Review: The Lightkeeper's Daughter by Colleen Coble

Author: Colleen Coble
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: January 2010

Addie Sullivan leads a quiet life in a northern California lighthouse. She mourns the death of her father and endures her mother's bitterness, until the night a storm brings an injured stranger and a dark secret to her home. The man insists she is not who she thinks she is, but rather "Julia Eaton"-the child long lost and feared dead by her wealthy family. Seizing the chance to be reunited with the Eatons, Addie leaves her lighthouse home but decides to keep her true identity a secret until they can unravel the mystery.

Addie loves the Eatons' palatial home tucked away among the California redwood forests. She feels secure with the jovial family, adores the young boy who is her charge as governess, and finds romance with his father John, a young widower. But sinister shadows overtake Addie's joy. As dusty rooms and secret compartments give up their clues about her past, Addie finds a faith and a love she could never have guessed. To embrace this new world of promise is to risk her life; but to run away is to risk losing the greatest love she's ever known.

The Lightkeeper's Daughter is the first book in the Mercy Falls series.  I've had this book and the others in the series on my TBR for a very long time.   Addie is living with her mother in a lighthouse when a stranger shows up and tells her she is really a missing heiress who was presumed dead at age 2.  This starts her on a journey to discover her lost family and a bigger mystery of what happened to her birth mother.  

I really enjoyed this historical romance.  I haven't read a book set in the early 1900s in a long time, so it was a nice change of pace.  It's a very clean, Christian romance, which was also a nice change of pace.  Addie is a little naïve, but she is also not afraid to speak her mind.  She was my favorite of the book.  The romance was sweet and a pleasure to watch. I also enjoyed the mystery.  I did call on of the twists fairly early on, but I still enjoyed the journey.  I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.