🏖️🏡 “Light The Way” (The Lighthouse Sisters #1) (2022) 🏖️🏡 – Book Review
In this new coastal series, Lin Stepp transports her readers into the rich, colorful lives of Burke and her sisters, Lila, Gwen, and Celeste, who grew up at the Deveaux Inn and Lighthouse on a windswept island, accessible only by boat. Get ready to be introduced to the ups and downs, joys and sorrows, challenges and adventures of a Lighthouse Keeper.
Life had grown hard for Burke Deveaux at the family inn and lighthouse since her father died. She missed his warmth and still expected to see him walking into a room, his big laugh booming. Burke and her mother were gradually adjusting to the change, and Lila had come home this winter to help, but the workload was heavy. With spring coming and tourism picking up in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Burke welcomed Hal Jenkins’ request for his son Waylon to work for them. Waylon, retiring early from the Navy, knew the island and the lighthouse, having grown up nearby. Burke also knew Waylon well since they’d grown up together. He’d always been older, and she wondered how he’d see her now.
Waylon had been away from Edisto Island for over twelve years now, traveling around the world in the military, but it felt good to be home. He’d hated learning Lloyd Deveaux was gone, the warm-hearted Lighthouse Keeper he’d followed around as a boy. But he liked the idea of coming to stay at the lodge at Watch Island to help the Deveaux family with the inn, lighthouse, and nearly five-hundred acres of land the Lighthouse Station occupied. He knew Burke had picked up many of her father’s old tasks and he looked forward to seeing her again. He’d kept feelings for her clamped down for years but one look at her brought them surging back. How would he handle that with them working together?
“This book feels just as tranquil as Edisto and has a wonderful, laid back flow, like beautiful ocean waves lapping up on the shore … you can’t help but fall in love with every facet of this novel.” – Christ F. JUST READS Review
“From the stunning backdrop of the South Carolina Lowcountry … this book was like going home.” – Kim Standridge Boykin, Bestselling Author of Palmetto Moon
“Each book showcases Lin Stepp’s natural gift as a novelist for originality and narrative driven storytelling.” – MIDWEST REVIEW
About the Author
Lin Stepp is a native Tennessean, businesswoman and educator. A New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Amazon best-selling international author, Lin has twenty published novels out now, including her twelve beloved Smoky Mountain novels, all set in different Tennessee and North Carolina locations, three Mountain Home books, a novella in one of Kensington’s Christmas anthologies, and four South Carolina coastal novels, including her three Edisto Trilogy books and her first release in the new Lighthouse Sisters series. Lin and her husband J.L. also write regional guidebooks, including a published Smoky Mountain hiking guide and a TN and a SC state parks guidebook, all filled with hundreds of color photos. Stepp’s latest 2022 releases are Eight at the Lake, set in Dandridge near the Smoky Mountains, and Light the Way, set at the SC coast. Writing and adventuring are her joys and more novels set in the Smokies and at the beach are on the way, as well as more colorful regional guidebooks. Lin’s title Claire At Edisto was the 2019 Best Book Award Winner in Fiction: Romance, sponsored by American Book Fest and her novel Welcome Back a finalist in the 2017 Selah Awards. Lin enjoys speaking for events, festivals, libraries, and book clubs. And she loves reading, hiking, exploring out of doors, and keeping up with her readers. Look for her pages on Facebook and Twitter and follow her monthly blog and newsletter, too, that you will find on her website at: www.linstepp.com
Tour Giveaway
Ends April 6, 2022
Thank you in advance to the author, Lin Stepp, for providing a complimentary review copy through Prism Book Tours. A positive review was not required nor requested, and all words are my own.
While the author has SEVERAL books published, this is the first book I’ve read by the author.
I loved the premise and REALLY wanted to read this.
What’s interesting – this is one (1) of three (3) “lighthouse” books I got between January 12th and March 1st. For a time, the three books were back-to-back in the TBR stack. So, the cover isn’t too unique, but it does show the lighthouse in striking reality.
I got this book at the beginning of the month and started it around March 10th. I tried to read it continuously, but for some reason it didn’t hit me right off like it should. I read four books in between (trying to read this after each book) and came back to it hoping it would feel different each time. For some reason, it didn’t “click”.
That’s nothing bad about the author or the book. Sometimes, as much as we want to like a book, it doesn’t hit right. Still, I did want to give this a chance, and I am glad that I did in a way.
While I’ve read Southern fiction before, the genre is still elusively defined. One aspect is the idea of returning home from no matter where one has been. The definition is different among writers. Some usually focus on family, Southern history, morality, religion, and the colorful personalities that come out of South. Light The Way clearly exemplifies some of those aspects.
What starts off as the potential for a light read ends up more complex. At times this is a sweet romance with heavy notes of Christian themes (especially with one of the sisters – Lila). At times, it has a darker suspense element. This is due to the disappearance, rape, and murder of three (3) women.
This won’t be a light read at all. There are mentions or off-page incidents of: rape (serial rape – 3 victims), murder (serial murder – same rape victims), domestic violence, excessive drinking, drug use, and dealings of grief.
This is the first of four books to feature “The Lighthouse Sisters” consisting of:
🏖️ Burke – this story’s protagonist
🏖️ Gwen – taking her kids and leaving her husband due to some financial issues and his handling of it
🏖️ Celeste – the super star sister, returned home due to issues with domestic violence
🏖️ Lila – the wiser and more religious sister who left a “community”
They are joined by other major support characters:
🏖️ Waylon
🏖️ Hal (Waylon’s father)
🏖️ Aileen (Waylon’s
mother)
🏖️ Dewey (Waylon’s uncle;
father’s brother)
🏖️ Etta (Burke and her
sisters’ mother)
🏖️ Novaleigh
🏖️ Clifford
🏖️ Henry
Given all the characters that play a role in the story, I might’ve missed a few here or there. It was slightly difficult to keep track of them, and a character guide might’ve been a good addition to the map.
