"Well-written contemporary romance"

The Kiss River lighthouse off the North Carolina Outer Banks has deteriorated to the point that the Fresnel lens lies beneath the water. Outsider Gina Higgins wants to raise the lens over the objections of most of the locals.

However, siblings Lacey and Clay O'Neill support Gina in her endeavor. The disturbed Lacey, an artist, takes Gina into her home, the former lighthouse keeper's residence, hoping that the enthusiast visitor will awaken the grieving Clay, a widower mourning his wife, out of his stupor. As Gina pursues her quest, she digs into the history of the small town that links to her family's past.

The second Lighthouse novel, KISS RIVER, is a well-written contemporary romance that uses an American heritage as a focal point for the tale. When the tale stays in the present, the audience receives a strong plot as debate ensues over the merit of raising the lens along with a delightful romance between two deserving individuals. When a subplot that occurred during WW II takes center stage, this tale seems diverging from a powerful robust story in which either subplot could have stood on its own but not together. Still Diane Chamberlain furbishes an intriguing novel that will send the audience seeking the debut story (see KEEPER OF THE LIGHT).

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted January 15, 2003

In this exquisite new novel, Diane Chamberlain revisits the seaswept finger of land called Kiss River, where secrets give way to the amazing power of love.

Summary

Gina Higgins has come to the Outer Banks of North Carolina - - a stranger with a secret. But secrets are a fact of life for some of the residents of the close-knit community of Kiss River. Gina is about to learn that those secrets are tied to her own in ways she never could have imagined.

Kiss River's historic nineteenth-century lighthouse has all but fallen into the sea, taking with it the huge Fresnel lens that once served as its beacon. Gina is desperate to find a way to raise the lens from the sea. The glass holds the key to the one person who matters to herd: a child who waits for her halfway around the world.

Lacey O'Neill, a talented stained-glass artist with a troubled past, lives in the old lightkeeper's house, a home she shares with her brother, Clay, who is grieving the tragic death of his wife. When Lacey meets Gina, she invites her to stay with them, secretly hoping Gina will help pull Clay from this depression. Eagerly accepting the offer, Gina moves into the lightkeeper's house and begins her quest to raise the lens.

Most of the locals believe the lens should remain at the bottom of the sea. Clay O'Neill, however, finds himself drawn into Gina's struggle. Though he fights his attraction to this beautiful stranger, as he begins to understand her surprising connection to Kiss River, he too, starts to see things through a different light, and slowly begins to heal.

As Gina's story unfolds, so does the decades-old story of a courageous teenage girl swept away by love and plunged into the treacherous waters of espionage during World War II. The shocking legacy she left buried in the light reveals more than Gina expected . . . much more. And with it comes new hope for the future . . . and for love.