the lighthouse witches book review

Bewitching Books, Ravenous Reads

This is where our story begins…

Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke

When single mother Liv is commissioned to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island, it’s an opportunity to start over with her three daughters–Luna, Sapphire, and Clover. When two of her daughters go missing, she’s frantic. She learns that the cave beneath the lighthouse was once a prison for women accused of witchcraft. The locals warn her about wildlings, supernatural beings who mimic human children, created by witches for revenge. Liv is told wildlings are dangerous and must be killed.

Twenty-two years later, Luna has been searching for her missing sisters and mother. When she receives a call about her youngest sister, Clover, she’s initially ecstatic. Clover is the sister she remembers—except she’s still seven years old, the age she was when she vanished. Luna is worried Clover is a wildling. Luna has few memories of her time on the island, but she’ll have to return to find the truth of what happened to her family. But she doesn’t realize just how much the truth will change her.

‘The story of her past is not like other people’s, she thinks. Most people’s pasts can be viewed like cleaved water left in the wake of a boat. Hers? It’s a tangled weave of spider webs and nightmares, never to make sense.’

Back when it first came out the premise of ‘The Lighthouse Witches’ immediately intrigued me yet I’ve somehow only just managed to finally pick it up, after several more recent releases reminded me of just how much I adore books with a touch of the gothic about them. Happily I can report that I was swiftly hooked by this book and eagerly anticipate picking up more books by the author.

Most of the gothic books that I’ve read up until this point in time have had historical settings and if that’s the same with you then please don’t let this book’s more modern placement deter you from reading it. It proved just how wonderfully gothic vibes can work even within a more modern world whilst also using its rather isolated community to add a gloriously intriguing sense of unease and atmosphere. Small rural communities and an eerie atmosphere have a hypnotic tendency to go hand in hand, after all.

Personally this book ticked numerous boxes for me in terms of interest. It has those aforementioned gothic vibes, inclusion of the history of witch hunts in Scotland, mentions of the fae and folklore and so much more to offer too. This book had a surprising level of emotional depth which was utterly unexpected for me but so beautifully done. Plus it deals with some deeply uncomfortable storylines but does so in a way that doesn’t revel in any of the gory details. A lot of the town’s past horrors happen off of the page but honestly, that’s a good thing I think as seeing them first hand would be a far from pleasant reading experience.

Narrative wise you get three perspectives for the most part: Liv when she moves with her daughters in 1998 to paint a strange mural in The Longing, her eldest Sapphire in the same time as she struggles to adjust and another of her daughters, Luna, in 2021 when the third sister reappears in an utterly unexpected manner. It’s such a twisty tale which constantly keeps you guessing as to what’s truly going on so I’m not going to say more plot wise than that. Dotted throughout too are extracts from ‘The Grimoire of Patricks Roberts’, a diary of sorts where you learn much of the history surrounding ‘witches’ in the area.

Throughout I was consistently invested in the story and never fully knew exactly what to expect. There were numerous revelations that caught me off guard and everything ultimately tied together in an unexpected but worthy manner.

Admittedly I did find one aspect of the ending – which I can’t mention for the obvious spoiler risk – a little bit too convenient timing wise. And although I was invested in Sapphire’s storyline it could feel a little confusing timeline wise occasionally. Neither factor should deter you from picking ‘The Lighthouse Witches’ up though as it was a thoroughly engaging, riveting read.

Ultimately I recommend ‘The Lighthouse Witches’ to anyone fond of gothic fiction, intrigued by the history of witch hunts, curious about fae folklore and drawn in by mysteries that feel as if they could turn down a natural or supernatural path throughout. Needless to say I’ll be reading more by this author soon.

Check out The Lighthouse Witches on Goodreads here .

I strive to keep my reviews completely spoiler free but if anyone wants to discuss anything about the book in more detail (or just gush about it with me) then feel free to contact me in the comment section below.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Subscribe Subscribed
Copy shortlink
Report this content
View post in Reader
Manage subscriptions
Collapse this bar

Book Review | The Lighthouse Witches by CJ Cooke

Single mother Liv accepts a commission to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island in a bid for a fresh start. She brings her three daughters; Luna, Sapphire, and Clover, and meets the locals who warn her about the beliefs on the island. Witchcraft, wildlings and supernatural elements come to the fore when two of her daughters suddenly go missing.

Two decades later, Luna receives a call that her youngest sister, Clover, has been found. Except Clover is still seven years old and has no memories of what happened to her. Luna must return to the island to find the truth about what happened to her family.

It was a raw scene: a full moon hiding behind the purple cloud, ocean trashing against black cliffs. Gulls wheeling and shrieking above us. Trees stood like pitchforks, flayed by the wind. They hemmed the island, watching.

The Lighthouse Witches is a mythological mystery that blends wildlings folklore, the witch trials, missing family and the power of time. The story is presented in three timelines with different POVs, but the short chapters and clear headings made it easy to read. I expected a supernatural element but the book went on an interesting and unexpected journey that feels fresh.

The first timeline tells the story of Patrick Roberts in the 17th century when women were accused of being witches and prosecuted. I found his story heartbreaking and engrossing. While Patrick himself is a flawed character, I had an affinity for him. The second timeline takes place in 1998 and features Liv and her daughters moving to The Black Isle, Scotland. She was hired by a wealthy, mysterious man to paint strange mural symbols inside a lighthouse. She learns about the history of witches on the island and about wildlings – changelings that take children and switch them with one of their own. I didn’t warm up to Liv and I wished she could have handled things differently. But reading about her family dynamics was entertaining.

The third timeline takes place in 2021 and sees a now-adult Luna struggling to deal with her trauma after the fracture of her family. When her missing sister, Clover is found, Luna is surprised to see that she is still the same age as when she disappeared. This is my least favourite storyline because I thought it requires too much suspension of disbelief. For example, it’s highly unlikely that the authorities wouldn’t investigate the reappearance of a missing child. I also couldn’t connect with Luna, who seems to go with the flow and seems lacklustre for someone reuniting with her missing sister.

While the story does seem far-fetched at times, I was invested in the mystery and how the timelines intersect. The characters experience growth and reconciliation. The book looks into how fast time moves and how little time we actually have through the themes of family, love, sacrifice and injustice. How the wildlings folklore is revealed, too, is effectively moving. The ending feels slightly too neat but it works.

Overall, The Lighthouse Witches would be perfect for readers who love mysteries, family drama, and the history of witches.

CW: physical assault, child death

I received a copy from the publisher and Netgalley for review purposes.

About the author: CJ Cooke

Photo by Dan Mall

Blog Tour: We Wait by Megan Taylor

Book Spotlight: Crossroads by Laurel Hightower

Blog Tour: Road To Mercy by T.J. Brearton

Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches

High upon the cliffs of a remote Scottish island, Lon Haven, sits a lighthouse that has weathered storms for centuries.

Liv Stay has fled to the island with her three daughters – Sapphire, fifteen; Luna, nine; and seven-year-old Clover. A single mother, she’s been commissioned to paint a mural in the hundred-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island. It’s an opportunity to start over with her daughters . . . and escape truths she’d rather not face.

Lon Haven was meant to be a safe harbor. But soon strange things start to happen. They hear haunting noises in the dead of night, find animal skeletons left on Liv’s doorstep. Strangest of all, unknown children are discovered at the lighthouse . . . and then disappear without a trace.

When two of her daughters go missing, she’s frantic. She learns that the cave beneath the lighthouse was once a prison for women accused of witchcraft. The locals warn her about wildlings — supernatural beings who mimic human children, created by witches for revenge. The dangerous wildlings must be killed.

Liv doesn’t know what to believe

But within months, Luna will be the only member of the family left.

Twenty-two years later, Luna is still haunted by questions about what took place on the island. What happened to her sisters? What happened to her mother? She has never stopped searching for them. When she receives a call about her youngest sister, Clover — the one she remembers — she’s initially ecstatic. But Luna comes face-to-face with a seven-year-old. The girl is the same age Clover was when she vanished all those years ago.

Luna worries that Clover is a wildling. And though she has few memories of her time on the island, she’ll have to return to the one place she swore she would never revisit in order to find the truth about what happened to her family.

She doesn’t realize just how much the truth will change her.

Author C.J. Cooke (also known as Carolyn Jess-Cooke) grew up in Ireland and began writing at the tender age of seven on her grandparents’ old typewriter. She went on to earn a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Queen’s University in Belfast, and enjoyed a career in academia, lecturing on Film Studies at the University of Sunderland. Before launching her career as a novelist, she published four academic works on Shakespearean films and movie sequels. Since publishing her debut novel, The Guardian Angel’s Journal , in 2011, she has won numerous awards. She now serves as a Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, and researches how creative writing can help with trauma and mental health. She serves as the founder and director of the Stay-at-Home! Literary Festival, which is dedicated to providing people with accessible, inclusive, and eco-friendly ways to access literature. Her work remains focused on trauma, motherhood, loss, and social justice. Herself a mother to four children, she resides in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Lighthouse Witches is a blend of several genres: Gothic, paranormal, and mystery. At the outset, Cooke expertly sets the eerie, evocative scene: a decommissioned lighthouse called the Longing on the Scottish island of Lon Haven. It is “a white bolt locking earth, sky, and ocean together. . . . [L]ovely in its decrepitude, feathery paint gnawed off by north winds and rust-blazed window frames signatures of use and purpose.” It stands one hundred and forty-nine feet tall and offers breathtaking views from the lantern room accessed by climbing one hundred and thirty-eight steps. In a first-person narrative, Liv describes arriving on Lon Haven in 1998 and seeing it for the first time with a sense of haunting familiarity, even though she has never been there before. She has come to the island with her children in tow looking for a fresh start, on the run from an unpleasant truth she is too frightened to face head-on. She is well aware of “how stupid” her thought process is, but is unable to disavow herself of the ludicrous notion that if she just ignores the problem it will go away. They are to live in the rustic lighthouse keeper’s cottage while Liv paints a mural inside the lighthouse that has been commissioned by the owner, Patrick Roberts. He wants the mural to be “stunning and inspiring” and plans to turn the lighthouse into a writing studio.

Sapphire immediately finds a grimoire — an old book of spells — on the cottage’s bookshelf. Cooke inserts excerpts of “The Grimoire of Patrick Roberts,” which details the life of a local family who “lived our lives by magic” in 1662 and what ultimately happened to them. Liv and her children learn there were witch hunts not just in the United States, but also in Scotland and England. In fact, women believed to be witches were imprisoned in a dungeon underneath the lighthouse before being burned if they were found guilty of witchcraft. One of those witches cursed the island as she was dying, and a young child went missing there thirty years earlier. According to the boy’s sister, another child was found a year later who looked just like him, but bearing a telltale mark on his neck. Was he a wildling, sent to kill every member of his family until their bloodline was destroyed?

Life continues outrageously in whatever form it can. An unstoppable circularity, the past always in the present.

Sapphire’s first-person narrative expresses her dismay at being dragged from her school, friends, and boyfriend in New York to live in the “arse-end of nowhere.” She misses her stepfather, Sean, who died in a car accident, and daydreams about her biological father materializing. Liv and Sapphire have an unsurprisingly fraught relationship — at fifteen, the always headstrong girl has grown disrespectful and defiant. But Liv loves all her girls boundlessly and struggles to balance raising them as a single mother with accepting commissions for paintings and teaching art.

Yet another narrative is set in 2021 and focuses on Luna, who has only fragmented memories of the time she spent on Lon Haven. Her psychiatrist has explained that whatever happened to her all those years ago was so horrific that she dissociated, “effectively checking out of the horror,” her memories deeply buried in her mind. Liv abandoned her when she was just nine years old. “No explanation. No apparent motivation. Just dumped her in the woods and vanished into thin air.” Now she and her boyfriend, Ethan, are expecting their first child. She has vowed never to return to Lon Haven, but maintains Facebook pages devoted to her missing sisters, Sapphire and Clover, neither of whom have ever been accounted for since they went missing more than two decades ago.

