Lighthouse Bay: A Novel
In 1901, Isabella Winterbourne survives the shipwreck that claims her unloving husband, who refused to let her grieve the death of her infant son. She walks 50 miles to Lighthouse Bay, carrying only the priceless jeweled mace intended for the new Australian Parliament as a gift from the queen. She is found by Matthew Seaward, steady lighthouse keeper, but her husband’s brother may not be far behind. In 2011, Libby Slater reluctantly returns to Lighthouse Bay after the death of her married lover, unsure of her reception from her sister, Juliet, who runs the family B&B. Then a developer starts to show interest just as a young man from Libby and Juliet’s past unearths Matthew’s journals. The plot may sound complicated, but Freeman (Wildflower Hill, 2011) weaves the two time periods together so seamlessly that it zips by. The secondary romance plot for Juliet is adorable. The book definitely contains some of the hallmarks of women’s fiction—sisters with a painful past, loveless marriages, handsome men in convenient places—but this story contains enough adventure and villainy, especially in Isabella’s story, to avoid cliché. --Susan Maguire