Thanks to Lisa K for having me back again today. I am back to share that I finished reading my first book of 2021! This is a huge feet for me. Since my dad got sick in 2018 I have really struggled to read, he passed away in 2019 and well, that coupled with life, the pandemic and pretty much grief, depression and personal growth with changes, made reading something I did rather than something I could say I do. 

However in early November I was walking through my London Drug Store (Much like your Walgreens/CVS) which also happens to also be my post office drop off and I can not leave that store ever without making I swear like $50 in purchases, that is why they put the post office at the back! While I was picking up teas, small Christmas gifts and chocolates, I found a book and thought I had to have it. Which is really saying something because my to be read pile is enormous. 

The book was called The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke. Now If you are not familiar with my old blog A Cup of Tea and a Cozy Mystery, I very often buy my books based on the cover and well like the sucker I am this one grabbed me and yelled take me home.... So I did, even though I knew it have been many months since I read anything.

Something to know about me, I love Lighthouses and Witches so honestly it was not a hard sell, its like saying hey you like cookies? I put extra Chocolate in them and so I simply can't refuse...I hope you know what I am saying. Anyway last week I was teaching a kindergarten student how to do the Bunny Hop into a Hula Hoop and well, it had been quite sometime since I last did that myself and as I landed I thought, "Well that's not good" and limped through the reminder of the day, elevated and iced it when I got home, only to find a few hours later I could not put any weight on it so off to Urgent Care I went, sent home with a thought to be fractured foot and a heck of a good story to tell. By Friday the xrays revealed that I did not have any bone fracture that could be seen and that I had just a bad sprained ankle. So in a boot and with nothing but time on my hands and bruised ribs from the crutches, I found myself reaching for the book. 

 I started reading it and before I knew it I was 100 pages in, and I was oddly loving it but also spooked by the premise of this book!  It was so different from anything I have read before and had a somewhat complicated and yet very compelling format. It told the story from three different time frames and several different points of view. Not a cozy, but a suspense novel with a cozy ending.

I said more than a few times to my boyfriend, "um I am not sure if I like this book I am finding it somewhat more scary than my normal reads, and yet I just can't seem to put it down I need to know what happens next..."

Well I pushed through it and am I ever glad I did, it was such a great read, It had me up and down and sideways. It had me so engrossed in the story line that I was so shocked when I finished reading it. I loved it, it had the coziest ending for the most compelling of reasons even though it was far more suspenseful (scary to me) than I had bargained for.  I am so glad I bought the book, that I read it and now I can't wait to find someone to pass it on to. I will post the Publishers Weekly synopsis  below...

In 1998, artist Olivia Stay and her daughters—Sapphire, 15; Luna, 10; and Clover, seven—move to Lòn Haven, a Scottish isle, after Liv is hired to paint a strange mural inside the Longing, a 100-year-old lighthouse built on the site of a prison for alleged witches. Liv scoffs at rumors regarding a curse, but then tragedy strikes. Flash forward to 2021 when all Luna remembers about living on Lòn Haven is that after her sisters went missing, Olivia abandoned Luna and vanished. Luna is elated when the Scottish police report that Clover has finally been found and taken to an Inverness hospital, but upon arriving at Clover’s bedside, Luna finds not the 29-year-old she expects, but a child for whom no time has passed. Cooke skillfully intercuts the two timelines, maximizing tension, while occasional passages from a 1662 grimoire provide history and context. Nebulous plotting abounds, but breathless pacing, evocative prose, and a hopeful denouement leave readers feeling gratified. Supernatural suspense fans will be well pleased.

That is all for me for now so I shall log off but leave you with this lovely visit from Lisa K's special friend Emma...

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