Review: Lights on the Sea by Miquel Reina

In this riveting debut, prize-winning artist and filmmaker Miquel Reina maps out ambitious and fantastical new territory in a novel about a couple holding on for dear life as their world takes an extraordinary fall…

On the highest point of an island, in a house clinging to the edge of a cliff, live Mary Rose and Harold Grapes, a retired couple still mourning the death of their son thirty-five years before. Weighed down by decades of grief and memories, the Grapeses have never moved past the tragedy. Then, on the eve of eviction from the most beautiful and dangerously unstable perch in the area, they’re uprooted by a violent storm. The disbelieving Grapeses and their home take a free-fall slide into the whitecapped sea and float away.

As the past that once moored them recedes and disappears, Mary Rose and Harold are delivered from decades of sorrow by the ebb and flow of the waves. Ahead of them, a light shimmers on the horizon, guiding them toward a revelatory and cathartic new engagement with life, and all its wonder.

Wildly imaginative, deeply poignant, and entirely unexpected, Lights on the Sea sweeps readers away on a journey of fate, acceptance, redemption, and survival against the most rewarding of odds.

Kindle Edition, 272 pages

Published September 25th 2018 by AmazonCrossing
Genre: Fiction


Kristine's Thoughts:


** I received a copy of this book directly from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!**

I have been left slightly speechless by this book. It surprised me in so many ways that I don't know how to put it into words.

You absolutely need to have an imagination to enjoy Lights on the Sea. There was an almost fairy tale/ fantasy feel to it that was best enjoyed with an open mind and a hunger for creative liberties. This is something I struggle with but not this time.

Lights on the Sea was the story of Mary Rose and Harold Grapes and the home they built from their sorrow and crushed dreams. On the eve of the day they were being forced to leave their home because of safety reasons, a storm blew in and swept the house off the cliff and into the sea. Surprisingly, the Grapes family and the house survived the plummet into the ocean and an adventure unlike anything they had ever imagined began to unfold.

It was a truly captivating story that had so many messages of hope, survival and how to overcome grief and sorrow. I could not tear myself away from it. Anyone struggling with forgiveness and letting go would benefit from reading this story. Through all of the adventures that these two characters encountered, I was with them. I adored Mary Rose and Harold and I felt like I was right beside them the entire voyage.

It was truly an enjoyable read from beginning to end!

About the Author

Barcelona-born Miquel Reina defines himself as a dreamer and a fighter; from a young age, he was drawn to the creative life, studying design and cinema before building his reputation as a filmmaker and graphic artist. His work in advertising won him several awards, including the prestigious Bronze Sun at Spain’s Festival de San Sebastián in 2011, and in 2014, his music video “Dead in the Water” was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. Reina has lived in Vancouver, Canada, since 2016, working for a video production studio and dedicating his free time to his most gratifying passion: writing. Lights On The Sea is his first novel.

Connect with Miquel

Website/Twitter/Goodreads