The Light Between Oceans

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Happy Friday everyone!   I haven't been pinning that much over the past couple weeks...not sure why, but oh well!  Because of that I thought I'd skip this week's Friday Funday, including pins.  And since today happens to be book club Friday I thought I'd share with you one of the books I'll be discussing with my club tonight!  Enjoy and I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

This book is one of my book club rotation books that I was super excited to pick up.  I borrowed The Light Between Oceans a couple months back and when it finally made it's way to to the top of my borrowed pile, it ended up affecting me more than I would have expected. 

The main premise of this book involves a young couple (Tom and Isabel) meeting and falling in love and living together on a tiiiiiiny island 100 miles off the southwest point of Australia.  This tiny island bears a lighthouse that Tom operates for the safety of shipping vessels.  Within the first year or so of their marriage Isabel becomes pregnant and loses the baby...then it happens again...and again.  She is, literally, on the brink of going crazy and Tom realizes it, but doesn't know what to do. 

Then, suddenly a small dingy boat washes ashore and aboard are a deceased young man and a crying baby girl.  The infant is no more than a month or two old.  Isabel, against his will, convinces Tom to not report this incident and simply keep the little girl.  Isabel had just miscarried late in her last pregnancy and they hadn't wired to shore about it yet either; so, it would be easy to simply claim that her baby came a little early.

The rest of this novel surrounds the raising of this little girl by Isabel and Tom on the island.  Then, also their realization of where this baby came from once they make a quick trip to the mainland not too much later.  Once they realize the origin of their baby, should they return her to her rightful place...or continue to keep her and pretend ignorance?

The moral questions that this book brings up are heart-breaking and real.  M. L. Stedman really does make you feel what these characters are going through and I'll admit that I cried more than once during this book.  I had to wait a day or so after I finished it to decide what rating to give it, simply because of the myriad emotions I felt upon closing the book for the last time.  I decided to give it a strong 4 out of 5 stars.  And I would definitely recommend this book, but have some tissues nearby just in case you need them (I sure did!).