About the Book

Book: Abigail’s Secret

Author: Marilyn Turk

Genre: Dual Time

Release Date: August 15, 2020

Newly widowed mother Abby Baker goes home to Hope Harbor to help her ailing mother and restart her life. Weighed down by grief and fear of failure, she wishes she had the strength of her grandmother, who raised a young child alone while taking on the role of lighthouse keeper after her husband drowned. What was the secret of Granny Abigail’s strength?

Carson Stevens is a lighthouse enthusiast who has bought the deteriorating Hope Island lighthouse to restore it and turn it into a bed-and-breakfast. When he meets Abby, he wants the attractive granddaughter of the former keepers to be part of the restoration.

As Abby and Carson work together, they uncover clues to a family secret that threatens to change Abby’s life forever. But someone is trying to sabotage their efforts at restoration.

Renovating the old lighthouse is Abby and Carson’s goal, but as they grow closer, they discover that what they’ve really needed is a renovation of their hearts.

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My Thoughts:

Carson Stevens is finally living his dream, to open a bed and breakfast in a lighthouse. The old lighthouse at Hope Island will take a lot of work and money, but he is up for the challenge. But he never anticipated meeting a widow, Abigail and falling in love, nor uncovering the secrets that the lighthouse kept hidden for many years.

Abigail, Abby, has returned to her hometown to help care for her mother and to raise her daughter in the place she grew up. She has been through a lot of changes since her husband died. She works in the daycare where her daughter is, but her true passion is for interior decorating. When Carson approaches her about visiting the old lighthouse that was once her mother's home, she accepts his offer out of curiosity. Yet after that first visit, she feels drawn to the lighthouse and her creative bug is waking up.

At first Carson and Abby begin as friends and work on the lighthouse. However, as secrets become uncovered, Abby realizes that her grandmother was hiding a really big secret in 1945. What was it? Not only that but there is someone who does not want Carson to succeed with his lighthouse plans. This was an intriguing story that takes us to the coast of Maine with a bit of history during WW2. I have not been to Maine before, but after reading this story I so want to visit it and its lighthouses.

I was provided a copy of this novel from the author. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.

About the Author

Award-winning author Marilyn Turk writes historical and contemporary fiction flavored with suspense and romance. Marilyn also writes devotions for Daily Guideposts, Walking in Grace, and contributes to other Guideposts publications. She and her husband are lighthouse enthusiasts, have visited over 100 lighthouses and also served as volunteer lighthouse caretakers at Little River Light off the coast of Maine.

When not writing or visiting lighthouses, Marilyn enjoys reading, walking, boating, fishing, gardening, tennis, and playing with her golden retriever. She also sings in the choir at her church and leads a women’s Bible study group. Marilyn and her husband have a combined family of four sons, one daughter, and four grandsons. She’s still hoping for a granddaughter someday.

She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Faith, Hope and Love Christian Writers, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Word Weavers International, and the United States Lighthouse Society.

Marilyn is also the director of the Blue Lake Christian Writers Conference.

More from Marilyn

When I fell in love with lighthouses, I wanted to read all about them and see as many in person as I could. Lighthouse Digest magazine was an answer to prayer. I inhaled every story in the magazine and used the information to write my lighthouse blog. https://pathwayheart.com/lighthouse/.

One blog post I wrote was about an opportunity to be a volunteer lighthouse keeper at a lighthouse, such as the Little River Lighthouse in Cutler, Maine. When my brother read my blog post he suggested that my husband and I do it. It had never occurred to me that I could be one of those people I wrote about! My husband jumped on board the idea, so we filled out the application, along with character references and proof we could drive a boat, and we were selected! The next summer, we arrived in the tiny town of Cutler, Maine, for our 10-day stay, and were met by the couple who arranged the lighthouse stays, who just happened to be the editors of Lighthouse Digest! I was awestruck.

They loaded us up in a boat in the harbor and took us out to the small island. We were charmed, and as a history buff, I was in heaven. The lighthouse and keepers’ house had been completely restored by a local non-profit organization which included a former Coast Guardsman who was once stationed there when the Coast Guard managed the property, as well as descendants of the last keeper family and the magazine editors. Beforehand, the keepers’ house had been abandoned for years, and it took months of work to tear out the old and restore it too livable again. Notebooks with before and after pictures showed the extensive work they’d done.

Obviously, I could talk a long time about our experience on the island, but I’ll spare you. The point is, the story of Abigal’s Secret had its origin there, and I knew what Carson and Abby went through to restore the lighthouse property in the book.

My husband and I fell in love with Maine while we were there, so the story had to be set there among the many islands and lighthouses. Maine has the second most lighthouses in the United States (over 50). We also stayed in Bar Harbor a few days before we went to Cutler, so the town in the book is loosely based on Bar Harbor. (Cutler isn’t that big.)

And of course, being the historian that I am, I knew Abby had to be connected to the lighthouse and that she would discover how her own life was similar to her grandmother’s, who just happened to be the lighthouse keeper during World War II, another era in history that fascinates me.