About the book:
Young love means everything... until it leaves you with nothing.
The summer before her senior year of high school, Laney Jacobs and her best friend jump from a six-story beachside cliff in an attempt to impress their boyfriends. Laney rose from the water. Her friend did not.
Six years later, when Laney’s troubled mother’s memoir hits the bestseller list airing the family’s destructive secrets, Laney is forced to relive the trauma, this time in the public eye. To escape the scrutiny, she seeks shelter at her estranged grandmother’s seaside inn. But she can’t reconcile the loving woman with the heartless parent in her mother’s book. As she looks for answers, the ex-boyfriend who’d witnessed her darkest days reappears, stirring up both pain and hope.
When her mother's vindictive fans threaten her grandmother's livelihood and the lighthouse Laney has come to love, she turns to the century-old words of a young lighthouse keeper to help her find the courage to move forward. But once truths from the past come to light and old love finds new beginnings, will Laney discover that forgiveness is the only way toward true healing?
The summer before her senior year of high school, Laney Jacobs and her best friend jump from a six-story beachside cliff in an attempt to impress their boyfriends. Laney rose from the water. Her friend did not.
Six years later, when Laney’s troubled mother’s memoir hits the bestseller list airing the family’s destructive secrets, Laney is forced to relive the trauma, this time in the public eye. To escape the scrutiny, she seeks shelter at her estranged grandmother’s seaside inn. But she can’t reconcile the loving woman with the heartless parent in her mother’s book. As she looks for answers, the ex-boyfriend who’d witnessed her darkest days reappears, stirring up both pain and hope.
When her mother's vindictive fans threaten her grandmother's livelihood and the lighthouse Laney has come to love, she turns to the century-old words of a young lighthouse keeper to help her find the courage to move forward. But once truths from the past come to light and old love finds new beginnings, will Laney discover that forgiveness is the only way toward true healing?
My review:
This was a fascinating story about a girl just trying to survive the grief and guilt of losing her best friend and feeling like it was her fault. I really felt for her and how one choice changed her life so drastically. Then you compound that by her mom writing a tell-all book when she's made her life hard enough growing up as it was. It was interesting to see Laney forge a new path and decide to get to know her estranged grandmother. She was actually a very brave and strong person to move across the country to see a woman she'd never even met. She was also very real because of her struggles and learned to view everything differently as the book went on. I liked how old and new friends, an old journal and the faith of her grandmother and the woman in the journal wove together to draw her closer to God and to healing. There was some romance and a lot of forgiveness! The dual storyline was also interesting as we see what it was like for a lighthouse keeper around the 1850s and a teenage one at that! I highly recommend this satisfying emotional journey!
I received a free copy of this book from the author. I was not compensated for this review. All opinions are my own.
