Review: The Lightkeeper's Ball

The Lightkeeper's Ball by Colleen Coble

Third in the Mercy Fall's series, this book follows debutante Olivia Stewart as she travels west to California to investigate her sister's suspicious death.  Set in the early 20th century, Olivia's sister, Eleanor, accepts a marriage proposal which will join her family with that of her father's business partner.  Shortly after arriving in Mercy Falls for her wedding, Eleanor is found dead from an apparent drowning suicide.  Olivia, knowing her sister's fear of the water, is convinced that Eleanor was murdered.  She decides to travel under an assumed name to Mercy Falls to find out the truth.

Will she learn the circumstances surrounding her sister's death before she becomes a victim herself?  Will she push away the man she is falling for?

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book.  It is the third in a series and I have not read the other two.  However, this book could definitely stand alone and be understood without reading books 1 and 2. 

The mystery really kept my attention and I didn't figure out "who dun it" until the very end, which I like.  The romantic parts were really romantic, almost enough to make me cry.  My only complaint was that at times it seemed like the action was very slow and at other times way too fast.  It didn't seem consistent throughout the book.  But that did not detract from the book enough to really bother me (just a little annoying).   I also liked the historical references to turn of the century technology, such as aeroplanes, and motor cars.  There was also an interesting Haley's comet thread running throughout the book.  It let me know that the author had really done her research.

This is a pretty quick read.  And I've already ordered the other two in the series!

I give this 4.5 stars out of 5.
(Hey, it's my blog, I can give half stars if I want to.)

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me the Kindle version of this book to review.