From the blurb:

Blueberry Cove, Maine, is as small-town as small towns get. More than a little quirky, it has sheltered generations of families. But there’s always room for a new face…

Fixing things has always been Alex McFarland’s greatest gift and keenest pleasure. But with her own life thoroughly broken, she’s signed on to renovate the dilapidated Pelican Point lighthouse, hoping to reconnect with herself. The last thing she expects is to find herself falling in love–with the glorious coastline, with age-old secrets and welcome-home smiles…with rugged Logan McCrae, the man she just might be able to build new hopes on.

Given that my own career background is in restorations (running a cottage restoration business), I expected to find an affinity with this book and so was keen to read it. The book didn’t disappoint, with plenty to interest those who, like me, find restoration fascinating. But there was so much more to like in the book too!

The opening is really quite dramatic, and it hooked me in at once. I loved the characters, and quickly connected to them. There is so much depth to the characterisation, and so much pain in Alex, particularly, that a reader is hard pushed not to feel empathy and want to follow the journey from lost to found. The backstories on both the main characters are compelling and well explored, and the characters’ actions and reactions in view of their pasts felt realistic to me. I really liked the fact that the author wasn’t afraid to probe deeply into their emotions, which created a big emotional attachment in me as I read.

The romance is passionate, fun and poignant in equal measure. I loved the realism inherent in it – the fact that the author does not wait until the very end to bring the characters’ together, but depicts a more typical, real-world romance in which two characters stumble along, ‘winging it’, uncertain and frightened to let go of the past and move forwards.

I loved the slight edge of mysticism in the book; the idea that ‘change is coming’ and that Alex’s presence in Blueberry Cove (wonderful name!) is predestined. There’s also a good deal of quirkiness, which is appealing – and I really warmed to the community aspects of the story. Don’t we all feel a pull towards a fictional world in which a small town takes in a lost sheep and becomes a new and accepting family?

Overall, this book felt to me like wrapping up in a soft blanket on a wintry day – comforting and heart-warming. Certainly one to read to restore your faith in love, life and finding a place to belong.

I was offered this book in exchange for a fair review via NetGalley.

Pelican Point is available now from Amazon; click on the book cover below to visit the store.