But then Luna receives a life-changing call. Clover has been found! Since she was seven when she disappeared, she is twenty-nine years old now. But when Luna rushes to the hospital to meet the “wee girl” who has been found, she is disappointed. It’s not Clover at all. It’s a seven-year-old girl. But the girl bears an uncanny resemblance to Clover and asks why Sapphire is carrying the stuffed giraffe Clover adored. Sapphire kept it in the intervening years. The girl has knowledge of other matters, as well, that only Clover could possess.

Cooke weaves a tale of increasing angst in 1998. The creepy lighthouse has been vandalized with horrific symbols, but as Liv prepares to bring the mural to life, she makes other unsettling discoveries. She meets Patrick Roberts, the “island’s mystery millionaire,” who turns out to be much younger and more eccentric than anticipated. And disturbing details come to light about how he came to own the lighthouse.

Meanwhile, in 2021, Luna struggles with the prospect of marrying Ethan and takes custody of Clover, who insists that she just left the cottage on Lon Haven the night before she was found. She was discovered wandering on the side of the road, claiming that she’d gone looking for Luna. And she has an inexplicable mark on her hip.

Cooke deftly alternates the narratives into a cohesive tale of witchcraft, curses, time travel, and legends that mystify and frighten her characters and mesmerize readers. Liv is an empathetic character — a single mother doing her best to care for her children and earn a living after experiencing trauma. She is frightened and in denial about what the future might hold for her and her daughters. Sapphire is a typically inquisitive, willful teenager trying to assert her independence, while Luna is a young woman who survived early traumatization but has found a man who loves her and is attempting to lead as normal a life as possible when it is upended by the reappearance of Clover. But it can’t really be Clover. So Luna has to return to Lon Haven to face her own demons and determine who Clover really is.

As the narratives meld cohesively, Cooke gradually reveals the details of her uniquely inventive plot as she gradually accelerates the story’s pace and ramps up the dramatic tension. She assembles a world in which wildlings (also known as fae or fairies), witches, and magic exist, and reveals the true motives of Patrick Roberts. She also explains precisely what happened to Liv and Sapphire, as well as Clover’s true identity, and provides a conclusion that is surprisingly emotional yet fitting and, ultimately, uplifting and hopeful. In the process, she relates a tale that is engrossing and entertaining. With her richly descriptive prose and thoughtful examination of parent-child relationships, lost love, and the power of fear, she might make believers even of readers for whom the genre is outside their comfort zone.

Excerpt from The Lighthouse Witches

Lon Haven The Black Isle, Scotland

The lighthouse was called the Longing. Pitched amidst tessellations of rock black as coal, thrashed for over a hundred years by disconsolate squalls, it needled upward, spine-straight, a white bolt locking earth, sky, and ocean together. It was lovely in its decrepitude, feathery paint gnawed off by north winds and rust-blazed window frames signatures of use and purpose. I always thought lighthouses were beautiful symbols, but this one was more than that-it was hauntingly familiar.

Night was drawing in and we hadn’t yet met the owner. We’d driven hundreds of miles over mountains, through sleepy villages and winding roads, usually behind herds of cattle. We had taken a ferry, and got lost four times, on account of using an outdated, coffee-stained A-Z road map with several pages missing.

I parked up behind an old Range Rover. “We’re here,” I told the girls, who had fallen asleep against one another in the back. I wrapped my raincoat around Clover-she was wearing only a swimsuit over a pair of jeans-and lifted her up to walk a little way along the rocky beach daubed with spiky patches of marram and tough white flowers.

The four of us scanned the bay. It was a raw scene: a full moon hiding behind purple cloud, ocean thrashing against black cliffs. Gulls wheeling and shrieking above us. Trees stood like pitchforks, flayed by the wind. They hemmed the island, watching.

The lighthouse keeper’s bothy was a squat stone dwelling built close to the lighthouse. Smoke plumed from the chimney, pressing the earthy smell of peat into our noses. A woman stepped out to greet us. “Olivia?” she said.

“Hi,” I said. “Sorry I’m earlier than expected . . .”

“No trouble at all. Come on in out of the cold.”

We found ourselves in a cramped hallway, where someone had pinned a shark’s jawbone to the inner wall. Luna reached out to touch one of the teeth and I tugged her back.

Saffy nodded at it. “Is that from a great white?”

“Porbeagle shark,” the woman-Isla-said with a tilt of her chin. “We don’t get great whites. Porbeagles are just as big, mind, and every bit as dangerous.”

“I don’t like sharks, Mummy,” Clover whispered.

“We have a basking shark that tends to hang around the bay,” Isla said. She glanced down at Luna, who threw me a panicked look. “You’ll be fine with a basking shark. No teeth, you see. Basil, he’s called.”

“Is this where we’ll be staying?” Saffy asked warily, eyeing the shark jaw.

“It is indeed,” Isla said. She turned to the girls. “I’m Isla Kissick, and it’s absolutely thrilling to meet all of you. But I’m afraid I only know your mummy’s name. Why don’t you tell me your names?”

“I’m Luna,” Luna said. “I’m nine.”

“Luna,” Isla said. “What a lovely name.”

“It means ‘moon,'” Luna said, a little shy.

“Mine’s Clover,” Clover said, elbowing Luna out of the way. “I’m seven and a half and my name means clover, like the plant.”

“Also a lovely name,” Isla said. “And I bet you already know that clovers are meant to bring good luck?”

Clover nodded. “Mm-hmm. But my mummy said you make your own luck.”

“Very wise,” Isla said, glancing at me approvingly. She turned to Saffy, who flushed red.

“And who might this lovely one be?” Isla said.

“Sapphire,” Saffy mumbled to the floor. “I’m fifteen.”

“Well now, that’s lovely,” Isla said. “My daughter, Rowan, is fifteen. I’m sure you’ll meet soon enough. Now, come and sit down. I’ve made you all some supper.”

I nodded at the girls to leave their bin bags in the hall before following Isla to a kitchen at the back, where the smell of freshly baked bread and tomato soup made my mouth water.

I’d supposed that Isla was Mr. Roberts’ partner, but she turned out to be his housekeeper. She was short and lithe with long copper hair neatly pinned up, and her quick, round eyes searched all of us up and down. She had a beautiful Scottish brogue and spoke fast, as though the words were too hot to hold in her mouth for long. She was smartly turned out-a crisp white shirt, gray check trousers, polished ankle boots. The bothy was incongruously old-fashioned. I would learn that Lon Haven, its inhabitants included, was full of skewed time spheres. The absence of modern retail chains and its breathtakingly rugged landscapes made the place feel like you’d stepped back in time, perhaps to the very beginnings of the earth. The lighthouse itself was built upon an ancient Scottish broch that was built upon a Neolithic fort, which in turn was built upon late Jurassic rock, like an architectural babushka doll.

“There you go,” Isla said, placing bowls of steaming hot soup before each of us. I apologized again for the mix-up about our arrival. I’d planned to begin the commission a few weeks from now but decided to head north on the spur of the moment. Or the middle of the night, to be exact. We’d driven the whole way from York to Cromarty, only to find that the ferry was canceled for the day on account of high winds. The girls and I had to endure a very cold and uncomfortable night at a rest stop, sleeping in the car.

“It’s no trouble,” Isla said. “Mr. Roberts is away, of course, but I’m to take care of everything until he returns.”

“Are we sleeping in the car again?” Clover said, wiping her mouth on the back of her sleeve.

“In the car?” Isla repeated, looking to me for explanation.

“I’m sure there are plenty of beds for all of us,” I said quickly, and this time I was the one to look to Isla for confirmation. I didn’t want to mention that we’d had to sleep rough.

“Of course there are,” she said. “Shall I give you the grand tour?”

The bothy was small but efficiently organized. A door at the rear of the kitchen led to a scullery with a washing machine and loo. Three bedrooms provided ample sleeping space with freshly made-up beds, and there was a bathroom with a shower cubicle.

We followed Isla to the living room at the front of the house, overlooking the garden.

“Now, you’ll have noticed it’s a bit chilly on the island. So you’re not to worry if you need to turn the heater on.” She nodded at the wood-burning stove. “You’ll find a shed at the side of the bothy stocked with wood. And I’ve put plenty of blankets in the cupboards for you to get cozy in the evenings. Which reminds me. Sometimes the electricity goes off. Nothing to worry about. You know how to manage an oil lantern?”

I followed her gaze to an old-fashioned oil lamp in the windowsill, which I’d assumed was for decoration. I caught Isla rolling her eyes as it became clear that no, I didn’t know how to manage an oil lantern.

“I’ll be sure to leave instructions,” she said with a tight smile.

“Does Mr. Roberts live here?” Saffy asked.

“This is one of his properties,” Isla said. “But no, he doesn’t live here. His main residence is north of here, twenty minutes or so by car.”

“Will you tell him I’ve arrived?” I asked.

“Well, I’d love to,” Isla said brusquely, “but he’s at sea just now.”

“At sea?”

“Aye, for all he has a half dozen houses dotted about the place, he prefers to be out on his boat.”

“I have a boat,” Clover offered.

Isla lifted an eyebrow. “Do ye, now?”

“It’s green with a purple chimney and I play with it in the bath.”

“Well, Mr. Roberts’ boat is a wee bit bigger than that, I’d wager,” Isla said, chuckling. “He tends to sail to Shetland at this time of year.”

“He’s a pirate, then?” Clover said, astonished.

Isla bent down to Clover’s eye level. “No. But I reckon he’d be a good ‘un.”

“Do you come from Shetland?” Clover asked, running her fingertips along the stubbly wood-chip wallpaper. Wood chip was her favorite texture.

“No,” Isla said. “I come from Lon Haven. Where d’you come from?”

“My mummy’s vagina,” Clover said.

I watched Isla’s face drop. “Girls, go have a look at your bedrooms,” I said, ushering Clover quickly away. “Do you know when I’m to discuss the commission with Mr. Roberts?”

“He said to give you this.” Isla reached into her trouser pocket and pulled out a piece of folded paper. I opened it up to find an elaborate and highly abstract sketch, a diagram of sorts. Lots of lines and arrows and circles, like a zodiac.

“What is it?” I said, turning the page to the side. There was no indication which way the sketch was meant to be viewed.

“It’s the mural,” Isla said flatly. “The thing you’re painting inside the Longing.”

I stared at her, wondering if I’d misheard. “This? This is the mural?”

She cocked her head. “Is something the matter?”

“No, no . . .” I said, though I didn’t sound convincing, not even to my own ears. “I suppose I thought there might be more to it than this. Written instructions, perhaps.”

“That’s all Mr. Roberts has given me. He said I’m to fetch whatever equipment you need to do the job. So perhaps you can write me a list of whatever you require and I’ll get onto it in the morning.”

Still dumbfounded by the sketch, I said I would, but that I’d need to see inside the Longing first.

“Ah, now that would be an idea,” she said, straightening a lampshade. “How about I show you just now?”

Outside, harsh winds buffeted us on the rocks, and I saw movement on the far reaches of the island. Seals, Isla told us. I was astonished at how close they were to the bothy, but she told me they were shy creatures, despite their size. They’d not bother us. I watched them slip off the stones into the black water, their shape in the dark almost human.

The lighthouse stood twenty feet away from the bothy toward the far end of the island. We all pushed against the wind toward the heavy metal door at the base. I could make out an object wrapped around the handle. A tree branch. I made to pull it off, thinking it had been blown on there by the wind and become stuck. Isla stopped me.

“Rowan wood,” she said. “It’s for protection.”

I had no idea what she meant, but I stepped back as she tried to leverage the door open. Finally, it shifted. I lifted Clover onto my hip and held Luna’s hand tight as we followed Isla inside.

“Bloody hell,” Saffy said, looking around. “This place is rank.”

I shushed her, but couldn’t help agreeing internally.

I’d never been inside a lighthouse before. I’d expected floor levels, an enclosed staircase. The Longing, however, was a grim, granite cone. A rickety staircase was pinned loosely against the wall, spiraling Hitchcock-style to the lantern room at the very top. The place reeked of damp and rotting fish. I wondered why we were standing in an inch of black liquid, until Isla explained that one of the lower windows was broken, and over time seawater had poured inside and pooled on the floor.

