A beautiful and endearing tale of an elderly couple who live in a house that started life as a boat, and how they find a way to embrace life after a lifetime of being weighed down by tragedy. An enthralling tale, reminiscent of The life of Pi, that is hard to put down until the end.
Highly recommended.

There is so much to love with this book. It’s an adventure, a look at the human spirit and soul, but at the centre is an old couple and their home floating into the sea which was symbolic for so many things.

" A home isn't built with walls or determined by where we are, a home is built from our experiences , from the people we meet along the way , and, more than anything, from how we decide to journey through life . Life is a movement. A precarious equilibrium that can change in an instant."


The book reads lyrically and emotionally and it’s quite a journey. The idea of Mr and Mrs Grape living in a little yellow house on the cliffs of Brent island fascinated me and when their house goes into the sea,, the adventure starts and I was swept along with them.

It’s magical when reading it and it does pull at the heartstrings! It’s fantastical in places and the characters play the leading roles in the book. Its all about them, they carry the story and more. Then there’s the metaphors of the sea, the emotional turmoil of life, the ups and downs, the journey of a couple quite literarlaly ‘at sea’ in their lives and wait until they find land and have a life or death situation to deal with.

This novel can be read in many ways I think as it brings up a whole host of ways of looking at yourself, at your life, the direction its going in etc and a way to see what moves and motivates you too.

The translator has done a fantastic job as it reads lyrically as Spanish often does so this makes me want to go and buy the original now.

A novel about dreams and hope and everything in between. Loved it.

Fantastic cover. And this book is one that proves the old saying "don't judge the book by its cover" wrong. So wrong.

Because the story is simply magical and captivating and will open a whole new perspective on the world after reading it.

And the best part is that Mr Reina has managed to make it feel so realistic. What would it feel like to be washed away in the sea...IN YOUR HOUSE? Amazing.

I highly recommend this book to everyone who likes lyrical general fiction with a message.

Thank you AmazonCrossing for translating this book and providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Miguel Reina crafted an exciting, action-packed tale that guided me on a remarkable adventure. It was a roller coaster ride from summits of jubilation to the deepest, darkest pits of despair and everything else thrown in between. Special recognition is given to Catherine Nelson for the fantastic job of translating this script from Spanish into well-written English.

The two leading characters were exceptionally well-drawn. The scenes took off with a
maddening intensity that failed to yield. Many fascinating twists and turns made for a riveting storyline. A piece of my heart was torn out in the process of a gut-wrenching ending. This novel comes highly recommended.

Retired couple Harold and Mary Rose Grapes lived in a house that was precariously perched on a cliff above the raging ocean, the highest point of Brent Island. They were far removed from other members of the small community. It was just the way they preferred it.

For the past 35 years, the couple had been consumed with grief over the loss of their eight-year-old son, Dylan. Mary Rose had unrelenting contempt for her husband Harold and blamed him for their son's death. Mary Rose had no means for letting it go, no room for forgiveness. The couple mostly kept to themselves locked away in their faraway home.

On one stormy night a storm of epic proportion whipped the tiny island and snapped the guy wires that secured their lonely home to the cliff. While they slept peacefully, their home slipped down into the open jaws of the waiting sea. Miraculously, it didn't sink. So began their journey toward open-water.

They spent weeks adrift in the unforgiving ocean. It was quite a sight. What kept the house afloat was attributed to the voluminous foundation of lava under the house that was porous and acted like a raft, truly phenomenal.

Their torturous journey through frigid weather conditions was fraught with many overwhelming challenges, their most perilous being their head-on collision with a towering iceberg. Each day they thought would be their last.

After what seemed like an eternity of being drawn by the currents of the merciless sea, they spotted land. Where they were, they hadn't the faintest idea. By this time, the remaining meager rations of water and food were all but depleted.

Smoke was spotted coming from behind a soaring mountain on the snow-covered plain. After making contact with the icy shelf, they were faced with a monumental decision. They could either stay in the house and die of certain famine or go out into the wilderness in search of the source of the smoke.

Teetering on the brink of predictable death, the stranded survivors knew they had to put their lives in great peril and leave the temporary sanctuary of their home. In their weakened state, they had no idea what lied just behind the mountain. It was do or die.

