Gina Higgins arrives in Kiss River, North Carolina, with a mission. She has traveled all the way from Seattle in a run-down car to locate the Kiss River Lighthouse. Much to her dismay, she discovers that the lighthouse collapsed ten years ago during a hurricane, and that its lens lies somewhere in the ocean. An agitated Gina tries to convince the Kiss River natives that they should search for and recover the lens, but she meets strong resistance. Alec O’Neill, one of the town’s most prominent citizens, is vehemently opposed to the idea. The lighthouse is tied to bad memories of his wife, Annie, who died shortly before the hurricane, and he tells Gina he will do everything he can to thwart her plan.

Gina is fortunate to be taken in by Alec’s grown children, Lacey and Clay, who live in the former lighthouse keeper’s house. Lacey is a talented stained glass artist whose many humanitarian gestures contrast sharply with her recklessly promiscuous behavior. Clay is a grieving, guilt-stricken widower. Gina comes to care for both of them, and is attracted to Clay despite her general mistrust of men. But she can’t let herself get distracted from her task. She has to raise the lighthouse lens so that, thousands of miles away, a little girl can have a chance for health and family. Gina’s link to the lighthouse’s secrets is a diary that once belonged to a 15 year old girl named Bess who lived in Kiss River sixty years ago. In just a few months during World War II, Bess found love and danger, only to leave her home abruptly in fear and shame.

The novel’s major weakness is Gina herself. It’s hard to feel sympathy for a character who waltzes into a new town, demands that the townspeople take a major step that they’ve avoided for ten years, and sulks because she doesn’t get her way. She won’t tell anybody the truth about why she needs to see the lighthouse lens, including Lacey and Clay who are generous enough to let a total stranger share their house. Eventually the reader comes to understand Gina’s desperation, but by the time the secrets are revealed, the novel is almost over. The romance between Gina and Clay isn’t convincing - they gain comfort from each other, but there’s very little joy in their relationship and it doesn’t feel like true love.

The novel alternates chapters set in the present day with excerpts from Bess’ 1942 diary, and frankly the teenager is a much more compelling character than Gina. She’s impetuous and naïve, but the reader feels for her as the realities of war make her grow up much quicker than she should have to.

Kiss River is the sequel to 1992’s Keeper of the Light, which told the story of Alec and his current wife Olivia. I don’t recall reading it - who can remember every novel they read more than 10 years ago? - but that didn’t hinder my understanding of Kiss River. Chamberlain is also planning a novel about Lacey O’Neill, who learns devastating secrets about her mother Annie in this novel that cause her to examine her reckless behavior.

As a character study, Kiss River works. As a novel that engages the reader in characters to care about, it falters. Still, if you like serious Women’s Fiction and tangled relationship dynamics, Diane Chamberlain should be at the top of your list.

--Susan Scribner