“I gather you’ll need something to pump it out before you start,” she said.

“Mr. Roberts is turning it into a writing studio, is that right?” I asked, and Isla nodded.

“He’s not published,” she added. “Just a hobby. I wouldn’t be expecting him to produce The Iliad or anything like that. He bought it last year and didn’t seem to know what to do with it. Next thing I know, he’s asking me about getting a painter in to prettify it, make it into a writing studio.” She gave a shrill laugh. “Whoever heard of such a thing? Surely all you need to write is a pen and paper.”

“Maybe the views will inspire him,” I offered.

“Aye. Inspire him to go off sailing, more like.”

We were shrouded in darkness. Clover was clutching on to her toy giraffe, whimpering to go home. Bats flitted overhead. Moonlight trickled in from the small upper windows, revealing the height of the place.

“It’s a hundred and forty-nine feet tall,” Isla said, swinging her torchlight to the very top. “A hundred and thirty-eight steps to the lantern room. Braw views up there. I can show you when it’s light.” Her torchlight rested on patches of paint that had crumbled off, revealing raw stone. About halfway up someone had graffitied a section of the wall in garish shades of lime green and black.

“There was a break-in,” Isla said darkly. “Outsiders, you see. We get them here a lot more now, since the rental properties on the east side opened up. And the Neolithic museum, that’s new. You should take your girls.”

Isla reassured us that break-ins like this were rare, that tourists-or “outsiders”-didn’t frequent the place often. Lon Haven’s population was predominantly grassroots, with sixty or so archaeologists from “the University” working at the Neolithic sites. Some of the younger population had inherited crofts that they didn’t want to live in, so they’d started renting them out. The older population objected strongly both to the younger islanders moving away (“All of them want to live in Edinburgh or London,” Isla recalled with a sneer) and, as a result, drawing “outsiders” to the island to rent out the crofts.

Break-in aside, I was intrigued by the Longing. As an artist, two of my favorite things were shadows and curved angles, and this place had both in spades. The shadows seemed alive, like the wings of a giant bird stirred by our presence. It was creepy, yes, but also elegant-I loved how the staircase whirled upward in increasingly narrower circles within the cylinder of the structure, how the lack of right angles gave every small edge extra significance, how the architecture drew my gaze upward.

“Has the lighthouse ever been submerged?” I asked. I could hear wind pummeling the stone walls, the loud suck and slap of the waves close by.

“We get our fair share of storms,” Isla said, and I could tell she was choosing her words carefully so as not to put me off. “But the Longing has been standing for a hundred years amidst all that Mother Nature and the sea gods have to throw at her, and I daresay she’ll stand a hundred more.” A pause. “So long as you keep rowan on the door, you’ll be fine.”

It was as she said this that I felt a wave of deja vu pass over me. Saffy, Luna, and Isla were beginning to head toward the door to leave, but the feeling of familiarity was so strong that I paused, as though someone had spoken and I was trying to understand what they’d said.

Excerpted from The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke. Copyright © 2021 by C.J. Cooke. Excerpted by permission of Berkley Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Also by c.j. cooke:.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one electronic copy of The Lighthouse Witches free of charge from the author via Net Galley . I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Book Review: In Another Light

Book Review: The Other Passenger

Related posts, book review: worst case scenario, book review: served cold, book review: the secret hotel in berlin.

Comments are closed.

About | Contact
Book Reviews
Guest Authors

Competitions & Giveaways
My Reading Corner – Web & Print
Non-Fiction Reviews
Privacy Policy
Review Policy

The Lighthouse Witches by C J Cooke | Book Review | #TheLighthouseWitches

ABOUT THE BOOK

Upon the cliffs of a remote Scottish island, Lòn Haven, stands a lighthouse. A lighthouse that has weathered more than storms. Mysterious and terrible events have happened on this island. It started with a witch hunt. Now, centuries later, islanders are vanishing without explanation. Coincidence? Or curse? Liv Stay flees to the island with her three daughters, in search of a home. She doesn’t believe in witches, or dark omens, or hauntings. But within months, her daughter Luna will be the only one of them left. Twenty years later, Luna is drawn back to the place her family vanished. As the last sister left, it’s up to her to find out the truth . . . But what really happened at the lighthouse all those years ago?

Publisher: Harper Collins Format: Ebook, Audio, Hardback (30 September 2021) | Paperback (15 September 2022) Pages: 432 Source: Copy received for review

MY THOUGHTS

I’m always attracted to stories of witchcraft and folklore and couldn’t resist saying yes please to reviewing The Lighthouse Witches when the email tour invitation arrived. My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the place on the tour and to the publisher for the beautiful hardback copy to review.

Set over two timelines and told from three perspectives – mother Liv and eldest daughter Sapphire in 1998 and middle daughter Luna in 2021, The Lighthouse Witches is a haunting and atmospheric story set on a remote Scottish island, Lòn Haven. Liv is an artist and has been engaged by the reclusive current owner to paint a mural on the inside of the Island’s lighthouse ‘The Longing’ – she is also fleeing from something, at the time we don’t know what; a decision which has fractured her family.

The lighthouse is in a dilapidated condition and has a history of witch huntings attached to it, as too have other parts of the island. It’s clearly somewhere with a strange unwelcoming vibe.

The author has seamlessly woven a story between the past and the present involving witch’s curses, wildlings, superstition and folklore that has kept the villagers living in fear since 1662. When an ancient book belonging to the descendant of an islander, a ‘Grimoire’ is discovered which details the witch hunts and the unjust treatment meted out to those suspected of witchcraft, the creep factor goes up even more as the actions of the accusers and retaliation of those accused will cast their shadows on the island for generations.

The characters are well fleshed out with Liv having her own problems to cope with as well as trying to keep her family together. Despite some of the villagers appearing welcoming there is a sinister undercurrent and it certainly wouldn’t be anywhere I’d want to stay. Liv brushes off some of the rumours however she is no match for the ghosts of the past and Luna finds herself the only one of the family left. Her story in 2021 is one that will both shock and surprise as she returns to the place where she lost her entire family to try and find out what really happened. What is clear that even in these modern times, the old stories and rumours are still believed by some.

Superbly constructed. Dark, chilling and thoroughly engrossing whether or not you believe in the fantastical. It would be a great read at any time but with Halloween coming up, this would be perfect. Definitely recommended.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

C.J. Cooke is an acclaimed, award-winning poet, novelist and academic with numerous other publications written under the name of Carolyn Jess-Cooke. Her work has been published in twenty- three languages to date. Born in Belfast, C.J. has a PhD in Literature from Queen’s University, Belfast, and is currently Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health. C.J. Cooke lives in Glasgow with her husband and four children. She also founded the Stay-At-Home Festival.

Author Links:

Thank you for reading 🙂

2 thoughts on “The Lighthouse Witches by C J Cooke | Book Review | #TheLighthouseWitches”

Thanks for the blog tour support Karen x

My pleasure, thank you for the invite Anne x

I do love to read any comments 😊 Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address

Are you searching for something?

Currently reading.

karendenise023

#bookreview #whathaveyoudone? #sharilapena @transworldbooksI’ve read most of Shari Lapena’s books and always enjoy them. I think this latest, What Have You Done is perhaps one of her darkest with a different element added.Set in Vermont, Fairhill is a quiet town where nothing bad happens and everyone knows each other. There was definitely those small town vibes here. People routinely leave their doors unlocked but when the naked body of 17 year old student Diana Brewer is found murdered in a local farmer’s field, residents are scared. Who could have done this? Surely it must have been someone passing through, it couldn’t have been one of their own.There were no end of suspects here with behaviours from the rather clingy and controlling through to stalkerish. I had my suspicions about everyone, the clever writing leads you down that road with its curveballs and revelations ….but I honed in on a suspect almost from the beginning, and bingo!Told from multiple perspectives this was such an addictive and engaging read with a paranormal element, which honestly sometimes I find can be unconvincing. However here it wasn’t overdone, but seemed a natural addition to the story. (In the author’s note at the back, there is an explanation as to the setting and why it has a ghostly vibe). Everyone had their secrets, even Diana, the murdered girl but who would kill someone who apparently was so popular and well liked by everyone. Her divorced mother is grief stricken with the loss of her only child, her friends are devastated and then there are those with guilty consciences. So many lies and deceit with their far reaching consequences to watch unravel.I enjoyed this well paced and intriguing thriller, however if I was nitpicking, I felt that the resolution seemed rather rushed. With its short snappy chapters that I love I was picking this up at every chance. Both entertaining and gripping, I look forward to the next book from Shari Lapena.

Karen's bookshelf: read

2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge

2024 reading challenge.

NETGALLEY BADGES

PINTEREST: BOOK BLOG TOURS

2021 goodreads challenge, 2023 reading challenge.

Juliet by LyraThemes.com

Kate Kenzie Writes

fiction, book reviews and writing news

Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J Cooke

I am so excited to share my review for The Lighthouse Witches by C.J Cooke on the run up to Halloween. I adore books seeped in the history of witches and this book promised just that and with a dark, menacing but beautiful cover, I just had to read. Scroll down to see if it met my expectations.

Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J Cooke

Title: The Lighthouse Witches

Author: C.J Cooke

Publisher: HarperCollins

Genre: witchlit, supernatural, gothic

Release Date: 30th September 2021

The brand-new chilling gothic thriller from the bestselling author . . .

Coincidence? Or curse? Liv Stay flees to the island with her three daughters, in search of a home. She doesn’t believe in witches, or dark omens, or hauntings. But within months, her daughter Luna will be the only one of them left. Twenty years later, Luna is drawn back to the place her family vanished. As the last sister left, it’s up to her to find out the truth . . .

But what really happened at the lighthouse all those years ago?

My Thoughts

The Lighthouse Witches is a deliciously dark tale based on an isolated island in Scotland which automatically adds to the gothic atmosphere. The descriptions of the lighthouse’s interior gave it an ideal setting for an unnerving, fear based reading experience. Told by several narrators including an ancient grimoire it follows Luna who has to return to the island to discover what happened in 1998 when her mother and sisters disappeared but she is not as welcome to the close-knit community as she expected adding to the mystery and tension. With links to the 17 th century Scottish witch trails, it grabbed my attention and did not release me until the end, but even then I keep finding myself lured back into thinking about it.

Midway I questioned how dark it was going to go and whether I needed to grab a cushion to hide behind, but it made me use my imagination for the darker moments which may have made things worse. The tension grew towards an unexpected and satisfying conclusion.

Would I recommend?

Yes. With strong female characters, many twists and turns and unique location this is one of my favourite books of the year and a perfect Halloween read.

As a page turner and with strong witch connections, this is a firm favourite on The Enchanted Emporium bookshelf and loved by both Willow and Amber.

Author Biography

C.J. Cooke is an acclaimed, award-winning poet, novelist and academic with numerous other publications written under the name of Carolyn Jess-Cooke. Her work has been published in twentythree languages to date. Born in Belfast, C.J. has a PhD in Literature from Queen’s University, Belfast, and is currently Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health. C.J. Cooke lives in Glasgow with her husband and four children. She also founded the Stay-At-Home Festival.

Thank you Random Thing Tours for inviting me to this tour and providing an advanced copy for me to review and give my honest and unbiased opinion.

Published by kakenzieblog

Author of A Blend of Magic, tea addict and book hoarder who reviews books to share my love of books. Creator of the Enchanted Emporium and its resident witches and ghosts. View all posts by kakenzieblog

2 thoughts on “Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J Cooke”

I love the sound of this story!

You’ll love it

Leave a comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Subscribe Subscribed
Copy shortlink
Report this content
View post in Reader
Manage subscriptions
Collapse this bar

Review: The Lighthouse Witches - C.J. Cooke

Genre: Fantasy, horror, mystery

Published: Harper Collins Publishing, October 1st 2021

My Rating: 4.5/5 stars

If you're still looking for your perfect October-witchy-read ór if you perhaps wanted a literary equivalent to the netflix show "Dark": look no further... You have found it. Witches, changelings, elements of Scottish folklore and a vividly spooky setting, all woven together seamlessly make Where The Lighthouse Witches my favourite Halloween release of 2021 so far.

