This review is written with thanks to the publisher for my copy of The Lighthouse Witches via Netgalley.

Blurb:

A deserted lighthouse

Upon the cliffs of a remote Scottish island stands a lighthouse. Strange and terrible events have happened here. It started with a witch hunt. Now, centuries later, islanders are vanishing.

A lost family

Liv Stay and her children don’t believe in witches or curses. But within months of arriving on the island, her daughter Luna is the only one of them left.

An impossible child

Twenty years later, Luna’s missing sister turns up out of the blue. She is exactly the girl Luna remembers. Same face. Same smile. Same age.

Faced with the impossible, it’s up to Luna to find out what really happened at the lighthouse all those years ago.

Review:

The Lighthouse Witches has been on my TBR for ages and I can’t honestly tell you why I waited so long! CJ Cooke is a wonderful writer and she’s written a very lyrical, but atmospheric story that I was drawn into straight away. I loved her descriptions of the surroundings, particularly Lòn Haven, and I found it very difficult to put this book down!

The majority of The Lighthouse Witches is written across two timelines, in 1998 and 2021. In 1998, it becomes clear that Liv is running away from something with her daughters, and in 2021, we meet one of the daughters, Luna, as she is trying to find out what happened to her and her sisters, who she has not seen in several years. I had so many questions and I loved the tension this created throughout the book.

The Lighthouse Witches has multiple narrators, including Liv,.Sapphire and Luna. This really helped me to learn what made each character tick, and as different aspects of their story unfolded, I often changed my mind about how I felt about them. CJ Cooke has developed them all very thoroughly and I will remember them long after I finish reading.

As I was reading The Lighthouse Witches, i tried to predict where the story would take us, and it is testament to CJ Cooke’s amazing plotting that I was completely wrong! There is a strong supernatural element to this story, of which I would usually be wary; however the author’s wonderful prose makes it work and although it did take me a while to get my head around it, I was totally gripped by the story.

The Lighthouse Witches is available from Amazon.