The Sentinel
Jacqueline Hodder
Reviewed by Helen
Set in 1880 at a lighthouse, The Sentinel on the Victorian coast, a young woman Kathleen Devine prepares to start a new life as head teacher to the lighthouse keeper’s children, it is time after the things that she has been through, but life is not what she thought it would be when she meets the three families who live there and everyone has a past.
Kathleen arrives on the supply ship ready and eager to start teaching these children, it seems a lonely place but beautiful with the sea crashing close by, three different families two with children and there are a few problems getting the children to mix but it doesn’t take long. Adults though may take a bit longer to work out ways to live in harmony together and with the head light keeper Mr. Johannson a stickler for rules there are a few clashes.
One of the Brown daughters, Isabella becomes close to the head light keeper and this surely will shatter what peace there is at The Sentinel, tempers and jealousies flare and with the weather changing as much as the emotions of the people living here, Kathleen struggles at times to work out what to do, one thing she must do is come to terms with her past.
This is a really well written story with lots of emotion flowing on the pages as the author gets into the souls of the people who live there you can feel the loneliness of the place and it would have been very hard living there in the time. The setting is beautiful you can almost hear the ocean and feel the changing emotions of the characters. This a story about learning from your past and moving forward, learning to understand each other on a lonely but beautiful part of the world. It is a story that I highly recommend.
4 stars
Published October 3rd 2020 by Blue Wren Press
