1998: Liv has been commissioned to paint a mural in a lighthouse located on a remote island in Scotland.

She's been raising her daughters alone since the death of her husband a few years ago, and money has been tight. To say the least. Which is why the commission has come at the perfect time. Not only does it pay, but it comes with room and board for the duration of the project.

As soon as they arrive on Lon Haven, Liv's oldest daughter, Saffy, dives into the island's odd lore thanks to a book she's found in their new home. The book outlines witch trials held on the island in the seventeenth century. But it also contains so much more...

2021: Luna has never given up hope that her mother and her two sisters will be found. But it is a shock when she receives a call saying that the youngest, Clover, has been located. Even more shocking is the fact that Clover hasn't aged a day in the two decades she's been missing.

Luna has never returned to the island of Lon Haven in all these years. She also doesn't remember exactly what happened on her final days there—when her sisters and her mother disappeared. Now she'll have to return if she's ever to understand what's happened—and still happening—to her family.

But on an island so steeped in folklore and mythology, where witchcraft still has a significant foothold, Luna will find herself in danger of falling prey to old beliefs!

The Lighthouse Witches is a perfect blend of supernatural and suspense! I loved every last bit of it!

First of all, the island the book is set on is fiction. BUT the witch trials that took place pretty much everywhere were particularly horrendous in Scotland. In fact, according to ye olde wikipedia, there were no less than 5 separate witch hunts that took place in the country.

Oof!

Witch lore is probably most fascinating because it's one of many pieces of history that plagues women in particular. Got a neighbor you don't like—point that finger and say the magic word! Want a particular piece of property? Feel like you've been wronged somehow? Thing your husband is having an affair?...And while the victims weren't exclusively women, the majority very much were.

(This is not meant to be glib in any way, but I'm not an expert on the history and there are TONS of resources available.)

The setting for Cooke's latest is an island that still very much holds onto their old beliefs. And in addition to witches in particular, this island has a strong and long-held belief in wildlings (you may have heard them called changelings).

So here comes a mom and her three daughters, plopped down in a setting that's super insular, super superstitious, and, as we soon come to learn, kind of under the thumb of a particular family as well.

And the lighthouse Liv's been commissioned to paint? It's owned by an eccentric millionaire who is never around. Oh, and it sits on the very site where witches were burned over three centuries ago.

And that's just half of the story. Present day, an adult Luna has her own struggles. She's pregnant and not certain she wants to be married (which her partner views as the end rather than an understanding of her complicated past—no thanks to the fact that she doesn't adequately communicate that to him!).

She's a child therapist, though, which means that she should be perfectly suited to take young Clover under her wing. Except that it makes no sense that Clover is still a child!

Each of the women in this book are so well drawn. I loved Liv and felt her pain as a single mother. I loved Luna and also felt her pain as an orphaned woman trying to start her own family. Saffy, the snarky teen trying to find her way in the world reminded me of those awkward teenage years and how awful they could feel.

There's one final woman who plays a big role in the book, but we don't actually get her perspective. Amy, who lives during the trials themselves, is only really seen through the eyes of the man who loves her. And it's their story that Saffy finds in the lighthouse bothy in 1998.

The Lighthouse Witches is out now! I highly, highly recommend this one and hope you'll all run out and buy a copy! It's an excellent anytime read, but it's especially perfect for fall (part of it takes place at Halloween!).

This is going down as one of my favorite books of 2021!

Are you looking for a spooky, twisty and atmospheric thriller surrounding witches this fall? You’ll want to grab The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke. Chilling, captivating this story, pulled me in and held me until the end.

I love when a book pulls me in and Cooke did just that as we travel to a remote Scottish island. Liv has been commissioned to paint a mural inside a 100-year-old lighthouse. She and her three daughters, Sapphire, Clover, and Luna, will live in the caretaker’s cottage. Liv and the girls needed this after losing their husband (father) and their home.

