The Light Between Oceans

Heart-wrenching. It is the only way I can describe the latest book that I read. 'The Light Between Oceans' by M.L. Stedman is a heart wrenching story of Tom, who is a light house keeper on Janus Island. Janus Island is half a days journey off the coast of Australia with supply ships only coming in every few months. It is a very isolated and lonely place for Tom to bring his new bride Isabel. After two miscarriages and a still birth, Isabel believes that the baby who washes up in a boat is a gift from God. However, there is also a dead man in the boat, and it is Tom's duty as a government employee to report everything that goes on on the island. Isabel pleads with Tom to just give her a little time with the baby, to heal her broken heart. Eventually time goes on and then it is too late, they have fallen in love with baby Lucy, and just can't bare to give her up. Not even when they discover that her birth mother is still alive. Still waiting for news. And still in desperate mourning for her lost husband and little girl.  This is a tale of heart ache, choices, binding love, and forgiveness.

I would highly recommend this book. As a mother, it was very hard for me to take sides in this kind of situation. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. Mistakes were made and people are human with human emotions. Half way through the book I just could not figure out how it was all going to end, is a happy ending even possible? You'll just have to find out for yourself. As for me, I can't wait to see the movie. I am bringing a box of tissues.

The Rose of Winslow Street

I love when I pull up to a garage sale and see a mountain of books. My heart starts hammering as I search for a twenty-five cent treasure. I choose to be picky, for the most part. I like books that are in decent condition with an interesting plot line. Well, last week I found one such treasure. It is called 'The Rose of Winslow Street' by Elizabeth Camden. I have recently been on another  Harry Potter respite, they occur about once a year, so it has been a while since I have really read anything new. I saw this book just sitting among the stack of its forgotten fellows, looking almost brand new, mind you, and practically begging to be noticed. Ever since I read 'A Heart Revealed' I have been craving a proper romance type book, and this looked like it fit the bill. I began reading and all of a sudden I was hooked.

'The Rose of Winslow Street' is about a maiden, some might call her a spinster, who was still living with her father at the ripe age of 28. The story takes place around the late 1800's I believe, there was never a specific date mentioned, as far as I remember. It took place after the Civil War in a small town in Massachusettes. Libby and her father return from a summer vacation to find that their home had been taken over by Romanian refugees who claim that their uncle left them the home in his will. A legal battle is about to pursue and enemy lines are drawn. The town people of course side with the Sawyers, who have lived in the house for more than 20 years and have spent countless time and energy renovating it, after it was never claimed from the previous owner's death.  Libby is torn between being loyal to her aging father, and this strange family who has now moved into her childhood home. For Libby loves children and hates the thought of these two young boys kicked out on the street in a foreign land where they barely speak the language, and the people are nothing but hostile towards them. There is plenty of mystery surrounding these new strangers and everyone is wondering if they truly are who they say they are, or just a gang of gypsies.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Sure, it is not the greatest of literature, but it is endearing, captivating, and heartwarming, just like any proper romance novel should be.