Another book is releasing today from the Harbor Pointe Series! A huge congratulations to D. Wallace Peach! I hope you will pick up a copy if you haven’t already!
BOOK BLURB:
In 1858, a ship carrying ice from Alaska wrecked off the coast of California, and little does Taliah Keldan realize how that tragedy will impact her life in 1972.
When Tali decides to quit college and become a civil rights activist, her disappointed parents encourage her to think it over. What better spot for contemplation than at her aunt and uncle’s Harbor Pointe Inn, a charming seaside getaway with its own lighthouse? The place is under renovation and empty of guests. All she’ll have to deal with is the construction crew.
But the inn is far from peaceful.
Tali discovers an old Bible hidden in the lighthouse keeper’s cottage. Strange prayers angle down the margins, all but one ruined by the sea. When she deciphers the crude writing, a dark portal gapes open to a pre-civil war night when an escaped slave in a foundering ship prayed to his voodoo God. A winged creature emerges from the watery void, and her stay transforms into a nightmare.
With the aid of the construction foreman, Tali is determined to send the beast back through time, a choice that will risk their lives, test her convictions, and change her future.
MY REVIEW:
So many different elements are rolled into this novella that I almost don’t know where to start. First of all, there are two different time periods with an overarching theme of social inequalities and injustices that have spanned time.
Samuel was an escaped slave in the 1800s. When his shipmates decide to return him to captivity, Samuel prays in desperation to Damballah and Iwa. But he mistakenly curses the Haiti god and suffers death.
That is how this story begins.
Then we fast forward to the 1960s, a time when social injustices are still blatant and cruel, but awareness is coming more to the forefront. The main character, Tali, is of mixed race and faces a crossroads. She is dropping out of college, much to her parent’s dismay. A brief reprieve comes when Tali’s aunt asks her to stay at the Harbor Pointe Inn while she and her husband take an extended vacation to Scotland. There is only one hitch. The inn is undergoing extensive renovations, and Tali is forced to stay in the lighthouse keeper’s cottage.
I can’t tell you much more without leaving spoilers, but let’s just say there are frightening portals, magic incantations, a monster who actually stole my heart, and a satisfying reckoning with a few racist characters.
Descriptive prose and nail-biting tension are what I’ve come to expect from this talented author, and this story does not disappoint. With so many blended elements woven together like a fine quilt, there is sure to be something here for every reader. I highly recommend this book.
The Harbor Pointe Inn has loomed on California’s cliffs for generations of Hawthornes. For some, it’s been a blessing. For others, a curse. Travel through two centuries of stories to discover the old inn’s secrets.
