Phoebe's Light

February 1, 2018

Phoebe Starbuck is a young Quaker woman living on the island of Nantucket, MA, in the 18th century. Her marriage to Capt. Phineas Foulger is a dream come true until a secret in her great-grandmother's diary, given to her by her father as a wedding present, threatens to ruin that happiness. Fisher's (An Amish Country Christmas) close attention to the women whose husbands would go to sea for two years or more offers an intimate look at an isolated community, in which life was difficult and lonely. Striving for authenticity and historical accuracy, Fisher unfortunately peppers her dialog with a plethora of thees and thous that may be difficult for some readers. VERDICT Fisher's focus on a new faith group, the Quakers of colonial-era Nantucket Island, offers a fresh take on early America that history buffs will relish.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 19, 2018
Fisher (The Return) opens the Nantucket Legacy series with this charming tale of a sea-loving Quaker woman in 1767 Massachusetts. Phoebe Starbuck comes from a proud family of whalers—that is, except for her debt-ridden, hapless father, who tends sheep on Nantucket. Anxious to experience the sea for herself, adventurous Phoebe has her heart set on marrying Phineas Foulger, the handsome captain of the Fortuna. Leaving behind her aging father as he tries his hand at yet another risky business venture, Phoebe marries Phineas and sets sail on his whaling ship. When seasickness and loneliness make the journey more difficult than she expected, Phoebe turns to her great-grandmother’s journal for inspiration and discovers a secret that forces her question her safety on the Fortuna. After Phoebe mysteriously becomes ill, comfort comes unexpectedly from crew member Matthew Macy—a friend from her youth whom she rejected for his lack of Christian faith. Matthew cares for Phoebe as she regains her strength, causing her to wonder whether he is a changed man. The story is filled with twists grounded in generations of family history. Fisher weaves together a pleasing romance that sets a high standard for future series installments. Agent: Joyce Hart, Hartline Literary.

January 1, 2018
Phoebe Starbuck is doing everything she can think of to draw the romantic attention of Captain Phineas Foulger, but so far, the only man in Phoebe's life is cooper Matthew Macy, whose unique sense of humor has gotten him kicked out of Nantucket's Friends group. However, soon after Phoebe receives her great-grandmother Mary Coffin Starbuck's journal as a birthday gift, she finds herself marrying Captain Foulger and setting sail with him on his ship, Fortuna. This would be the perfect start to a new life if only Matthew hadn't decided to join the ship's crew. Fisher deftly compares and contrasts Phoebe's adventures in the late 1760s with those of her great-grandmother more than 100 years earlier by skillfully interspersing excerpts of Mary's journal in between chapters devoted to Phoebe's attempts to adapt to life aboard ship. Fisher's (The Newcomer, 2017) superb command of her historical setting is particularly commendable as she launches her Nantucket Legacy series, and many readers will find themselves fascinated by how the Quakers were treated when they first arrived in the New World.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)