This atmospheric tale takes us back and forth from present time to two other time-lines that share not only the lighthouse history but the present day mystery. We learn Luna was abandoned in a field near the woods and that they did not find her sisters and mother. Pregnant with her, Luna receives a call that her sister Clover has been found. She is ecstatic, but when she arrives at the hospital, her sister is still a child. She hasn’t aged a bit. The child looks like Clover and has her memories…but is she Clover? It’s been twenty-seven years! The gothic thriller that unfolds will keep you reading into the wee hours.

Talk of witches and wildlings made my hair stand on end as we learned the history and traveled back to the time of the witch trials. Wildlings are believed to be fae who mimic a child and bring evil. The island has a history of them. The timelines we traverse are 1662, 1998, and 2021. Cooke easily pulled me into each timeline, and the transitions were easy to follow. The overall flow of the story was well done as each timeline delivered answers to the others, bringing us to frenzied climax before cooling things off with a well-done conclusion.

From supernatural elements to the heart-pounding climax, you’ll find The LightHouse Witches to be the perfect fall read.

*Recommended read for #FraterfestRAT.

The gloomy atmosphere set the pace for this dark story based in Scotland. Jumping between multiple points of view, the story switches from Olivia and her daughters in 1998, her daughter Luna in 2021 as well a perplexing man named Patrick with multiple timelines.

In 1998, Olivia and her three daughters ages 7 to 15 travel from England for a short stay while Liv paints a mural inside of a lighthouse. The mysterious man who has commissioned her to paint it has a motive unknown to Liv. While painting the lighthouse, she finds a pile of bones, strange writing and glimpses of ghosts. When she starts asking around, she learns the lighthouse is the location where women were burned as witches 300 years ago. When one by one her daughters go missing, she learns there’s more to the dark history of the island and what she has to do next is unthinkable.

In 2021, Luna is pregnant and still searching for her missing sisters Saffy and Clover. She doesn’t really know what happened in ‘98, other than her sisters were missing and her mother abandoned her, never to be seen again. When she receives the call that her sister Clover has been found, Luna rushes to the hospital to greet her. She’s shocked to find her sister isn’t a 30 year old woman but still the 7 year old girl lost all those years ago. Luna returns with Clover to the island where their lives were turned upside in search of answers.

A dark and dreary island, ghosts, witches, what’s not to love? The Lighthouse Witches kept me reading into the night much longer than I intended. Thank you to Berkley Pub, NetGalley and the author for my advanced review copy.

3.5⭐️

Author C.J. Cooke's The Lighthouse Witches is a story that spans 23 years. This story is based on historical events that happened in 1662 Scotland. Set on a remote Scottish island called Lon Haven, the setting intertwines with the story in unique and scary ways. The story told by three timelines and several POVs. The timelines also include a grimoire belonging to Patrick Roberts’s telling the events took place during the witch hunt, trials, burning them in stakes in 17th century,

The story begins in 1998, where Liz Stay has picked up her daughters and headed to a remove island where she has agreed to paint a mural for a reclusive millionaire named Patrick Roberts, who just happens to own an abandoned lighthouse called The Longing. What Liz doesn't know, will completely and fundamentally change her entire family. The cave beneath the lighthouse was once upon a time a prison for women accused of witchcraft. Before they’ve been burned at stakes, witches were tortured into admitting they were witches.

They also left something behind. When Saffy and Clover go missing, Liv also ends up disappearing after facing a life or death situation where she is forced to make hard choices. Flash forward 23 years, where we find a grown up Luna Stay in the year 2021. For 23 years, she's been searching for her mother, and her two sisters. She has little memories of what happened, only that her mother may have tried to kill her, and then abandoned her where she ended up in foster care.

When she receives a phone call that Clover has been found, she's dumbfounded. The strangest part is that Clover is still only 7 years old! How can that be possible? Clover, who is very pregnant and having relationship issues with her boyfriend, ends up back on the island that destroyed her family looking for clues as to why Clover is still only 7 years old, the same age she was when she disappeared without a trace. Luna is worried Clover is a wildling; a human replaced by the Fae.

