Love Unexpected

November 1, 2014
When pirates attack their ship and set it on fire, Emma Chambers and her brother, Ryan, are pulled from the icy water by Patrick Garraty, the lighthouse keeper in isolated Presque Isle, Michigan, in 1859. Patrick is a widower with no one to watch his two-year-old son, and Emma has neither employment nor a place to live. The itinerant preacher, Holy Bill, suggests that marriage would solve all their problems. Patrick seems kind, and he's a loving father, so Emma agrees to the arrangement. But Emma begins to hear rumors about Patrick. Did his wife fall to her death, or was she pushed? Patrick has a dark past, so the gossipmongers say, but what is it? Still, he's kind and thoughtful to Emma, and she stays. Then a mysterious stranger shows up, and suddenly, some of the rumors about Patrick begin to sound suspiciously true. Romance, an almost Hitchcockian mystery, and a tale of repentance make a fine mixture in Hedlund's (A Noble Groom, 2013) captivating and suspenseful inspirational novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)