Scotland, 1998. Liv, single mother of three daughters is commissioned to paint a mural in an abandoned lighthouse on a remote isle just off shore. What begins as an opportunity for a fresh start for her and her family soon takes an ominous turn. The lighthouse, as well as the cave-network below it, are saturated with dark history and sinister folktales: witches, curses and wildlings have left their mark on the place for centuries now. Any doubts on their validity are shattered when first her two young daughters, and then Liv herself, vanish without a trace.

Scottish shores, 2021. Luna has been looking for her sisters and mum for over twenty years. Then one day, she receives a call that her youngest sister has been found near the lighthouse where she disappeared. Only she hasn’t aged a day since she was last seen… Is this girl really her sister? Is she a changeling from the folktales Luna grew up with? In order to find out, she has to return to the lighthouse, to unearth the secrets that linger there once and for all.

Where The Lighthouse Witches has all the ingredients to make for my perfect Halloween-read, and mixes them together in its cauldron to become even more than the sum of its parts. Told in three timelines (the witch-hunt of 1662 that started it all, the vanishings of 1998, and “return” of 2021), this story sucked me into its mystery, its atmospheric setting and its Gothic imagery from page one, and kept me on the edge of my seat with anticipating and suspense throughout. Although I already enjoyed Cookes previous novel The Nesting , I feel they’ve grown so much as an author since. Where The Lighthouse Witches matches its predecessor in creepy atmosphere, it has has tighter and sharper prose, pitch perfect pacing and a much more vivid and likable cast of characters. It also incorporates some elements of different subgenres to elevate it above your “typical horror novel”.

Even though it’s still early in the month, this has to be my favourite Halloween release of the year so far, and I can’t recommend it enough. Where The Lighthouse Witches is available in print, as well as in audio-format, both of which I can highly recommend. For full immersion points, I suggest a dark room on a stormy night; letting the excellent narration and the Scottish accents carry you away to the foggy shores...

Many thanks to Harper Collins for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Find this book on Goodreads.

Thriller/Horror

THE STORY OF A REDHEAD AND HER BOOKS

The fictionfox.

Chick Lit Central

A place where people can discuss chick lit books, read reviews, meet authors and win books!

Review Policy
Contact Info

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Book review: the lighthouse witches.

Fall means changing leaves, the scent of a roaring fireplace, frost on the morning grass. It’s also a time for witches and Halloween. Since witches have been a staple of storytelling literally since Biblical times, the best stories build on that past while also offering something original and new. In the latest offering by author C.J. Cooke (we reviewed her previous novel, The Nesting , here ), The Lighthouse Witches , a desperate mother brings her daughters to a Scottish island that centuries ago burned witches. It’s a perfect tale for the season.

In 1998, single mother and artist Liv takes a commission to paint an old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island. Bringing her three daughters—15-year-old Sapphire, 9-year-old Luna and 7-year old Clover, she hopes the island will help ease the pain of losing their father. But the townspeople are clannish and superstitious, and the lighthouse itself once held a prison for women accused of witchcraft. As Liv gets more drawn into life on the island, she starts to wonder about the meaning behind the mural she’s been hired to paint.

In 2021, Luna is expecting her first child and still in mourning for her missing family when she gets a call that her sister Clover has been found. But instead of the adult woman she’d expected, Luna is presented with a 7-year-old child who believes it’s still 1998 and wants to be reunited with Mummy.

What happened to Luna’s family, and how is it possible that Clover hasn’t aged at all? Could the answer have something to do with “wildings,” which the villagers say were created by witches to mimic human children and destroy their families’ bloodlines? As Luna digs up long-forgotten memories, past and present line up for a scary collision.

The Lighthouse Witches is a complicated tale that Cooke pulls off smoothly and effortlessly. With multiple points-of-view and timelines, the story is grounded by her characters. Liv, hiding an enormous secret from her daughters, tries to give them a normal life even though she doesn’t know where they’ll live when her commission ends. Sapphire, her grief over the loss of her stepfather unacknowledged, tangles with the boyfriend of the local teenage witch while clashing with her mother. And Patrick, the owner of the lighthouse, has a past that can scarcely be imagined.

Cooke hides clues in plain sight and then commits a sleigh-of-hand that would make magicians proud. The book’s ending cannot be predicted, and yet feels completely inevitable.

“Who knows why we were taught to fear the witches, and not those who burned them alive?” Once again, C.J. Cooke reminds us that the real monsters come in human form.

No comments:

The BiblioSanctum

A book blog for speculative fiction, graphic novels… and more, book review: the lighthouse witches by c.j. cooke.

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Genre: Mystery, Suspense

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Berkley(October 5, 2021)

Length: 368 pages

Author Information: Website | Twitter

After The Nesting last year, I just knew I had to get my hands on more of C.J. Cooke’s work. So, when the synopsis of The Lighthouse Witches promised more of that same Gothic suspense and atmospheric goodness, I was quite anxious to dive right in.

Our story begins in 1998, as artist Olivia Stay arrives on Scottish isle Lòn Haven along with her three daughters Sapphire, Luna, and Clover. Commissioned to paint a mural inside an ancient lighthouse supposedly built on the ruins of prison for witches, Olivia knows very little about the client who hired her or why he wanted the work done, but she’s desperate for work and also looking to start fresh in a new place.

Her teenager Sapphire, however, is quite unhappy about having been uprooted from their old home and is taking her anger out on her mother and sisters. Exploring on her own, she comes across an old tome left near the lighthouse filled with accounts of the witch burnings that happened on the island back in in the 1600s. The residents of the village, friendly as they are, also seem to be deeply superstitious, believing in the old stories about changelings, and it doesn’t help that for such a small place, Lòn Haven has a long and disturbing history of children randomly disappearing.

And then the unthinkable happens. Two of Olivia’s daughters go missing, setting her off on a panicked search. But in the end, only one girl is found. Fast forward twenty-three years later to the present day, we follow Luna, now a grown woman expecting her first child. Her life is a bit of a mess, having been estranged from her mother Olivia and now having relationship troubles with her boyfriend, which is putting even more stress on her already high-risk pregnancy. Through it all though, Luna has never given up searching for her lost sisters, and then one day, she unexpectedly receives news from the police that Clover has been found. Excited to be reunited with her sister, who should be around thirty years old by now, Luna is shocked to arrive at the station to find a little girl.

At first, her heart sinks knowing this can’t be Clover, but at the same time, the child looks exactly like her seven-year-old sister who went missing back in 1998. Not only that, she also sounds exactly like her, knows all the things that only Clover would know. It shouldn’t be possible, but the more time Luna spends with the girl, the more she is convinced that she is her sister. But how to explain the fact that she hasn’t aged a day since they last saw each other?

Basically, there are narratives from three timelines that make up The Lighthouse Witches —the one in 1998 told from Olivia and Sapphire’s POVs, the one in 2021 from Luna’s POV, and the last one told through diary entries from the old book, which I won’t comment on any further in case of spoilers. As you can imagine, all that jumping around can get a little dicey, and I won’t lie, there were definitely moments where things got confusing. Still, for the most part, I thought the author handled the POV switches very well, alternating and contrasting the timelines in a way that delivered the most tension and impact.

That said, it does take a while for the three arcs to build and weave together some semblance of a conflict, so patience is required until the main plot can get off the ground. Once you hit a certain point though, the mystery reaches a climax, and the rest of the novel unfolds at a breathless pace. I would say if you enjoyed The Nesting , then there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy The Lighthouse Witches too, and in fact, in certain respects, I liked this one better. Both books begin with a single woman relocating to a remote place to start a new job, and both also involve creepy children. Then there’s the paranormal element, which is even more pronounced in this novel, and that’s great news if that’s your jam. This time, I also wasn’t as hung up on certain questionable explanations or leaps of logic, because the presence of the otherworldly and uncanny gave the plot a lot more leeway.

As with most novels that can be described as moody, twisty, slow-burn Gothic suspense, The Lighthouse Witches probably won’t be for everyone, but if you happen to be on the lookout for that kind of story and won’t mind a somewhat indeterminate supernatural angle, then this book is for you.

18 Comments on “Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke”

I love the sound of this one and need to pick up my copy soon. This review is definitely encouraging. The Nesting was a book where, I didn’t quite love the story but the writing was excellent and the atmosphere was so moody and dark that I definitely wanted more by this author. Lynn 😀

I 100% agree with your assessment of The Nesting! I liked this one more because the story was better, but with the same high quality of writing and moody atmosphere!

I guess you had me at “haunted lighthouse on a Scottish island”… 😉 Thanks for sharing!

I’m so glad that piqued your interest!

Like Liked by 1 person

I don’t know if I would have had your patience for the ARCs to get togather honestly!

I have plenty of patience, I just need more time, lol 😀

I’m finding that when done well I really enjoy some of these stories that start out slowly and take time to weave everything together, but then almost without you noticing they begin to pick up the pace and you just can’t stop reading. And sometimes the chapters get shorter leaving you with even more desire to keep reading, just another chapter, just one more before stopping for the night… 🙂

I love books like that 😀

This sounds so good! I’m very sad I couldn’t fit it into my schedule…

I understand! I’ve had to let so many interesting books go because I couldn’t fit them into my schedule 😛

Witches and then a lighthouse… hmm. That pretty much has me there. I’ve come to like dual timeline tales too a little bit over the last few years, although you’re right- they can be dicey to pull off. This sounds pretty good.

I do really love the history the author has built around this lighthouse, makes the book so much more atmospheric!

Pingback: Bookshelf Roundup: 10/16/21: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads | The BiblioSanctum

Pingback: Bookshelf Roundup: 10/16/21: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads – Imobiliare 24

Pingback: Bookshelf Roundup: 10/16/21: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads – Book Library

Pingback: Bookshelf Roundup: 10/16/21: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads – Therapy Box

Patience is not always my best virtue. But I can do it

This was my first read by the author but it certainly won’t be the last. I get what you mean about the timelines getting a bit confusing at times though. Most of them I kept track of but Sapphires sometimes felt out of order 🤔

Leave a comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Posts by...

Tiara is Currently Reading

Mogsy is currently reading, wendy is currently reading.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Subscribe Subscribed
Copy shortlink
Report this content
View post in Reader
Manage subscriptions
Collapse this bar

The Lighthouse Witches By C. J. Cooke (Review by Stacie Kitchen)

Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐ The Lighthouse Witches is a good part spooky mystery, historical fiction, and fantasy. When Liv gets a commission to paint a mural in a lighthouse in Scotland, she whisks her three daughters away to the middle to the remote island. Situated on a Neolithic site, the island is full of spooky history, and everyone the family meets are a little bit suspicious. Liv, Saffy, Luna, and Clover try to make a home for themselves in a dilapidated bothy and they start to uncover some of the island’s past.

Through their neighbors, friends, and a grimoire book found in the bothy, the family learns that their island has been cursed by witches. The witches were jailed in a hole within the lighthouse and put a curse on the families of the island before they were burned to death. This curse creates wildlings (children identical to their own children but with burn marks) who integrate into their families only to kill off the whole family line. Is there a way to stop the wildlings?

The Lighthouse Witches also gives a present-day account of Luna. Pregnant and over 20 years older, Luna is the only member of the family left. Saffy, Clover, and Liv all disappeared while on the island without a trace. Suddenly Luna gets a call that the police have found Clover… only this Clover is still only 7 years old.

One thing I really enjoyed about this novel is the ability of C. J. Cooke to go back and forth from multiple time periods, while also incorporating an additional time in the form of a grimoire being read by Saffy. It had very smooth transitions and I loved the level of mystery created by the multiple timelines. The characters had a great sense of depth and relatability. I highly recommend as I had a great time reading this novel and trying to uncover the mysteries!

Did you like this book?

Click on a heart to rate it!

The Bibliophile Chronicles

Book review: the lighthouse witches – c j cooke.

Upon the cliffs of a remote Scottish island, Lòn Haven, stands a lighthouse.

A lighthouse that has weathered more than storms.

Mysterious and terrible events have happened on this island. It started with a witch hunt. Now, centuries later, islanders are vanishing without explanation.

