Thank you Net Galley for the ARC
This book tackles many issues like infertility, domestic abuse, depression & suicide.
The story revolves around a cliff near a lighthouse where people come to commit suicide. The author intertwines two stories, one of Jack and the other of the Light Keeper. I felt the book was slow paced in the beginning but it does get better eventually. The stories within the story are easy to understand and imagine. A nice book all in all. Makes you feel grateful for the little things we take for granted.

I really like the theme of this book with all its sadness. But I could not finish this book, I am sorry. The narrative style is not very gripping and the characters are rather pale, too. Additionally to this is the formatting horrible. The errors turn this book in pure torture to read. I tried two times to read this, but I just can't.

Couldn't finish this one - didn't realize the subject matter would be so fragile and hard to read. Perhaps there's an audience for this story but I'm not the one. Nice book cover though.

This is a difficult read- not because of the writing, which is exceptional, but the subject matter of losses so great that the characters find themselves on the edge of a cliff contemplating suicide.
The two opposing views of Sarah and Jack about their circumstance, their relationship and their difficulties are really cleverly written, making it hard to decide who is telling the truth, and if their truth is the whole story.
The Keeper is also living on the edge following a great loss of his own and becomes embroiled in Sarahs story very reluctantly.
Be warned, the story moves at a pace that keeps you reading long into the night to try and reach a point you feel comfortable leaving the characters unguarded!

The setting of Beachy Head was compelling. Lighthouses and lighthousekeepers have always intrigued me, so I was quite interested to find out where this one led us to and to find out if his loneliness was quelled. I also liked the way the plot did a lot of reveals of characters' past, which lent a lot of meaning and clarity to the present.
Overall I enjoyed the book, could have been precised a little, but had some twists and turns that kept my interest. An easy summer read.

This book was not for me. I really just could not get into it. A lot of the narrative is a glimpse inside someone's head, their thoughts and feelings, but whose? I was constantly confused by who the character was until some detail would illuminate it. and not in a great lightbulb moment way but in a very frustrating, I don't want to carry on with this book kind of way. Also, the build up to the main story takes over half of the book. The edistor should have had robust words with Cole MOreton and some rewriting work to maintain the balance oft he narrative would have helped. Thebook deals with IVF, rape, suicide, grim themes which perhaps I wasn't quite in the right head space to deal with. Hmm, some great writing inparts but too much work and doesn't quite hang together as a whole. Sorry.

This review is based on the digital copy of The Light Keeper which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. This novel is strong on deeply emotional triggers around infertility, abuse, rape, suicide, death and depression. Overall I felt the story was a bit disjointed and hard to follow. I did enjoy parts of the story but felt the end was rushed.

#TheLightKeeper #NetGalley

DNF - from reading the synopsis I thought this would be a really good, heartfelt and emotional read. However, it was clear from the beginning that if I carried on with this story that I would end up very, very confused. The writing was choppy, I did not know who’s head I was in and who was narrating, and there were way too many holes at the start for me to get my head around and to continue.

I am sorry but this book was just not for me. I could not get into it at all. I struggled to stay interested in it. Sorry.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I wish I could recommend this book but unfortunately I cannot. The plot is there but somehow it did not capture my attention. The focus keeps jumping from spot to spot and it is difficult to get a grasp of the story. In addition, the technical editing of the book is badly done which makes it a bit hard to read as the text varies in size and placement.

Ok, firstly I would like to say thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review this book. That said, I wish I could be more positive but I simply can't.

Sarah is going through IVF unsuccessfully, her husband Jack is unhinged with worry and the mysterious Keeper of the title just wants everyone to go away.

The premise is good and thought through. The issues at hand are serious but I am afraid the plot is all over the place. The perspectives jump from one to another and the copy I received was extremely badly formatted so it was hard to keep up.

As I said the issues are serious but I am afraid the author may have missed the mark completely. I myself have suffered with some of the issues mentioned and I just felt ill at ease reading the whole thing, which I will be honest I was close to DNF'ing at several points.

All in all, I am sorry to say that I cannot recommend this book.

Lovely feel good read. I really enjoyed reading this one. Losing myself in the location of this one. It was interesting and hard to put down

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. I found the characters uninteresting and the plot developed far too slowly.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

This was a very confused book, I found it difficult to follow for many reason. It felt, though, like Moreton wasn’t really sure what the point of the story was – what was he actually trying to say?

