Review: The Lightkeeper's Ball

The Lightkeeper's Ball (A Mercy Falls Novel)

About the Book:

Olivia Stewart's family is one of the Four Hundred—the highest echelon of society in 1910. When her sister dies under mysterious circumstances, Olivia leaves their New York City home for Mercy Falls, California, to determine what befell Eleanor. She suspects Harrison Bennett, the man Eleanor planned to marry. But the more Olivia gets to know him, the more she doubts his guilt—and the more she is drawn to him herself.

When several attempts are made on her life, Olivia turns to Harrison for help. He takes her on a ride in his aeroplane, but then crashes, and they’re forced to spend two days alone together. With her reputation hanging by a thread, Harrison offers to marry her to make the situation right. As a charity ball to rebuild the Mercy Falls lighthouse draws near, she realizes she wants more than a sham engagement—she wants Harrison in her life forever. But her enemy plans to shatter the happiness she is ready to grasp. If Olivia dares to drop her masquerade, she just might see the path to true happiness.

My Comments:

I enjoyed this murder mystery/romance though I found the ending a little unsatisfying--but to explain more would be a spoiler.  It is Christian fiction, but for most of the book you'd never know it.  There are a couple of scattered references to God, prayer or church but I never got the impression that Olivia was a particularly religious woman.  At the end one of the characters explains how Jesus helped him turn his life around and not to hate but that almost comes off as a commercial more than a vital part of the plot.

I enjoyed the references to the lifestyle of the turn of the century--the cars, bloomers, aeroplanes, and suffragette movement.  Seeing Olivia bloom with Harrison was fun.  As for who dunnit--well, you'll have to read the book to find out.  Grade B-  

I'd like thank Thomas Nelson publishers for providing a complimentary review copy via NetGalley.  I was not obligated to write any review, much less a positive one.