Coincidence? Or curse?

Liv Stay flees to the island with her three daughters, in search of a home. She doesn’t believe in witches, or dark omens, or hauntings. But within months, her daughter Luna will be the only one of them left.

Twenty years later, Luna is drawn back to the place her family vanished. As the last sister left, it’s up to her to find out the truth . . . But what really happened at the lighthouse all those years ago?

The story follows Liv, a single mum to three girls – Sapphire, Clover and Luna. Liv takes a job on the remote island of Lòn Haven, where she has been asked to paint a mural inside the old lighthouse. As the family get to know the island they soon learn about the history of witches on the island, and children going missing. Liv believes this to be nothing but superstitious nonsense until one night one of her daughters vanishes. Twenty years in the future, Liv’s youngest daughter Luna is drawn back to the place where her family was torn apart. This time she is determined to find out what happened to her sisters and her Mum.

The Lighthouse is an incredibly impressive book. It seamlessly weaves together a number of different storylines – we follow Liv in 1998 during their time on the island, Luna in the present-day as she attempts to discover the truth about what happened to her family and the grimoire of a witch living on the island hundreds of years ago. The story was utterly compelling and drew me in more and more as the story progressed. This is a dark and twisty tale and I was never sure what was going to happen next. The ending was something I never could have predicted and I thought it was delivered beautifully.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Subscribe Subscribed
Copy shortlink
Report this content
View post in Reader
Manage subscriptions
Collapse this bar

Wildwood Reads

Read where the wildflowers grow.

The Lighthouse Witches Review

I ordered The Lighthouse Witches a while back, and I’m just now getting to it. It was time for something spooky. Let’s get to the review.

Two sisters go missing on a remote Scottish Island. One is found twenty years later, and she hasn’t aged a day. The locals tried to warn Liv about the creepy history of the lighthouse, but she doesn’t really believe them. But then the history starts to threaten her family.

My Thoughts on The Lighthouse Witches

I loved The Lighthouse Witches in the beginning. It was full of folklore and mystery. The witch aspect was strong, and the timeline to the past was amazing. But parts of the plot were questionable. Clover is found twenty years later, and is still seven, and no one questions it. The hospital and police act as if everything is normal.

Then toward the middle of the book the plot drags a little. The atmosphere is all that kept me interested. And when the story picked back up, I loved it again. I thought I would finally get a creepy witch story that actually stayed witchy to the end.

However, in the last half of the book a sci-fi plotline came out of left field. I might have enjoyed that element in another book, but I was sad to see the folklore plotline dissolve. I enjoyed parts of this book a lot which is why I’m still giving it three stars, but I wish it had stayed consistent all the way through.

My Rating: 3/5

Find all your favorite books at booksamillion.com.

Published by Wildwood Reads

View all posts by Wildwood Reads

Discover more from Wildwood Reads

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Books on the 7:47

Book review blog / author interviews / all things bookish, the lighthouse witches by c. j. cooke – book review.

by Jen | Books on the 7:47
Posted on September 21, 2021 September 5, 2021

Recently, for some random reason, I have read a lot of novels set on remote Scottish islands. Of which The Lighthouse Witches is one. A tantalising Gothic mystery, yes there are equal parts lighthouse and witches in the story – both things that appeal to me and can really work to create an evocative story, as they did here.

Opening sentence: They bind our feet and ankles, tear off our clothes and douse us with alcohol.

Liv goes to Lon Haven

So, the fictional Lon Haven is the remote Scottish island in question where, in 1998, one of our lead characters, Liv (an artist) goes on a commission – to paint a striking mural inside an old and derelict lighthouse evocatively named the Longing.

A wild place with a Viking soul, Lon Haven’s violent and tragic history had clearly infected the minds of its inhabitants, creating beliefs rooted deeply in fear.

She arrives with her three daughters: Sapphire (Saffy), Luna and Clover and is shown around by housekeeper, Isla. The man who hired her is a mysterious character and not immediately around.

As Liv and her daughters try to settle into island life they face coming to terms with the isolated setting, moody weather, local tales of witchcraft, superstition and, yes, a little romance. However, something strange happens: Liv, Saffy and Clover going missing and are never found…

I read that they burned about four thousand witches here in Scotland. Or, you know, women.

Luna’s search for the lighthouse witches

This only leaves Luna; we get chapters from her as an adult in 2021. She is pregnant and still holds out hope of finding her missing family. Then one day, it’s reported that a girl matching Clover’s description has been found. But that’s the problem: a girl has been found. Clover hasn’t aged a day, she remains the 9 year old child she was when she went missing 20 years ago….

Just what is going on and is witchcraft at play?

The Grimoire of Patrick Roberts

At first, the people were glad of King James VI and his mission to rid the world of witches.

Witchcraft, obviously, plays a key part in the story. Liv’s oldest daughter, teenager Saffy finds a diary aka Grimoire aka a book of spells. It’s from 1662 and gives us the POV of a man called Patrick, who lived on the island and whose story connects to the present.

I love reading books like The Lighthouse Witches as it had thematic tie backs to a lot of others I have enjoyed reading. There are mentions of Icelandic runes, which appeared in The Glass Woman and the myth of the wildlings that features so heavily here reminds me of the changelings that appear in Little Darlings .

I will admit that this book took a step into fantasy that I wasn’t expecting and threw me a little at the end, but I still really enjoyed the story that kept me hooked, challenged the history of witchcraft as a way to control women and gave me a little hit of Gothic.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC;
Get your copy of The Lighthouse Witches here ;
Published by HarperCollins 30th September 2021;

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Subscribe Subscribed
Copy shortlink
Report this content
View post in Reader
Manage subscriptions
Collapse this bar

Select your cookie preferences

We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie notice . We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements.

If you agree, we'll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie notice . Your choice applies to using first-party and third-party advertising cookies on this service. Cookies store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. The 96 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Click "Decline" to reject, or "Customise" to make more detailed advertising choices, or learn more. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences , as described in the Cookie notice. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy notice .

Crime, Thrillers & Mystery

Sorry, there was a problem.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

The Lighthouse Witches: The perfect haunting gothic thriller you won’t be able to put down

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

The Lighthouse Witches: The perfect haunting gothic thriller you won’t be able to put down Paperback – 15 Sept. 2022

Don’t miss this chilling gothic thriller from the bestselling author . . ..

’Cooke has creatively interwoven the darkness of reality with a magical realism that will truly have you gripped’ Woman & Home ‘Fascinating and enthralling’ Prima ‘Wonderfully atmospheric and compelling’ Rosamund Lupton ‘A flawless read’ Elizabeth Lee ‘Seething with gothic menace’ Caroline Lea ‘This ghost story is a perfect mix of propulsive plot and shivers-up-the-spine spookiness’ Good Housekeeping

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.

Print length 448 pages
Language English
Publisher HarperCollins
Publication date 15 Sept. 2022
Dimensions 12.9 x 3.4 x 19.8 cm
ISBN-10 0008455449
ISBN-13 978-0008455446
See all details

From the Publisher




Customer Reviews
Discover more books from C. J. Cooke	Here lies the book of witching. One turn of the page and you will be bound forever...	Something still walks the floors of the shipwreck...	A deserted lighthouse. A lost family. An impossible child... this is another stunning thriller from C. J. Cooke.	In the midst of the woods stands a house called Lichen Hall... C. J. Cooke's latest novel is out now!	Atmospheric, gothic, spine-chilling, The Nesting will haunt you long after you turn the last page.

Product description

‘Right from the start, I was hooked on this eerie, cryptic novel’ Samantha Downing

‘This book is SO good! … Multiple narrators and time frames, family dynamics, siblings, witches; eerie but not scary. I mean, what is there not to love? This is C.J. Cooke’s best yet! A fascinating and enthralling read’ Nina Pottell, Prima

'A gripping modern gothic thriller that is also a haunting depiction of witch trials, it is a wonderfully atmospheric and compelling novel’ Rosamund Lupton

‘This ghost story is a perfect mix of propulsive plot and shivers-up-the-spine spookiness’ Good Housekeeping

‘An intricate story about women and witch trials but with a delightful timeslip element that really works. It’s a compelling story and very satisfying how the threads are woven together’ Kate Sawyer

‘With characters that feel like they live and breathe, an atmospheric setting and a plot that kept me guessing, all delivered in luminous prose, this is a flawless read. Underpinned by a story of the Scottish witch hunts, the themes remain starkly relevant today’ Elizabeth Lee

‘Seething with gothic menace … interweaves myth, superstition and history in a way which feels strikingly relevant and gripping’ Caroline Lea

‘Wonderful writing with a beautifully haunting tone. Gothic at its best’ Rhiannon Ward

‘Beautifully crafted’ Constance Sayers

‘Cooke manages to set a compelling timeshift mystery in a very real world, where believable people navigate authentic problems … surprising and inventive’ Sarah Burton

‘Like a lighthouse roving atmospheric waters, its secrets are revealed glimpse by tantalising glimpse’ Cari Thomas

‘A gripping meditation on terror and superstition’ Sara Sheridan

‘A complex and haunting story, beautifully told … Tense, unsettling and ultimately incredibly moving’ Amanda Mason

‘Utterly enthralling, original and atmospheric’ N.J. Simmonds

‘An atmospheric beauty of a book, with a feminist voice that rang clear from every page’ Anna Day

Book Description

The perfect haunting gothic thriller you won’t be able to put down

From the Back Cover

About the author.

C.J. Cooke is an acclaimed, award-winning poet, novelist and academic with numerous other publications as Carolyn Jess-Cooke. Her work has been published in twenty-three languages to date. Born in Belfast, C.J. has a PhD in Literature from Queen’s University, Belfast, and is currently Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health. C.J. Cooke lives in Glasgow with her husband and four children.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins; 1st edition (15 Sept. 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008455449
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008455446
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 3.4 x 19.8 cm
62 in Occult Horror (Books)
64 in Contemporary Horror
88 in Horror Thrillers

About the author

C J Cooke (Carolyn Jess-Cooke) lives in Glasgow with her husband and four children. C J Cooke's works have been published in 23 languages and have won many awards. She holds a PhD in Literature from the Queen's University of Belfast and is currently Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health. Two of her books are currently optioned for film. Visit www.cjcookeauthor.com

Customer reviews

5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 49% 31% 15% 3% 1% 49%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 49% 31% 15% 3% 1% 31%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 49% 31% 15% 3% 1% 15%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 49% 31% 15% 3% 1% 3%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 49% 31% 15% 3% 1% 1%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings, help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers find the story excellent, intriguing, and clever. They describe the book as an amazing, compelling, and brilliant read. Readers praise the writing quality as well-written, superb, and easy to read. They appreciate the pacing, mystery content, and atmosphere. Opinions are mixed on the character development, with some finding them great and stereotypical, while others say they're predictable and wooden.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the story excellent and intriguing. They describe the book as a clever novel combining a modern day mystery with dark superstitions. Readers mention the book is full of twists and turns, and is inspired by real events.

"...This was an outstanding literary gothic thriller and one that I would suggest reading without too much prior information...." Read more

"...This was a perfect spooky season must read book and I will definitely be checking out some of the other books by the same author." Read more

"...historical events, and although this was fictional, it was inspired by real events , and I thought the author did a fantastic job in telling a story..." Read more

"An excellent and intriguing tale well worth reading . As women we need to know about the ‘burning times’ and this book helps." Read more

Customers find the book amazing, compelling, and enjoyable. They say it's a brilliant, atmospheric read perfect for October.

"...predictable and unavoidably stereotypical in places, but overall it was a great , evenly paced read...." Read more

"It was an OK read , but a bit too far fetched...." Read more

"...It’s a perfect book to read around Halloween . I will definitely be checking out C.J. Cooke’s other work!" Read more

" A good read , lost me a little toward the end but good all the same :) from Scotland myself so loved it being based there and the history." Read more

Customers find the writing quality of the book gripping, superb, and realistic. They also appreciate the vivid descriptions and strong characterisations. Readers mention the author is respectful towards the subject of witchcraft.