The first obstacle I found was the formatting – I thought at first it was an issue with my downloaded copy or my kindle but reading other reviews suggests that it is a formatting problem with the ARC. I understand that this is not a finale published version so the formatting errors may be fixed before publication but it did make it difficult to read. The text constantly changing size and font was distracting and the blank numbered pages broke up important events and passages of the book – making dramatic scenes lose their sense of importance.
I actually almost gave up reading about 20% into the book but I decided I couldn’t really give a fair review if I hadn’t finished the book.

To be honest I didn’t actually like any of the characters. Jack was, even before we found out he was physically abusive was erratic and wholly unlikable. I never understood what Sarah saw in him.
The book spent so long in Gabe’s POV but how much did we really learn about him?

Another thing I found difficult to understand overall was the length. It seemed that the first 60% of the book could be removed and it would still make sense. I get building up a sense of place and world; character development etc. but Moreton doesn’t really do that. Because by 60% of the way in, when the action actually happens how much do we actually know about the world or characters?

So onto the actual action; mentions are made throughout the book of an increased rate of suicide at The Downs – the blurb on the book suggests that maybe Gabe has something to do with it, and something to do with Sarah’s disappearance – but when we finally get down to it he has no great secret. It’s suddenly Magda of all people. It wasn’t until at least halfway through the book that we are properly introduced to any of the Guardians – there is no proper build up or any real mystery regarding the deaths – or how it actually connects to the story as the underlying plot isn’t actually affected by that storyline.

So the additional 60% that I think can go? We got a lot of backstory of Gabe’s but nothing was really said. Again and again we’re told that he’s staying there because of Rí and how he’s so jaded and depressed but then a couple of chapters later it switches up to how happy he is there and how he couldn’t imagine being happy anywhere else? If Gabe is meant to be depressed or suffering from a mental illness it is not portrayed well, at all.

I didn’t care about the characters; like I say I didn’t like them so when it came right down to the climax it was just anti-climactic in a way. It was just boring really.

I can’t say I would recommend this book.

Thank you for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was well written, clever, full bodied and I should have really enjoyed it, yet I didn't. The beginning of the novel was so disjointed and the light keepers relationship with his dead wife so bizarre I just found myself not caring about the characters. And you have to like the characters! I did read it til the end, although I skipped so much to find the storyline that appealed to me. There were moments of beauty and deep emotion within the disjointment and a more literary inclined reader may enjoy the style.

A story about loss and new beginnings in many different ways. A very good book by a new author for me. I really recommend reading this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book. It did not influence my review.

I'm rating this book somewhere in the 3.5-4 range. I'm going back and forth because of a big string that was left hanging at the end of the book, which I wanted closure on, but I also don't want to give away too much here.

This book is about many things: suicide, grief, a woman's strength, hope. And nothing is exactly what it seems, even when the book ends.

This book is about a woman named Sarah who has lost her mother and can't get pregnant with a much wanted baby after 7 years of IVF. It's also about a man named Gabe who lost his wife and the type of future he hoped for. He owns a crumbling lighthouse (without a light,) which promises to drop into the sea someday in the not too far off future. It is also about a group of people called the Guardians who are supposed to try to prevent people from throwing themselves off the cliff down to certain death, although, as you will find, people aren't always what they proclaim to be.

Overall, I really liked this book and found it to be a nice piece of literary fiction.

The book starts off interestingly enough divided by the pov's of a man who is looking for his wife, afraid she has committed suicide and a lighthouse keeper whose wife died. The characters are relatable at first and the setting of the story is really interesting but after a while, all the desperation and memories get very tiring. The themes in this book range from loneliness to suicide, inability to have children and loss. My favorite part was the way the people that live close to a suicide point are portrayed.

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
I will buy the book when it comes out
As I could not read the format big small blank pages numbers etc
Potentially a good book

3.5 stars

This review is based on an ARC of <i>The Light Keeper</i> which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Marylebone House).

What I liked about <i>The Light Keeper</i> was it's incredibly touching nature. This book faces some heavy issues (infertility, depression, suicide, rape, etc.), but does so in a human and compassionate way that makes the characters so much more real, and also proves the adept skill of the author. The pacing and character building in this story were truly excellent, giving you enough backstory to want more, then switching off to someone else to leave you curious and desperate to keep reading.

So why didn't I rate it higher then? I admit there were times when I was sure this would be a 4+ star read, but I didn't like the ending <i>at all</i>--it just seemed so random and like it didn't fit what led up to that point. Also, for the first half or more of the book, I didn't know who was who. I thought Jack and Gabe were the same people, and I couldn't keep clear whose girlfriend was whose, and I thought the Light Keeper was an old man (that's just how I figured a lighthouse keeper would look.) There was <i>a lot</i> of confusion for me at the start of this novel.

Overall though, <i>The Light Keeper</i> ended up being a book that I pretty well enjoyed!