The Exile of Sara Stevenson
Darci Hannah
Ballantine, Jul 27 2010, $15.00
ISBN: 9780345520548

In 1814, lighthouse designer Robert Stevenson sends his pregnant nineteen year old daughter Sara to reside at the isolated Cape Wrath Lighthouse in Scotland. Sara waits patiently in exile for her lover Thomas Crichton the sailor to come for her and for the birth of their child. Reticent lighthouse keeper Willy Campbell is upset with her arrival as he prefers solitude.

To pass time, bibliophile Sara corresponds with an Oxford antiquarian. Sara becomes upset when she finds out her parents plan to take her baby away from her. Desperate she sends a pleading letter to her pen pal to rescue her and her baby from her parents. He wants to assist her, but has a major problem to overcome that might prove impossible to surmount.

The Exile of Sara Stevenson is an enjoyable Regency romance with a wonderful twist as the letters between the pen pals have quite a distance to travel. The cast is solid throughout as the audience obtains a taste of life at a remote lighthouse during the early nineteenth century. Although Sara's problems never fully come across as threatening, readers will enjoy this intriguing look at love crossing impossible to penetrate barriers.

Harriet Klausner