What's even more disturbing is Clover's behavior. Luna begins to seriously wonder if Clover is a wilding, especially when she finds strange numbers on her sister. 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. When you start to put together events of the past, with the future, you will find yourself wondering what else the author will come up with to throw you for a loop.

In conclusion, I really had some emotional feelings for Liv. Even though she was having some person issues, no spoilers, she could have been more communicative with her daughters on why she suddenly just picked up their belongings and traveled to a far off Island. She was played like a fiddle by her so called friends who twisted her thoughts. Sapphire was a real piece of work. She thought that she knew more than her own mother, and basically ignored her sisters. The two can't stand separately, and thus lots of what happens is because of lack of communication and understanding.

I love this book!!!!!!!!  I could not put it down once I started reading. Most of the time I don't read this genre of books but sometimes I find an author like C.J. Cooke who just knows how to tell a story in a way that grabs me and won't let go until the story ends. I am lifelong fan and can't wait to see what she puts out next.

Read this if…you’re in the mood for a supernatural mystery that explores the history and folklore of Scotland.

In 1998, Liv Stay moves her family of three daughters to an isolated Scottish island in the middle of the night. She accepts a job painting a mural inside a decrepit lighthouse for a wealthy eccentric. The lighthouse itself was where a group of accused witches were imprisoned while awaiting their judgements hundreds of years ago. Rumors of a curse put on the island and its inhabitants by the so-called witches have persisted over time. Despite many warnings from the locals, Liv doesn’t buy into the legends of evil wildlings who appear in the form of children and wipe out entire bloodlines, but maybe she should.

Fast forward to the present day where Luna Stay is the only one from her small family left. As a child, she was found wandering the woods alone, her mother and two sisters having vanished without a trace. She gets a call that her younger sister, Clover, has been found, but when Luna arrives at the hospital, she finds Clover is still a little girl, exactly as she was when Luna last saw her. The girl knows things only Clover could know, but there is no logical explanation for her age, unless the folktales about wildlings are true. And if they are true, Luna might be in more danger than she realizes.

This was nothing like what I was expecting, but it was so good! The first half of the book is a pretty slow burn, but if you stick with it, the last half makes up for it! I loved how everything came together in the end. It was also fun learning some Scottish folklore as well. Check this out if you’re looking for a spooky, witchy read this fall!

A big thanks to Netgalley, the author, and Berkeley Publishing for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars

A light house, missing children, a land cursed by witches and wildlings make for a riveting, gripping and oh so enjoyable book!

Single mother of three, Liv is left her former life behind. She has been commissioned to do a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island. It's an island steeped in history -witches were killed here. Specifically in 1662, women were imprisoned, tortured, and burned at the stake. Their cures one the land left the island reeling and people afraid, superstitious and in a strange way looking out for each other.

But Liv isn't quite aware of that when she takes the job. She is looking to escape, make some money and think of some plans. Soon is she told tales which she finds hard to believe. Who would? But things go awry and then two of her daughters go missing.... Twenty years later, one of them comes back!

C.J. Cooke got my attention with The Nesting and I could not wait to read this book. She did not disappoint! This book is told in three timelines -1662, 1998, and the present. Don't let the timelines scare you away. These are expertly done, and nothing is confusing! As more of the story unfold, there is a mounting sense of dread, tension, and unease. Those things along with the journal entries were my favorite parts of the book. There is some creepy things that go on in this book that will leave readers guessing, and trying to figure out what is really happening.

For me this was a pleasure from beginning to end. It had the right amount of atmosphere, Gothic vibes, and mystery to keep me engaged and wanting more.

Creepy, tension filled and Dark - curl up with this one on a long October night!


Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Lighthouse Witches by C. J. Cooke is a story with mystery and intriguing full of mock trials, curses, love, and family. If you love witches, mystery, and a hauntingly beautiful story, well, this is the book for you.

