C. J. Cooke: The Lighthouse Witches

C. J. Cooke shows how much of a beacon a lighthouse can be:

Liv Stay is always moving from job to job with her three daughters, and her latest commission is to repaint the inside of a lighthouse on a Northern Scottish Island, The Longing. What Liv did not know was this was going to change everything. The Lighthouse, used to be a place where witches were held below before their trial and it is believed that Dark Magic is still there. Liv, does not believe in any of that but within months of living there, only her daughter Luna is left. Twenty years later, Luna gets the strangest phone call which brings her back to the location where her family went missing and it is up to her to try and figure out what happened.

This is the first book that I have read by Cooke and it will not be the last, this book was beautifully written, very atmospheric and eerie feels throughout the book. I will say that it starts a bit slow as you try to figure out what is going on, but once the story really gets flowing you will not want to put it down. The book also gets darker near the end, and there is one scene where you just feel it (or at least I did).

This book has multiple time lines, so if that is not your thing then you will not enjoy this book. It does take a bit to wrap your head around the multiple timelines and characters for each one as the same character is in more than one timeline. I know that may sound a bit confusing but it’s not, Cooke does a good job of separating them and you know which timeline you are in.

I loved that this book was a mix of witch trials and the idea of wildlings taking the form of children who have gone missing. I think it was really smart how Cooke intertwined this pastime of witch trials as well as the folklore of wildlings. I was not able to figure out the connection, but it was a really interesting idea that Cooke has placed in the book.

With the multiple timelines and characters, one would think this would be a more character drive book but I actually think it was more plot based. We get snips of each character in their perspective timeline that it is hard to from a connection with them. I think that this becomes apparent why the farther you read into the book and you get more information. It did not take away from my enjoyment of the book, more just an observation.

Although, this is the first book I have read by Cooke, it will not be the last. I have noticed that she has a few more books that appear to be witch based and i will be checking them out. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to people who want an atmospheric read, that has a light witch fantast aspect to it.

Enjoy!!!!

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