"...In addition, its author is respectful towards the subject of witchcraft and the occult, seeking to educate as well as penning a cracking genre-..." Read more

"I loved the start of this book. The writing was wonderful - atmospheric and intriguing...." Read more

"...There are some great Scottish accents and the narration is superb . I thoroughly enjoyed it...." Read more

"...I loved the realism in Carolyns writing even though the topic was bordering on the supernatural...." Read more

Customers find the book's pacing even, fast, and chilling. They also appreciate the vivid descriptions and strong characterisations.

"...It is well written with vivid descriptions and strong characterisations ...." Read more

"...unavoidably stereotypical in places, but overall it was a great, evenly paced read ...." Read more

"I felt this started of slowly, but really built as a slow burner . The sort of story you can set down and want to go back to to find out what is next...." Read more

"The book arrived when I was told it would and in excellent condition . Very happy." Read more

Customers find the mystery content easy to read and tense.

"...It keeps you guessing throughout as to who may have done what...." Read more

"I loved every word of this story.It kept me guessing to the last minute which is rare for me!..." Read more

"Tense, mysterious , and frightening, but this is more than just a horror story, a deep phycological picture of misogamy both in the past and in the..." Read more

"Easy reading, keeps you guessing " Read more

Customers find the book's atmosphere creepy, intriguing, and keeps them guessing.

"...Overall, ‘The Lighthouse Witches’ was an atmospheric , gothic novel that also served to highlight the tragedy of the Scottish witch hunts...." Read more

"...Riveting, atmospheric and at times dark but so so enjoyable." Read more

"...Cannot praise it highly enough! Atmospheric , creepy, intriguing and keeps you guessing all the way to the end. Absolutely brilliant!" Read more

Customers find the book menacing.

" Gripped me from the start , read it in 2 days...." Read more

"I really enjoyed joyed this. Gripping from the first page. I didn't realise witches had been hunted down in such large numbers in Scotland" Read more

"...and I'm so glad I did, its compelling, full of twists and turns, really gripping and so well written!" Read more

"Menacing and gripping ..." Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the character development in the book. Some mention it's great, while others say the characters are predictable and stereotypical.

"...The characters are so beautifully written and developed and there’s not a moment of the book that doesn’t have you on the edge of your seat...." Read more

"...Some of the characters were a little predictable and unavoidably stereotypical in places, but overall it was a great, evenly paced read...." Read more

"... I loved all the characters , their good points and their flaws...." Read more

"...on a stretch of rural Scottish coast and, in general, the characters are nicely created though not necessarily realistic...." Read more

Reviews with images

Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from United Kingdom

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

UK Modern Slavery Statement
Amazon Science
Sell on Amazon
Sell on Amazon Business
Sell on Amazon Handmade
Associates Programme
Fulfilment by Amazon
Seller Fulfilled Prime
Advertise Your Products
Independently Publish with Us
Host an Amazon Hub
› See More Make Money with Us
The Amazon Barclaycard
Credit Card
Amazon Money Store
Amazon Currency Converter
Payment Methods Help
Shop with Points
Top Up Your Account
Top Up Your Account in Store
COVID-19 and Amazon
Track Packages or View Orders
Delivery Rates & Policies
Returns & Replacements
Manage Your Content and Devices
Amazon Mobile App
Customer Service
Accessibility

Conditions of Use & Sale
Privacy Notice
Cookies Notice
Interest-Based Ads Notice

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Thrillers & Suspense

Sorry, there was a problem.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

The Lighthouse Witches Paperback – October 5, 2021

Print length 368 pages
Language English
Publisher Berkley
Publication date October 5, 2021
Dimensions 5.4 x 1.1 x 8 inches
ISBN-10 059333423X
ISBN-13 978-0593334232
See all details

Editorial Reviews

The Black Isle, Scotland

Night was drawing in and we hadn't yet met the owner. We'd driven hundreds of miles over mountains, through sleepy villages and winding roads, usually behind herds of cattle. We had taken a ferry, and got lost four times, on account of using an outdated, coffee-stained A-Z road map with several pages missing.

I parked up behind an old Range Rover. "We're here," I told the girls, who had fallen asleep against one another in the back. I wrapped my raincoat around Clover-she was wearing only a swimsuit over a pair of jeans-and lifted her up to walk a little way along the rocky beach daubed with spiky patches of marram and tough white flowers.

The lighthouse keeper's bothy was a squat stone dwelling built close to the lighthouse. Smoke plumed from the chimney, pressing the earthy smell of peat into our noses. A woman stepped out to greet us. "Olivia?" she said.

"Hi," I said. "Sorry I'm earlier than expected . . ."

"No trouble at all. Come on in out of the cold."

We found ourselves in a cramped hallway, where someone had pinned a shark's jawbone to the inner wall. Luna reached out to touch one of the teeth and I tugged her back.

Saffy nodded at it. "Is that from a great white?"

"Porbeagle shark," the woman-Isla-said with a tilt of her chin. "We don't get great whites. Porbeagles are just as big, mind, and every bit as dangerous."

"I don't like sharks, Mummy," Clover whispered.

"We have a basking shark that tends to hang around the bay," Isla said. She glanced down at Luna, who threw me a panicked look. "You'll be fine with a basking shark. No teeth, you see. Basil, he's called."

"Is this where we'll be staying?" Saffy asked warily, eyeing the shark jaw.

"It is indeed," Isla said. She turned to the girls. "I'm Isla Kissick, and it's absolutely thrilling to meet all of you. But I'm afraid I only know your mummy's name. Why don't you tell me your names?"

"I'm Luna," Luna said. "I'm nine."

"Luna," Isla said. "What a lovely name."

"It means 'moon,'" Luna said, a little shy.

"Mine's Clover," Clover said, elbowing Luna out of the way. "I'm seven and a half and my name means clover, like the plant."

"Also a lovely name," Isla said. "And I bet you already know that clovers are meant to bring good luck?"

Clover nodded. "Mm-hmm. But my mummy said you make your own luck."

"Very wise," Isla said, glancing at me approvingly. She turned to Saffy, who flushed red.

"And who might this lovely one be?" Isla said.

"Sapphire," Saffy mumbled to the floor. "I'm fifteen."

"Well now, that's lovely," Isla said. "My daughter, Rowan, is fifteen. I'm sure you'll meet soon enough. Now, come and sit down. I've made you all some supper."

I nodded at the girls to leave their bin bags in the hall before following Isla to a kitchen at the back, where the smell of freshly baked bread and tomato soup made my mouth water.

I'd supposed that Isla was Mr. Roberts' partner, but she turned out to be his housekeeper. She was short and lithe with long copper hair neatly pinned up, and her quick, round eyes searched all of us up and down. She had a beautiful Scottish brogue and spoke fast, as though the words were too hot to hold in her mouth for long. She was smartly turned out-a crisp white shirt, gray check trousers, polished ankle boots. The bothy was incongruously old-fashioned. I would learn that L˜n Haven, its inhabitants included, was full of skewed time spheres. The absence of modern retail chains and its breathtakingly rugged landscapes made the place feel like you'd stepped back in time, perhaps to the very beginnings of the earth. The lighthouse itself was built upon an ancient Scottish broch that was built upon a Neolithic fort, which in turn was built upon late Jurassic rock, like an architectural babushka doll.

"There you go," Isla said, placing bowls of steaming hot soup before each of us. I apologized again for the mix-up about our arrival. I'd planned to begin the commission a few weeks from now but decided to head north on the spur of the moment. Or the middle of the night, to be exact. We'd driven the whole way from York to Cromarty, only to find that the ferry was canceled for the day on account of high winds. The girls and I had to endure a very cold and uncomfortable night at a rest stop, sleeping in the car.

"It's no trouble," Isla said. "Mr. Roberts is away, of course, but I'm to take care of everything until he returns."

"Are we sleeping in the car again?" Clover said, wiping her mouth on the back of her sleeve.

"In the car?" Isla repeated, looking to me for explanation.

"I'm sure there are plenty of beds for all of us," I said quickly, and this time I was the one to look to Isla for confirmation. I didn't want to mention that we'd had to sleep rough.

"Of course there are," she said. "Shall I give you the grand tour?"

We followed Isla to the living room at the front of the house, overlooking the garden.

"Now, you'll have noticed it's a bit chilly on the island. So you're not to worry if you need to turn the heater on." She nodded at the wood-burning stove. "You'll find a shed at the side of the bothy stocked with wood. And I've put plenty of blankets in the cupboards for you to get cozy in the evenings. Which reminds me. Sometimes the electricity goes off. Nothing to worry about. You know how to manage an oil lantern?"

I followed her gaze to an old-fashioned oil lamp in the windowsill, which I'd assumed was for decoration. I caught Isla rolling her eyes as it became clear that no, I didn't know how to manage an oil lantern.

"I'll be sure to leave instructions," she said with a tight smile.

"Does Mr. Roberts live here?" Saffy asked.

"This is one of his properties," Isla said. "But no, he doesn't live here. His main residence is north of here, twenty minutes or so by car."

"Will you tell him I've arrived?" I asked.

"Well, I'd love to," Isla said brusquely, "but he's at sea just now."

"Aye, for all he has a half dozen houses dotted about the place, he prefers to be out on his boat."

"I have a boat," Clover offered.

Isla lifted an eyebrow. "Do ye, now?"

"It's green with a purple chimney and I play with it in the bath."

"Well, Mr. Roberts' boat is a wee bit bigger than that, I'd wager," Isla said, chuckling. "He tends to sail to Shetland at this time of year."

"He's a pirate, then?" Clover said, astonished.

Isla bent down to Clover's eye level. "No. But I reckon he'd be a good 'un."

"Do you come from Shetland?" Clover asked, running her fingertips along the stubbly wood-chip wallpaper. Wood chip was her favorite texture.

"No," Isla said. "I come from L˜n Haven. Where d'you come from?"

"My mummy's vagina," Clover said.

I watched Isla's face drop. "Girls, go have a look at your bedrooms," I said, ushering Clover quickly away. "Do you know when I'm to discuss the commission with Mr. Roberts?"

"He said to give you this." Isla reached into her trouser pocket and pulled out a piece of folded paper. I opened it up to find an elaborate and highly abstract sketch, a diagram of sorts. Lots of lines and arrows and circles, like a zodiac.

"What is it?" I said, turning the page to the side. There was no indication which way the sketch was meant to be viewed.

"It's the mural," Isla said flatly. "The thing you're painting inside the Longing."

I stared at her, wondering if I'd misheard. "This? This is the mural?"

She cocked her head. "Is something the matter?"

"No, no . . ." I said, though I didn't sound convincing, not even to my own ears. "I suppose I thought there might be more to it than this. Written instructions, perhaps."

"That's all Mr. Roberts has given me. He said I'm to fetch whatever equipment you need to do the job. So perhaps you can write me a list of whatever you require and I'll get onto it in the morning."

Still dumbfounded by the sketch, I said I would, but that I'd need to see inside the Longing first.

"Ah, now that would be an idea," she said, straightening a lampshade. "How about I show you just now?"

Outside, harsh winds buffeted us on the rocks, and I saw movement on the far reaches of the island. Seals, Isla told us. I was astonished at how close they were to the bothy, but she told me they were shy creatures, despite their size. They'd not bother us. I watched them slip off the stones into the black water, their shape in the dark almost human.

"Rowan wood," she said. "It's for protection."

I had no idea what she meant, but I stepped back as she tried to leverage the door open. Finally, it shifted. I lifted Clover onto my hip and held Luna's hand tight as we followed Isla inside.

"Bloody hell," Saffy said, looking around. "This place is rank."

I shushed her, but couldn't help agreeing internally.

I'd never been inside a lighthouse before. I'd expected floor levels, an enclosed staircase. The Longing, however, was a grim, granite cone. A rickety staircase was pinned loosely against the wall, spiraling Hitchcock-style to the lantern room at the very top. The place reeked of damp and rotting fish. I wondered why we were standing in an inch of black liquid, until Isla explained that one of the lower windows was broken, and over time seawater had poured inside and pooled on the floor.

"I gather you'll need something to pump it out before you start," she said.