The Lighthouse Witches is a gothic style witchcraft thriller!

It’s a perfect read for the fall season, with plenty of atmospheric writing and eerie moments.

I enjoyed the multiple timelines and points of view. I also liked the isolated setting in Scotland and all the witchy elements.

This book did not disappoint. I loved the book The Nesting by this author, too.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 4/5 stars

A perfect choice if you are in the mood for a Spooky Season Thriller. The Lighthouse Witches tells the tale of two sisters who go missing on a remote Scottish island, only for one sister to be found 20 years later..still the same age. For 20 years, Luna has been searching for her missing family and her happiness at finding her beloved sister is changed when she begins to suspect that her sister did not come back the same….

C.J. Cooke is the master at gothic suspense. She handles the multiple timelines with ease, creating a puzzle of a book that I could not put down. I loved the mix of folklore, horror, and mystery that made this such a fun Fall read. I also saw that the audiobook is a full cast, which is sure to be amazing. Highly recommend picking this one up in October!

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review to be posted on publication date.

This was not my first C.J. Cooke novel and I loved "The Nesting" which you can read my review on. I had an idea about what this book would entail and the eeriness it would ensue. I was ready to read this just in time for autumn and cooler temps!

Very atmospheric and eerie, the scene is set on a remote Scottish island. Tales of witchcraft and evil rituals start to swirl when a family is ripped apart by missing loved ones. Twenty years later heartache and confusion are dredged up once again when one missing child is found, but seems to not have aged a single day.

Luna, the sister who seems to have moved on with her life and put this terrible tragedy behind her, has very little memory of her life on that horrible island. To get the answers of whether this child who claims to be her missing sister is truth she will have to go back to the place her family vanished. She will have to face the demons, witches, wildlings and whatever else haunts that area to get to the truth behind what happened.

The author did a great job researching the folklore for this novel. It is well described and thought out, mixing folklore and mythology to perfection. The main characters are also well thought out and fit into the story with superb precision. Each has there place and grow with the story and we gain more insight.

The issue I had with this was the scenery. We get very descriptive scenes of the lighthouse, which is the main scene, but beyond that I could not get a mental grip on what the rest of the island looked like. I had a very hard time imaging other scenes in the story, or even how the lighthouse fit into the island itself.

There are also too many narrators. This novel switches narrators and also timelines every chapter. It was too much to keep track of and I was easily confused every new chapter. I got mental whiplash trying to remember which character was who and what year it was and where I last left off with them. I think it would have flowed better had it been separated into parts and then it all come together in the end...

Also, because of the constant switch in narration, it made the storyline extremely slow and boring for the first 50%. I almost stopped reading it. The only thing that kept me going was the fact I had read the previous book from the author so I knew they were capable of a good story!

All in all, I have to give this a 3 star rating. I like the eerie, creepy, witchy theme. But the execution was not my style.

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for allowing me an E-ARC to read and give my honest review. "The Lighthouse Witches" is set to be released here in the U.S. on October 5, 2021 so preorder now!

Happy Reading!

“… memory can be too complex, too tentacled, to boil down to a linear narrative. That sometimes, silence is a form of survival.”

The Lighthouse Witches is this amazing mix of past and present, all beautifully blended together in the most perfectly atmospheric setting. While I normally avoid complex timelines - Cooke manages to make them work which for me was essential adding to the sense of mystery and dread.

While there are plenty of dark and eerie moments, what really held my attention is the history of Lon Haven and the Longing, which is the lighthouse itself. The persecution of women resulting in the witch trials and the subsequent domino effect it has on future generations is fascinating to me. Cooke added in vividly descriptive characters along with some fae folklore to this atmospheric story and well, I couldn’t put it down.

Not rehashing the summary and I’m not saying too much more because it’ll be easy to drop spoilers but to anyone who enjoys this genre, I cannot tell you enough how badly you need to read this.

My thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for this gifted DRC.

