Rebel Light (Coastal Lights Legacy #1)

When Kate McFarlane is discovered having stowed away on her father's merchant ship, he shuttles her off to live with a nearby relative until he can decide what to do with her. When Kate gets to Sally McFarlane's home her world is turned upside down with hard labor, a handsome suitor Clay Harris, and other unfamiliar adventures.  When a sailor washes up on shore during a hurricane, her eccentric aunt takes him in.  Kate struggles with her growing attraction to the sailor as they are on opposite sides of the War Between the States. She will learn that matters of the heart don't follow the same laws as politics.

This is a character-driven story with a fantastic supporting cast of loveable and sympathetic people that could have truly existed in 1861.  However, the internal and external conflicts are not well defined for these lovely characters.  The reader is taken from day-to-day mundane happenings without purpose or focus.  A good portion of these scenes are unnecessary fluff which largely have nothing to do with the story. The plot doesn't kick in until the reader is seventy percent of the way into the book, and the main love interest is finally introduced.  Because the story is coming to a close, there isn't much time to develop the relationship the reader should be rooting for, and there is little engagement in the connection between Kate and her suitor.  Perhaps if the story started closer to the middle, and scenes trimmed or rearranged, this would be a more engaging story. 

MB Rose