"Mr. Roberts is turning it into a writing studio, is that right?" I asked, and Isla nodded.

"He's not published," she added. "Just a hobby. I wouldn't be expecting him to produce The Iliad or anything like that. He bought it last year and didn't seem to know what to do with it. Next thing I know, he's asking me about getting a painter in to prettify it, make it into a writing studio." She gave a shrill laugh. "Whoever heard of such a thing? Surely all you need to write is a pen and paper."

"Maybe the views will inspire him," I offered.

"Aye. Inspire him to go off sailing, more like."

"It's a hundred and forty-nine feet tall," Isla said, swinging her torchlight to the very top. "A hundred and thirty-eight steps to the lantern room. Braw views up there. I can show you when it's light." Her torchlight rested on patches of paint that had crumbled off, revealing raw stone. About halfway up someone had graffitied a section of the wall in garish shades of lime green and black.

"There was a break-in," Isla said darkly. "Outsiders, you see. We get them here a lot more now, since the rental properties on the east side opened up. And the Neolithic museum, that's new. You should take your girls."

Isla reassured us that break-ins like this were rare, that tourists-or "outsiders"-didn't frequent the place often. L˜n Haven's population was predominantly grassroots, with sixty or so archaeologists from "the University" working at the Neolithic sites. Some of the younger population had inherited crofts that they didn't want to live in, so they'd started renting them out. The older population objected strongly both to the younger islanders moving away ("All of them want to live in Edinburgh or London," Isla recalled with a sneer) and, as a result, drawing "outsiders" to the island to rent out the crofts.

"Has the lighthouse ever been submerged?" I asked. I could hear wind pummeling the stone walls, the loud suck and slap of the waves close by.

"We get our fair share of storms," Isla said, and I could tell she was choosing her words carefully so as not to put me off. "But the Longing has been standing for a hundred years amidst all that Mother Nature and the sea gods have to throw at her, and I daresay she'll stand a hundred more." A pause. "So long as you keep rowan on the door, you'll be fine."

It was as she said this that I felt a wave of dŽjˆ vu pass over me. Saffy, Luna, and Isla were beginning to head toward the door to leave, but the feeling of familiarity was so strong that I paused, as though someone had spoken and I was trying to understand what they'd said.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berkley (October 5, 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 059333423X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593334232
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 1.1 x 8 inches
#106 in Witch & Wizard Thrillers
#688 in Sisters Fiction
#733 in Mothers & Children Fiction

About the author

Customer reviews

5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 49% 33% 14% 2% 1% 49%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 49% 33% 14% 2% 1% 33%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 49% 33% 14% 2% 1% 14%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 49% 33% 14% 2% 1% 2%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 49% 33% 14% 2% 1% 1%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

Customers say

Customers find the story fascinating, brilliant, and interesting. They also appreciate the well-developed characters and the readability. Readers praise the writing style as excellent and well-told. They mention the book does a good job of humanizing the victims.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the story fascinating, brilliant, and interesting. They say the plot is well-developed and the book is a great thriller. Readers also enjoy the blend of history and supernatural.

"...I thought it was a lot of fun ." Read more

"...With quite the odd plot, I couldn't put it down and loved every page for it's suspense , creativity, and fine writing...." Read more

"...A brilliant read filled with intrigue , history, fact mixed with myth and legend, with a satisfying side-portion of thriller, mystery and gothic...." Read more

"...The author has a nice writing voice and created an interesting atmosphere and, for the most part, created some characters about whom I did care..." Read more

Customers find the characters well-developed. They also say the plot is interesting, albeit a bit slow.

"...The characters in this book are diverse in personality and easy to root for...." Read more

"...The characters are likeable , loveable actually, and they combine effortlessly with the Scottish legends that keep a grip on the present in small..." Read more

"The characters are well developed , and the plot is interesting, albeit a bit slow to develop...." Read more

"Excellent writing, plot, characters and a warm tribute to the many thousands (if not more) of women who were executed for little other than being..." Read more

Customers find the book easy to read. They say it transitions between time periods nicely.

"...It flowed from one time period to another and did it quite nicely ...." Read more

"I was desperately looking for a Halloween read and this book was perfect . I loved the authors style of writing. The story had many twists and turns...." Read more

" Great read ! Highly recommend!..." Read more

" good read ...ending was a little "convenient"..." Read more

Customers find the writing style excellent, riveting, and well-told.

"...put it down and loved every page for it's suspense, creativity, and fine writing . This novel was a breathe of fresh air for something very different!" Read more

" Excellent writing , plot, characters and a warm tribute to the many thousands (if not more) of women who were executed for little other than being..." Read more

"...I loved the authors style of writing . The story had many twists and turns. Riveting and well told." Read more

Customers find the emotional content of the book good. They say it does a good job of humanizing the victims of ignorance.

"...this book on the way to Salem, because it does a really good job of humanizing the victims of all the ignorance and paranoia of the time...." Read more

"...There were several scenes of good tension, lots of good emotion , and I was curious about what it all meant...." Read more

"...I am not easy to impress. This book kept me guessing throughout, at times emotional , other times scared or creeped out, other times just relating to..." Read more

Customers find the pacing of the book to be slow.

"...are well developed, and the plot is interesting, albeit a bit slow to develop ...." Read more

"...Definitely kept you guessing but parts of the book were kinda slow not what I was expecting. Overall it was a good story ." Read more

"The 3 or 4 pages at the end of the book seemed a bit rushed , totally unnecessary. Otherwise it was a good story. It was a creative storyline...." Read more

Reviews with images

Very interesting story

Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

About Amazon
Investor Relations
Amazon Devices
Amazon Science
Sell products on Amazon
Sell on Amazon Business
Sell apps on Amazon
Become an Affiliate
Advertise Your Products
Self-Publish with Us
Host an Amazon Hub
› See More Make Money with Us
Amazon Business Card
Shop with Points
Reload Your Balance
Amazon Currency Converter
Amazon and COVID-19
Your Account
Your Orders
Shipping Rates & Policies
Returns & Replacements
Manage Your Content and Devices

Conditions of Use
Privacy Notice
Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
Your Ads Privacy Choices

AfterTheLastPage

The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke–ATLP Book Review

Outlander Vibes
Missing Children
Recommended by Simone St. James and Alice Feeney

The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke is a unique horror novel that follows twenty-two year old, Luna. Luna is living in England, in a place that she shares with her recently separated partner. They’re expecting a child and her partner is ready to settle down, but Luna can’t quite seem to get over her past.

When Luna was young, her mother, Liv, and her two sisters, Clover, and Sapphire, moved to a small Scottish Island for a few months while Liv was commissioned to paint a mural in a lighthouse. What was supposed to be an escape (after a family death) turned into a nightmare. Liv believes the lighthouse is haunted by the history of the women that were imprisoned below it, the daughters go missing, and strange children seem to haunt the property. Locals warn the family about wildlings, supernatural beings that mimic human children, but Liv has a hard time believing that children could be so sinister.

Years later, Luna has yet to solve the mystery of what happened to her family–That is, until she gets a phone call that her youngest sister, Clover, has been found. She’s ecstatic, until she actually sees Clover and discovers that Clover is still seven years old–the same age she was when she vanished. In The Lighthouse Witches , Luna will have to confront her past to rediscover the mystery of the wildlings, her few memories from the island, and the truth of what really happened to her family.

What I Liked

LOVED the Scottish setting. Lon Haven is actually a place C.J. Cooke made up, but it feels so real. Cooke did a fantastic job with the elements of the setting for this one.
Luna’s character was so realistic. As someone who is close to Luna’s age, I think I would have reacted very similarly.
The ending was somewhat predictable, but Liv’s place in the story is not. If you haven’t read this one yet, keep your eye on her!

What I Didn’t Like

The ending was pretty easy to guess from about a quarter of the way in (at least for me)
The book wasn’t quite as scary as I would have liked!
I think this book had the perfect opportunity for some 1998 nostalgia and there wasn’t as many cultural references as there could have been
The change of perspective changing the tense was very weird for me.

Oooh, guys I really loved this one.

It’s no secret that I’ve been loving Horror novels lately and The Lighthouse Witches was just IT for me. This book blends the past with the present and then sprinkles a little history into it, too. We’ve got lighthouses, witches, missing children, ghosts, and some very sus neighborhood characters—i.e. all the elements to create the perfect horror blend. Then, there’s the Scottish Island setting, too, which just adds that extra level of creepy that this book needed *chefs kiss.*

This is the first book I have ever picked up by C.J. Cooke and I’m glad that I did. In fact, after reading this book, I searched the entire internet to find her latest book, The Ghost Woods (newsflash, you have to order it from the UK. So far Book Depository is the only place I’ve been able to find it) and I’m patiently chewing my fingernails waiting for my mailman to drop it off.

There were a lot of things I loved about this book, but I think my favorite aspect of The Lighthouse Witches was how easy it was for me to connect with Luna. Right off the bat, I was drawn in by C.J. Cooke’s writing and I absolutely loved the passages where Luna tries to figure out what to do with Clover–I felt like it was so indicative of what a normal person would do in that situation. I didn’t necessarily connect with Sapphire or Liv’s passages as much as Luna’s, but having their perspectives did add an element that this story needed.

I breezed through this book and I do think that there are some things that I would have liked to see more of (which is why I didn’t rate this a full four stars). I think there were a few elements that felt too thrown together–for example, I think the aspects of Patrick and Liv’s story, Finn and Liv’s story, then Sapphire’s love triangle, then also the wildlings and the neighborhood watch ladies thing—it was all a bit much when you think about it. I’m not sure the story needed all the different elements, especially when Cooke gives us so many clues to the book’s ending early on. We don’t necessarily need these extra threads, though I’m sure it does add an extra level of entertainment to the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and it might be one of my favorites I’ve read this year. It was completely unexpected but in a way I absolutely loved, so I highly recommend picking up a copy if you enjoy this genre. Plus, it took like the rights to it have just been picked up, so it might be made into a tv adaptation soon!!

If you’d like more bookish content from After The Last Page, be sure to subscribe below to our email list for regular updates on new posts (don’t worry, we’ll only email you when a new post releases!) And, as always, don’t forget to check out my Book Reviews page where I give you my unbiased opinions on the books I loved and the book I didn’t (oops!).

Type your email…

Discover more from AfterTheLastPage

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Good Books & Good Wine

Privacy Policy
2012 Books Read
Reviews by Series
Reviews by Author
Reviews by Title
Reviews By Title
Reviews By Series
Reviews By Rating
Reviews By Publisher
Reviews by Narrator
Audiobook Reviews

The Lighthouse Witches by CJ Cooke | Book Review

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A Most Anticipated Novel by Pop Sugar * Book Riot * Betches * Bustle * and more! Utterly spellbinding....Witchcraft meets thriller. -- Pop Sugar Two sisters go missing on a remote Scottish island. Twenty years later, one is found--but she's still the same age as when she disappeared. The secrets of witches have reached across the centuries in this chilling Gothic thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Nesting . When single mother Liv is commissioned to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island, it's an opportunity to start over with her three daughters--Luna, Sapphire, and Clover. When two of her daughters go missing, she's frantic. She learns that the cave beneath the lighthouse was once a prison for women accused of witchcraft. The locals warn her about wildlings, supernatural beings who mimic human children, created by witches for revenge. Liv is told wildlings are dangerous and must be killed. Twenty-two years later, Luna has been searching for her missing sisters and mother. When she receives a call about her youngest sister, Clover, she's initially ecstatic. Clover is the sister she remembers--except she's still seven years old, the age she was when she vanished. Luna is worried Clover is a wildling. Luna has few memories of her time on the island, but she'll have to return to find the truth of what happened to her family. But she doesn't realize just how much the truth will change her.

The Lighthouse Witches by CJ Cooke hit my radar simply because witches was in the title. Also, the cover is so bold with the yellow-green colors. I had been in the mood for a mysterious, atmospheric read and particularly a book about witches . So, I eagerly dove into this book from Netgalley. Turns out it took me what felt like forever to get into and through.