What a great book to begin spooky season! This story is set in Scotland on a remote island rich with history. When a mom and two sisters go missing, the third sister is left to grow up wondering what happened. Twenty years later one sister is found but has not aged since her disappearance.

The island of Lon Haven has a horrific history of Witch trials and burnings. The town is full of superstition and the supposed threat of the Wildings. Children that show up at your door, filthy and in need of help. Only if you let them in it means the demise of your entire family. This added a definite creep factor! 😳

This tale was full of double sided characters, dark stormy scenes and the history of the Witches' curse over the island. You will be wondering what is going on, where the missing people are and it all wraps up in the end nice and tidy.

There are a few fantasy type elements with this one, as many thriller/horror books contain so be prepared to just go for the ride and not question its reality.

I love books about witches and that's why I picked this book. It somehow reminded me of Outlander, it had similar setting in Scotland. The book had multiple dimensions and it was a tad confusing at times. Once I got used to the narration, it was much easier to read. The book was dark and had elements of magic, sci-fi and mystery to it. The book also gave gothic, creepy vibes.

I kept thinking the plot would be something different but the way it eventually unfolded was not something I expected at all. It totally surprised me. The writing was articulate and formal. The language used was lucid. The pace of the book was slow. It had multiple POVs and multiple timelines that ran parallelly.

The story was about one family- Liv was the mother, Sapphire, Luna and Clover were the daughters. They moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere because Liv got commissioned to paint a mural in the lighthouse. But strange things begun to happen there and they are all related to the local folklore. The place underneath the lighthouse was told be the place the witches were imprisoned and burnt in the early ages.

In the present time of 2021, only Luna remains. Sapphire, Live and Clover all disappeared years ago, never to be found. But she gets a call saying that Clover was found after all these years. When she gets to the hospital, she sees a little girl, she looks exactly like Clover. How is that even possible? Read to find out.

If you liked books like House of Salt and Sorrows, steeped in norse mythology and intrigue to should definitely read this.

I was honestly a little bit hesitant to read this book when I was offered the chance to do so. I'd never read anything by the author before and it was more than a little outside my normal reading wheelhouse, but it sounded so good and had such a great cover that I was unable to pass it up and I'm glad that I didn't. The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke was an intense and satisfying read that kept me flipping through pages all night long. Since I had never read anything by C.J. Cook I wasn't completely sure what I was getting into with this book so I made the mistake of trying to read a few chapters before bed only to be interrupted by my 5 AM alarm clock telling me it was time to get ready for work.

There were a lot of things I loved about The Lighthouse Witches but what really impressed me was how the story was told across three different points of view with each one being set at a different point in time. I thought the author did an amazing job taking all three points of view and timelines and somehow managing to weave them all into an intense and fascinating story. Usually, I find that in books like this I'm more heavily invested in one particular point of view or timeline and miss things in the others as I rush through them to get to the character I really want to read about, but this book had me equally invested in all three. Something that usually only happens with authors like Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan.

While I would love nothing more to go on and on about the different story or character elements that I loved in this book, I don't want to spoil things because I think that it's always better to go in kind of blind with no set expectations. So all I will really say about The lighthouse Witches is that it was a fun read with an interesting plot and was full of characters whose storylines I was almost immediately invested in. I think anyone who picks up this book will enjoy it like I did, even if it's not in their usual genre.

I will be recommending this book to a lot of people over the next few months I'm sure and I've already bought C.J. Cooke's The Nesting and I can't wait to get started on reading that!

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I think I would have enjoyed this novel more if I hadn't just read House of Hollow. Lots of similar vibes with three missing sisters that later appear mostly unharmed. This story focuses on a tiny Scottish island town steeped in a history of witchery. Liv moves into town to paint a mural in a lighthouse on commission. She brings her three daughters with her and they are quickly pulled into small town drama. Liv discovers the painting she is doing contains some ancient runes and that there is an entrance to a mysterious cave beneath it. As she hears more stories about the wildlings that replace small children with dopplegangers, her paranoia begins to grow. Then one daughter goes missing...

