The Lightkeeper
by Susan Wiggs

Rated 4.5
ISBN#1-55166-301-5
Reviewed 10/2/97 by Kathy

Twelve years before, something happened in Jesse Morgan's life and he just shut himself off from the world. He became the lightkeeper for CapeDisappointment after his pregnant wife was drowned. A ship went down because the lightkeeper negligently let the light go out.

Then he finds a pregnant woman on the beach. Miraculously she is alive. He brings her back to the lighthouse and fetches the doctor. The doctor tells him that the woman cannot be moved and that he'll have to take care of her until she is better.

Magnus and Palina, the couple who help him run the lighthouse, tell him that this woman is a gift to him from the sea. He thinks this is a bunch of hogwash but he agrees to let the woman stay until they know who she is and until she's better.

The problem is the woman, Mary Dare, decides she wants to stay. She is running away from her rich lover who only wanted her for a broodmare. He makes the mistake of telling her he's going to take away the baby when it's born and he and his wife are going to raise the child. She didn't even know that he was married. So she hides in a ship as a stowaway. A storm comes up and the ship sinks. She is lucky to be alive and she owes it all to Jesse.

She is Irish and very outspoken. She starts to make Jesse feel things which he does not want to feel. He does his best to make her leave but she refuses.

This book is full of conflicts and surprises. This is the first book by Susan Wiggs that I've read and I really enjoyed it.