perfect choice. A cottage. A lake. Early mornings on the dock. Coffee within arm's reach. And a book involving an island, old friends, secrets and a lighthouse?
This practically selected itself.
Read with me:
The Lighthouse Kindle Version - Currently Free
How I read:
So, What's the Hype?
The Lighthouse is the first book in Jessie Newton's Five Island Cove series. The story follows five women—Robin, Alice, Eloise, Kelli and AJ—who share a complicated history going all the way back to their childhood summers on Five Island Cove.
When the death of Joel Shields brings them back together, the women return to a place filled with memories, old relationships and, apparently, quite a few secrets.
And then there's the lighthouse.
The lighthouse was once a special gathering place for the girls, but as they begin digging into the past, it becomes clear there may be considerably more hiding there than nostalgic childhood memories.
Friendship. Secrets. Family drama. A beautiful island setting. A mysterious lighthouse.
Come on.
On paper, this has Julie book written all over it.
And Then I Actually Started Reading It...
Here's where we're going to deviate slightly from the traditional book review.
Because I haven't finished it.
I'm roughly a third of the way through, and instead of waiting until the last page to tell you what I thought, I figured we'd make this a two-part experiment.
Consider this the "Here's what I'm thinking while I'm actually reading it" portion of our programming.
And so far?
It's... fine.
I know. Glowing praise. Somebody alert the publisher.
I don't dislike it. The setting is lovely, the premise interested me enough to pick it up in the first place, and there are definitely little breadcrumbs being dropped that make me think something much bigger is coming.
But we're about a third of the way through this relationship and I'm still waiting for sparks.
There are quite a few characters, relationships and pieces of history introduced early on, which means there have been moments when I've had to mentally stop and ask:
Wait. Who's this one again?
The pace has also felt a little slow to me. I'm reading it, I'm interested enough to continue, but I'm not currently wandering around the cottage carrying the book because I absolutely must know what happens next.
You know that kind of book.
The one where you say, "I'll just read one more chapter," and suddenly it's 1:17 a.m., your coffee went cold three hours ago and tomorrow's problems have officially become tomorrow's problems.
This isn't that.
At least, not yet.
The Housemaid Has Apparently Ruined Me
Part of the problem may be that I know what it feels like when a book completely gets its claws into me.
I had that experience with The Housemaid.
That book had me hanging on for dear life.
The Lighthouse and The Housemaid are obviously very different books, so I'm not expecting the same story or even the same style. But when it comes purely to that I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS feeling?
There's currently no comparison.
But The Housemaid deserves its own post another day because I have THOUGHTS.
For now, we're staying at the lighthouse.
Am I Going to Finish It?
Of course I am.
Have we met?
I am not someone who starts a book and casually decides halfway through that perhaps we've grown apart and should see other people.
We've made a commitment.
I'm finishing the book.
And truthfully, I think there's still plenty of opportunity for this story to surprise me. The secrets are starting to pile up. There are questions that haven't been answered. The lighthouse itself clearly has more to give us.
I'm hoping this is simply one of those books that takes its sweet time arranging all the pieces before suddenly knocking the entire table over.
Because right now, Jessie...
I'm waiting.
You've got me sitting by a lake, drinking coffee, with absolutely ideal reading conditions.
Don't waste this opportunity.
To Be Continued...
So that's where we leave Part One.
About one-third finished.
Not bored enough to quit.
Not hooked enough to ignore everyone around me.
Intrigued enough to keep going.
And very much hoping that somewhere in the remaining two-thirds of this book is the moment when I finally say, "OH. Well, now we're getting somewhere."
When I finish The Lighthouse, I'll come back with Part Two and we'll find out whether Five Island Cove managed to pull me in—or whether I spent several hundred pages patiently waiting for someone to turn the lighthouse light on.
Either way, I'm finishing it.
I've come this far.
And I have coffee.
To be continued...
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