Since the main setting is an “inn”, there are a myriad of “temporary” characters in the way of guests. To be honest, some of them – to me – didn’t really tend to add too much to the story or setting. Due to what all was going on (Burke’s story, Gwen’s story, Celeste’s story, the missing women) – there were times it was a distraction.
This is told from Burke and Waylon’s POV and starts in 2017.
Light The Way begins after the death of Burke’s father. And, since his death; Burke and her mother have been taking on his tasks, barely time for them to grieve. Hal Jenkins has been helping, but seeing that his son Waylon has returned from the Navy, he volunteers him to help the Deveaux family.
Of course, Burke welcomes his help. She’s had a crush on him since she was little and he obviously cared for her. Yet, her father Lloyd tried to steer Waylon away. Now that Waylon is home – he makes his feelings known.
As of note, this happens very early on in the book with them being engaged inside 75 pages. Burke’s mother isn’t pleased at first, in fact it is as if she is completely against their union.
But, the wedding will take time to get to. There’s the matter of taking care of the Inn, trespassers, and missing women to resolve.
In the middle of that, another one of Burke’s sisters; Gwen; shows up with her kids. Her marriage is on the rocks due to her husband’s financial infidelities. He’s kept her in the dark and now the family has lost their home.
Burke, Gwen, and Lila are also worried about sister Celeste. Celeste is a famous singer, but they haven’t heard from her in a while. After finding out two women were missing and a body found – I would’ve informed authorities. Still, Gwen and Burke make a pact between them to go to Celeste if they haven’t heard from her by Easter.
Between the drama and the minor suspense, the story ebbs and flows like the sea. Some of the family drama is solved by the end, some is left open. There is little to no conflict between the main couple.
I did enjoy this for the most part. I do think the suspense could’ve been drawn out a bit more than it was. Most of the book seemed to focus on day-to-day events and stuff. The short chapters did seem to move the story along much easier. It was a bit hard to get through at times, but I will attribute that to the distractions I faced during the time I was reading.
Some of the characters bounced between being deep and rich to shallow. For the most part Gwen and Celeste’s drama seemed to complicate Burke’s life. They acted more like guests at the inn rather than family in helping out. I completely felt sorry for Burke given what was going on. While well-meaning, it seemed as if Lila’s use of faith in advising Burke was more enabling of the two women rather than empower them to at least cope and still help out.
As far as the writing style; there were some issues with scene transition some typos, and even a slight gaffe with a character and a weapon. There is also some redundancy of things repeated between the characters and in recall of events to other characters. This isn’t too often, but some readers could find it distracting. It didn’t completely detract from the story though.
There was a big issue with Waylon’s Navy service being brought up. At one point, Burke asks Waylon if he had seen any battles during his time in the Navy. Waylon said they were not at war. While perhaps not ship-to-ship warfare, between 2001-2011 the U.S was involved in two wars – Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Afghanistan war lasted in totality from 2001-2021. There were two phases – one was from October 7, 2001 to December 28, 2014. Phase 2 was from January 1, 2015 until August 30, 2021 when the last of the troops left.
There is also the Iraq engagement between March 20, 2003 to December 15, 2011. I am sure that during Waylon’s time in the Navy he would’ve known about those two “wars”. He had been in the Navy over 10+ years, and definitely closer to 15 to make Captain. That would’ve put him in between perhaps 2002-2007, during the heart of the two conflicts; and especially during the time of Bin Laden’s “capture” which involved Navy SEALS.
Given the time frame, I also find it hard to believe Burke didn’t get any news of what was going on with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – didn’t the guests talk about it or did the inn not have T.V?
Despite those issues, that’s not to say this book didn’t hold up to be a compelling read. It was, for the most part. The suspense factor with the missing women did give this read a slight edge and had me turning the page to discover who it was and the reason behind it. I absolutely enjoyed the history of the lighthouses and learning about the life of the people that took the job of lighthouse keeper and what they went through.
There were some messages about the loss of trust and how much losing it destroys a family. In addition, there was a lesson about money and how it isn’t worth anything unless one is happy, safe, and loved.
I am very interested in reading the rest of the books in the series as there are some characters’ stories that remain “open” that I would like to see where the author intends to take their journey.
The author is VERY descriptive and detailed in her writing – the island very much felt like a home and the food definitely made me hungry. There is NO explicit language, and any intimate scenes are relegated to kissing. Overall, this is a very clean read.
As stated before, Lila is not only a wiser character, but DEEPLY religious. This isn’t labeled as Christian Fiction on the cover or mentioned in the blurb, Amazon has it as Contemporary Christian Romance. There are DEEP and rich themes of the Christian faith due to the numerous mentions of God, Lila’s reliance on his guidance, as well as Waylon being mentioned as having a good Christian character.
Fans of the author or those who enjoy this type of read
will probably want to check this out.
RATING:
4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Goodreads
4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Bookbub
4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
– Personal Rating (see rating explanation in this blog: https://readingexcursions.blogspot.com/2020/01/rating-system-2020-changes.html)
Marie ... Thanks for featuring my new book LIGHT THE WAY on your blog post. Most all my novels, over twenty now, are set in the Smoky Mountains near my home ... but since my readers so enjoyed my Edisto Trilogy of books, set at our favorite SC vacation spot, I decided to do another series set at Edisto - this time about four sisters growing up at a family inn and lighthouse. So far my early reviews have been wonderfully positive - encouraging my author's heart!! ... Glad to see your note that you are interested in reading the rest of the series. ... Have a happy spring. ...Lin
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