Featured, Romance

‘Swan Light’ by Phoebe Rowe Book Review

By Leah Rex

4 minute read

As past and present collide, the secrets hiding on the ocean floor begin to surface…

A little infinite book review from Leah Rex:

Swan Light by Phoebe Rowe

I tend to steer away from novels that contain more than a drop of sea-faring, odd as I’m a Pisces, meant to love a water-soaked tale. Occasionally, astrology overrules my senses, and I dive into a novel like Swan Light by Phoebe Rowe. I was entranced with the story from the first page: “Silvestre Swan’s earliest memory was of losing something to the sea.”

A sweeping, emotional tale of hope and perseverance, Swan Light weaves together the stories of two people separated by a century but connected by family, purpose, and one extraordinary lighthouse.

In Newfoundland in 1913, Silvy’s story is one of great love and unimaginable loss, the lighthouse a labor of love to the sea that brought him everything and then took it all away.

In 2014, Mari Adams, a Marine archaeologist out of research money, arrives on the island, hired to find the remains of Swan Light, rumored to have fallen into the sea despite very little evidence the lighthouse ever existed.

The best part of any dual narrative is untangling the net of their connections, and Swan Light does not disappoint. Waves of mystery and romance crash upon the pages of the novel, sometimes clashing, always tangling us deeper into Silvy’s remarkable tale.

Find this time traveling story here:

Rave Reviews and Awards on Swan Light by Phoebe Rowe Debut Novel:

“In this phenomenal first novel, the lighthouse at Norman Cliffs is not only a beacon to guide foundering vessels to safety, it is a comforting light in the darkness. It speaks to those who listen. While it stands, it lives.” —Historical Novels Review

“There is nothing not to love about Phoebe Rowe’s debut novel. Flawlessly researched and wholly immersive, Swan Light is a story about the importance of honoring the past. Rowe writes beautifully and takes readers on a journey to places both old and new, reminding us that sometimes the things we’re looking for are looking for us too.” —Barbara Davis, bestselling author of The Keeper of Happy Endings

“Phoebe Rowe expertly interlaces the fascinating world of competitive shipwreck searching with a wonderful mystery about a vanished lighthouse. Two protagonists and two timelines can be tricky to pull off, but Rowe does so with aplomb in this excellent debut—I adored both the lighthouse keeper Silvestre Swan and the intrepid diver Mari Adams. I highly recommend this delightful novel.” —Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward

“Phoebe Rowe’s descriptive writing in Swan Light transports readers to the harsh Newfoundland coast of the nineteenth century during the time when lighthouses rose from cliffs and harbors to both welcome and warn sailors. A story rooted in love and loss, the characters’ lives are woven together like a fishnet, drawing to the surface secrets that were buried beneath the waves for generations. Swan Light drew me in from the first stone dropped into the sea by the young Silvestre Swan and carried me through Mari Adams’s journey to unravel the mystery of the light and the people whose lives were intricately connected to its fate.” —Jean E. Pendziwol, bestselling author of The Lightkeeper’s Daughters

Learn more on Phoebe Rowe:

swan light by Phoebe Rowe book review — Photo sourced from author’s website

Phoebe Rowe was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and currently resides in New York City. She has been obsessed with telling stories since an “Author’s Tea” in the third grade where she wrote and illustrated a 10-page novel about forest animals running from a fire. Her first real novel (no offense to the rabbits), Swan Light, is forthcoming from Lake Union Publishing in Spring 2023. She works as a brand copywriter and resides in Brooklyn, New York.

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