It is a little bit hard for me to explain the plot of The Lighthouse Witches because there is a lot going on. There are three different timelines in this book. We have Luna’s timeline set in 2021. We have Liv and Saffy’s timeline set in 1998. Then we have Patrick’s timeline set in the late 1600s. Set on the island of Lon Haven in Scotland, this book follows all three timelines and a curse. You see at one point Luna’s sisters Clover and Sapphire “Saffy” disappeared, along with her mother Liv. But then 20 years later, Clover shows back up but at the same age she was when she disappeared 20 years ago. Luna isn’t quite sure what’s happened.

Meanwhile, in Liv’s timeline, she has been hired to paint a weird mural in the lighthouse on Lon Haven. In Patrick’s timeline, the witches are rounded up and burned. They curse Lon Haven. Legend has it that there are these creatures called wildlings who look exactly like the disappeared children. You have to kill the wildling or they will destroy your entire bloodline. So, things are a little bit intense in The Lighthouse Witches .

This book just was not it for me. I felt like it took too long for me to get into it and gel with the plot. It feels very meandering and slow. I also thought there was just too much going on. So, I would have appreciated a focus on one timeline. The ending was neat. However, it was too little too late. The threads came together really well but I did not care for the build up. I believe that this book should work for more patient people or people who actually sleep at night and can concentrate. For me, it is on to the next one.

Latest Posts

April (Books&Wine)

Latest posts by april (books&wine) ( see all ).

A Few Adult Fiction Books I Quite Enjoyed - August 29, 2024
Play Dirty by Lora Leigh | DNF Review - August 24, 2024
You Need To Read These 4 Diverse YA Books - August 16, 2024

Be In The Know When It Comes To Books

Enter your email address to subscribe to Good Books And Good Wine and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address

Return to top of page

Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches

This book must be in high demand since it currently has a 14 day max checkout at my library!!

For me this book was an interesting mystery that utilized folklore to create atmosphere and intrigue. I was unaware that so many women were murdered as ‘witches’ in Scotland so I found the ‘history’ parts of this novel very interesting. I also enjoyed delving into the creatures of folklore from both the Scottish and Icelandic traditions, as I am unfamiliar with both.

The story revolves around a mother, her three daughters, and their time spent on a Scottish island from which three of the four ‘disappear.’ The traditional beliefs/superstitions of the islanders provide explanations for the disappearances but also lead to further deaths and disappearances. When the non-missing daughter is informed (as an adult) that one of her sisters has been found she returns to the island to attempt to find her missing mother and other missing sister. The strange part is that the sister who was found is still a child, and it’s been over 20yrs since she went missing!!

This story provides a number of twists and turns and I admit that there were times when I thought the traditional superstitions had to be correct interpretations of the strange happenings on the island. I was certainly pulled into the narrative, the lives and emotions of the characters, and the rich fabric of Scottish folklore and legend. This was a really fun and intriguing read!

Read on my friends!

TheBookWar.com encourages you to support local, small, independent bookstores whenever possible. If you are interested in supporting our small business blog, please consider using one of our affiliate links as the commissions we earn are used to maintain TheBookWar.com.

This page contains affiliate links which means, if you click on the link and purchase the item, The Book War may receive a commission at no cost to you, which will then be used to maintain this blog.

#thebookwar #bookstagram #bookblog #booklover #bookrecommendations #bibliophile #bookreview #mystery #mysterybooks

The Book War

We don’t spam

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

COMMENTS

Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke
I think my favourite part of this book was the author's ability to keep me guessing, and the general atmosphere of unease she so cunningly crafts. This is my first book by C.J. Cooke, but it most certainly will not be my last! Book review and summary of The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke, published by HarperCollins Canada in 2021.
Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke
Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke. July 19, 2024 Charlotte. When single mother Liv is commissioned to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island, it's an opportunity to start over with her three daughters-Luna, Sapphire, and Clover. When two of her daughters go missing, she's frantic.
Book Review
The Lighthouse Witches is a mythological mystery that blends wildlings folklore, the witch trials, missing family and the power of time. The story is presented in three timelines with different POVs, but the short chapters and clear headings made it easy to read.
Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches
The Lighthouse Witches is a blend of several genres: Gothic, paranormal, and mystery. At the outset, Cooke expertly sets the eerie, evocative scene: a decommissioned lighthouse called the Longing on the Scottish island of Lon Haven. ... I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions ...
The Lighthouse Witches Book Review
Genre: Gothic Thriller. US Publication: October 5, 2021. Print: 368 pages. Audio: 10 hours 13 minutes. Confetti Rating: 4.5 stars. REVIEW: You: Hey Regina, you seem to read a lot of books. I'm in the mood for a story about witches. I need a page-turner that gives me all the right vibes for October seasonal reading.
The Lighthouse Witches by C J Cooke
The lighthouse is in a dilapidated condition and has a history of witch huntings attached to it, as too have other parts of the island. It's clearly somewhere with a strange unwelcoming vibe. The author has seamlessly woven a story between the past and the present involving witch's curses, wildlings, superstition and folklore that has kept ...
Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J Cooke
October 7, 2021October 6, 2021 kakenzieblog. I am so excited to share my review for The Lighthouse Witches by C.J Cooke on the run up to Halloween. I adore books seeped in the history of witches and this book promised just that and with a dark, menacing but beautiful cover, I just had to read. Scroll down to see if it met my expectations.
A Review of C. J. Cooke's "The Lighthouse Witches"
The background use of runes and animal bones make the novel also seem wistfully magical. The witches' storyline is enthralling and captivating. So, there are things about this book that make it worthy of examination. However, The Lighthouse Witches has some issues. For one thing, the segments set in the 1600s are written in a 21st-century ...
Review: The Lighthouse Witches
Where The Lighthouse Witches has all the ingredients to make for my perfect Halloween-read, and mixes them together in its cauldron to become even more than the sum of its parts. Told in three timelines (the witch-hunt of 1662 that started it all, the vanishings of 1998, and "return" of 2021), this story sucked me into its mystery, its atmospheric setting and its Gothic imagery from page ...
Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches
The Lighthouse Witches is a complicated tale that Cooke pulls off smoothly and effortlessly. With multiple points-of-view and timelines, the story is grounded by her characters. Liv, hiding an enormous secret from her daughters, tries to give them a normal life even though she doesn't know where they'll live when her commission ends.
Blog Tour & Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke
The secrets of witches have reached across the centuries in this chilling Gothic thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Nesting. When single mother Liv is commissioned to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island, it's an opportunity to start over with her three daughters-Luna, Sapphire, and Clover.
Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke
Basically, there are narratives from three timelines that make up The Lighthouse Witches—the one in 1998 told from Olivia and Sapphire's POVs, the one in 2021 from Luna's POV, and the last one told through diary entries from the old book, which I won't comment on any further in case of spoilers. As you can imagine, all that jumping ...
The Lighthouse Witches By C. J. Cooke (Review by Stacie Kitchen)
Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐ The Lighthouse Witches is a good part spooky mystery, historical fiction, and fantasy. When Liv gets a commission to paint a mural in […]
Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches
The Lighthouse is an incredibly impressive book. It seamlessly weaves together a number of different storylines - we follow Liv in 1998 during their time on the island, Luna in the present-day as she attempts to discover the truth about what happened to her family and the grimoire of a witch living on the island hundreds of years ago.
The Lighthouse Witches Review
I loved The Lighthouse Witches in the beginning. It was full of folklore and mystery. The witch aspect was strong, and the timeline to the past was amazing. But parts of the plot were questionable. Clover is found twenty years later, and is still seven, and no one questions it. The hospital and police act as if everything is normal.
The Lighthouse Witches by C. J. Cooke
Of which The Lighthouse Witches is one. A tantalising Gothic mystery, yes there are equal parts lighthouse and witches in the story - both things that appeal to me and can really work to create an evocative story, as they did here. Opening sentence: They bind our feet and ankles, tear off our clothes and douse us with alcohol.
The Lighthouse Witches by C. J. Cooke: 9780593334232
About The Lighthouse Witches. A Most Anticipated Novel by Pop Sugar * Book Riot * Betches * Bustle * and more! "Utterly spellbinding….Witchcraft meets thriller."—Pop Sugar Two sisters go missing on a remote Scottish island. Twenty years later, one is found-but she's still the same age as when she disappeared.
The Lighthouse Witches: The perfect haunting gothic thriller you won't
Buy The Lighthouse Witches: The perfect haunting gothic thriller you won't be able to put down by Cooke, C.J. from Amazon's Fiction Books Store. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction. ... AI-generated from the text of customer reviews. Select to learn more. Plot Readability Writing style Atmosphere Darkness ...
Amazon.com: The Lighthouse Witches: 9780593334232: Cooke, C. J.: Books
Publishers Weekly (starred review) "An original and haunting thriller, filled with secrets, ghosts, and Norse folk tales. The Nesting is an evocative and chilling tale that will keep you guessing, and is best read with the lights on."—Alice Feeney, New York Times bestselling author of Sometimes I Lie "A gorgeous, atmospheric book that ...
The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke-ATLP Book Review
SYNOPSIS. The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke is a unique horror novel that follows twenty-two year old, Luna. Luna is living in England, in a place that she shares with her recently separated partner. They're expecting a child and her partner is ready to settle down, but Luna can't quite seem to get over her past.
The Lighthouse Witches by CJ Cooke
I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. The Lighthouse Witches by C. J. Cooke Published by Penguin Publishing Group on November 5, 2021 Genres: Fiction / Horror, Fiction / Thrillers / Supernatural, Fiction / Women Pages: 368 Format: eARC
Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches
Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches. Posted on April 28, 2022 May 4, 2022 By Hadassah Bergstrom Posted in Mystery, Reviews Tagged fiction, Mystery, women (4 / 5) The Lighthouse Witches - C.J. Cooke This book must be in high demand since it currently has a 14 day max checkout at my library!! ...

Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke

Share this:

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Book Review | The Lighthouse Witches by CJ Cooke

You May Also Like

Blog Tour: We Wait by Megan Taylor

Book Spotlight: Crossroads by Laurel Hightower

Blog Tour: Road To Mercy by T.J. Brearton

Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches

Excerpt from The Lighthouse Witches

Excerpted from The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke. Copyright © 2021 by C.J. Cooke. Excerpted by permission of Berkley Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Book Review: In Another Light

Book Review: The Other Passenger

The Lighthouse Witches by C J Cooke | Book Review | #TheLighthouseWitches

Thank you for reading 🙂

2 thoughts on “The Lighthouse Witches by C J Cooke | Book Review | #TheLighthouseWitches”

I do love to read any comments 😊 Cancel reply

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Are you searching for something?

karendenise023

Karen's bookshelf: read

2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge

NETGALLEY BADGES

Recent Posts

PINTEREST: BOOK BLOG TOURS

Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J Cooke

Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J Cooke

My Thoughts

Would I recommend?

Author Biography

Share this:

Published by kakenzieblog

2 thoughts on “Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J Cooke”

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Review: The Lighthouse Witches - C.J. Cooke

Recent Posts

THE STORY OF A REDHEAD AND HER BOOKS

Chick Lit Central

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

No comments:

The BiblioSanctum

Share this:

18 Comments on “Book Review: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke”

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Popular Posts

Posts by...

Tiara is Currently Reading

The Lighthouse Witches By C. J. Cooke (Review by Stacie Kitchen)

The Bibliophile Chronicles

Share this:

Leave a comment Cancel reply

The Lighthouse Witches Review

My Thoughts on The Lighthouse Witches

Share this:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Published by Wildwood Reads

Discover more from Wildwood Reads

Books on the 7:47

Liv goes to Lon Haven

Luna’s search for the lighthouse witches

The Grimoire of Patrick Roberts

Share this:

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Select your cookie preferences

Sorry, there was a problem.

Image Unavailable

Follow the author

The Lighthouse Witches: The perfect haunting gothic thriller you won’t be able to put down Paperback – 15 Sept. 2022

From the Publisher

Product description

Book Description

From the Back Cover

Product details

About the author

Customer reviews

Customers say

Reviews with images

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Top reviews from other countries

Sorry, there was a problem.