I offer my gratitude to NetGalley and AmazonCrossing for this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Guyyyys. This book was ummm...interesting. So, basically, if I were to describe this book in a nutshell to my friends it would go like this:
"These old people get evicted from their home by the mayor and have to go live in a retirement home. They don't want to go, something about a past tragedy. The night before they are to move, their house is hit by a major storm (oh yeah, its on a cliff), and falls off into the sea. Then it floats. There is a flooding problem in the BASEMENT BECAUSE THIS IS NOT A BOAT IT IS A HOUSE and they continue to live on it. Meanwhile, all you hear about are the creaking bones of these old people and their random ailments as they sail around in their boat that AGAIN, IS A HOUSE. It is really cold because it might be winter, but no one really knows since the author doesn't give us great time frames. Then they float through AN ICEBERG BECAUSE THAT IS REAL and find a nomadic tribe of people. We learn about their tragedy which is mirrored in the tribe and then we roll our eyes at the ending as THEY SAIL AWAY IN THEIR HOUSE."

This book was not for me, but I can see how people that love non-realistic fiction would love it. I appreciated the authors imagination and the book definitely translated well - it really just wasn't what I expected!

Thanks Netgalley for this copy in exchange of an honest review.
Harold Grapes and Mary Rose are old couples living in San Remo mourning for their son's loss since thirty five years. This story is their unexpected voyage which showed them the value of life. It is a so powerful novel with so much heart-throbing situations, shows us the level of understanding towards human emotions and power of forgiveness.

I was completely enthralled with this story. Once I had started, I couldn't stop reading! I was so in love with Mr. and Mrs. Grapes that I didn't want the story to end, even though my breath caught numerous times in anticipation as to what would happen next. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to everyone!

"lights of the Sea" by Miquel Reina is truly unusual book.
Can we imagine the elderly couple living on the edge of the cliff high above the ocean? ,That large ocean that eroded their cliff from large property to a few feet of land around the house, the same fierce ocean that took a life of their son, the same mysterious ocean that send a couple to their impossible journey had awaken them as the result of that journey to the new lights and revelations of lights.

The book is very metaphorical in my opinion. The house that became adrift is actually a boat that was not finished by Howard long time ago, when the couple shut themselves in the house grieving their son. That boat the couple always wanted to take to make a family ocean journey, became a house, got buried away in the foundation of the house, the mast became a beam supporting the house and nobody recognizes it anymore as the boat.

The storm tear away the cliff with the house , sends it adrift, strips all the unnecessary things in life and in the house and restores the actual boat to be seen as the boat. With that restoration, Harold and Rose awaken from their grief and see the new lights in the ocean and in their life.

The language has a poetic quality to it, I think the original poetic quality was not lost in translation but it feels it was simplified somehow. Cannot agree with some reviews that the language is sweet and resembles young adult novel. The language here reflects the magical journey and very appropriate, despite simple sentence structure and floweriness.

I would recommend this book for the book clubs as well as general audience, however, it is not a fantasy book. or a thriller. I would definitely recommend the book to the poetry lovers.

I was provided free copy of the book courtesy of the publisher "Amazon Crossing".



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Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book In exchange for a honest review.

What a powerful book. This is a truely magical read.
Lights on the sea is beautifully written and moved me deeply.
I was heartbroken and reduced to tears more than once, but also blown away at the level.of understanding shown towards human emotion and the power of forgivness and love.
This was a a spiritual journey that you can't read without being pulled into.

" A home isn't built with walls or determined by where we are, a home is built from our experiences , from the people we meet along the way , and, more than anything, from how we decide to journey through life . Life is a movement. A precarious equilibrium that can change in an instant."
Miquel Reina is an exquisite writer and I can't wait to read more from him.
I was disappointed when I came to the end and will reread this title again.

This was by far the most moving and thought provoking book I have read this year.

3.5 Stars for this fanciful spiritual journey, wrapped up in quite an adventure. Perhaps due to the translation, the language read a trifle simplistically at times and the heavy-handed too-sweet ending seemed more like a trite selection from a YA romance. Overall though, this was an enjoyable story.