The story is revealed to us in multiple timelines; we follow Liv in 1998 and her daughter, Luna in 2021 as well as a story buried in a grimoire one of the daughters finds. There are great moments of history where we see witch trials and paranoia run abound. I think that was the part I liked the most. I didn't really connect with any of the main characters and lots of times their actions frustrated me. The end also felt really rushed and didn't quite explain all of the things I needed explained.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy. All opinions above are my own.

THANK YOU to NetGalley and Berkeley Books for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review!

I loved this book. It was fast paced, spooky, and mysterious. In 1998, Liv moves with her three young daughters to a remote Scottish island where she was hired to paint a mural inside a lighthouse. The island of Lon Haven has many secrets, and in the 1600s, had its own witch trials. Sapphire, Liv’s teenage daughter, is angry at her mom and looking for an escape. When she finds a grimoire detailing the witch trials and the curse placed on the village, she doesn’t believe it. But the locals say that fae doppelgängers appear to take the place of their children, and they must be killed lest the entire family die. Years later in 2021, Liv’s middle daughter Luna is grown up and still reeling from the disappearance of her mother and sisters, Clover and Sapphire. What really happened in 1998? Can Luna find her family again? And what is the truth of the curse?

Told in alternating perspectives and different timelines, this was a propulsive and suspenseful story. I was invested in finding out what happened to Luna’s family and enjoyed the atmospheric setting of Scotland. Strongly recommend for readers who enjoy a spooky read!!

This book is sneaking pages in while my kids are playing around me GOOD! It’s creepy, it’s witchy, it’s mysterious and hard to put down. The absolute perfect fall read. I was so curious about where this book was taking me and I really enjoyed the ride getting there. My only complaint is that I kept mixing up the storylines, but it didn’t confuse me and I needed to know what the ending was going to be.

Thank you to @netgalley for a copy of this book.

Now, excuse me while I go searching for other books by this author. K, bye!

Holy gothic thriller! If you are looking for one-look no further! We have witches, magic, apparitions, spells & curse, sorcery, time travel and the creepiest of all, WILDLINGS! I was totally enthralled with them and the idea. I had never heard of a wildling before.

As in usual Cooke fashion, her writing is a beautiful prose and her idea unique AF! The story is told between three POVs at two different time periods 1998 and 2021. We have diary excerpts thrown in as well from all different time periods. The setting is enchanting as it takes place on an island in Scotland with all of its sea salt and crisp air. It really felt alive. It helps to add to the fear and overall mystic of the story.

I really enjoyed the characters as they were really fleshed out. She even gives lots of detail to minor characters as well as characters from the past. The past happened to be my favorite part as it goes into the witch trials and folklore behind it. There is some humor mixed in through the darkish tale which I also appreciated. Even though the main focus of the story centers on witchcraft, it was so much more. It shows the love of family and the strong bonds of motherhood. There was a lot going on in this guys, but it was a perfect way to start the spookiness!

Thank you Netgalley for my advance copy!

An engaging read with an interesting twist on the myths and folklore of fae that incorporates the historical reality of witch hunts. I struggled a bit at the beginning due to the contentious nature of the mother-daughter relationship between Liv and Sapphire (I get really frustrated with characters who communicate poorly for selfish/self-conscious reasons), and I had to remind myself more than once that a large portion of the story takes place over 20 years ago when parenting was a little more relaxed. But once I got into the meat of the story, especially as I experienced more of the grimoire written by a character from the 1600's, it became more compelling.

In my opinion, the author did a good job of building up to the reveal of what the wildlings were and where they came from. I had a glimmer of an idea, but not a full-blown understanding until it was explained in the story. The ending was also satisfying and provided enough closure that I was not left with questions or frustrations.

Definitely recommend if you are looking for a slightly spooky, atmospheric tale with a solid conclusion.