**Spoilers Ahead, Read On With Caution**
Another Callie Hart book that completely caught my eye, so I immediately downloaded it on to my kindle whilst I waited or the paperback copy to arrive. The cover art is so lovely, that it felt prudent that I listen to some Taylor Swift and Dermot Kennedy while reading in my little corner.
One of the things that I like about this book is the fact that it shows us the different characters lives before meeting. More specifically that of Ronan’s time in Afghanistan. 
The book itself starts right in the middle of the action that Ronan Fletcher is currently facing whilst in the middle of a war zone. Next we get to see Ophelia at her job interview, with Ronan, for a grand babysitting job on an island off the coast of Maine. What happens next once Ophelia Lang makes it to the island was completely shocking, and not something that I’d anticipated in the plot at all. The sudden suicide of Ronan the night that she arrives really sets the tone and pace for the rest of the book as now, as the reader, we have no idea where the story is really going to take us, and what those Afghanistan flashbacks mean. another thing, is when Ophelia thinks that she sees Ronan‘s ghost in the window, and then later at the base of the stairs, we really don’t know what’s happening as now suddenly there could possibly be a supernatural element involved; which really keeps us on our toes and at the edge of our seat as the reader.
“He was a man possessed. I was a woman lost. Together, we were two halves of something fragile and delicate, beautiful in its complexity.”
Later in the book when it is revealed that Ophelia has indeed been chosen to be the guardians of Ronan’s children, Amie and Connor, we also discover his secret twin. for me, once Sully is fully introduced the story starts to really pick up. Watching Ophelia try and get Sully on side to take care of the kids he has never met, or been an uncle to, is when the book really starts for me. I loved getting to see the tension and agitation grow between them. There’s a chapter that really expands their relationship as Sully is unwell, and Ophelia goes to his lighthouse to essentially feed him and try and make him take his pain meds. This all happens after a catastrophe on the beach that Sully barrels into, and tries to save the drowning men from a shipwreck. It’s a classic plot device really, because it gives the characters an unavoidable situation where they have to be together. It’s always one of my favourite bits to read, and this was no exception.
“You’re not real,” he told me, curling a piece of my hair around his index finger. “How can you be?” “I’m pretty sure I am,” I said breathlessly. “Then why do I constantly feel like I’m underwater when I’m with you? Dreaming? Imagining every second?”
Something else I enjoyed was seeing the bond slowly build between Ophelia, Connor and Amie, and then later between the kids and Sully. You root for them, you want them to all figure out this new dynamic and be happy within it. One thing that did start to grate on me slowly, was how Ophelia continuously called the kids “the children”, some variation would have just made it feel less repetitive.
Overall I did really enjoy the story. It was unique and well written. I was completely sucked into the plot, and incapable of putting it down. It’s highly likely that this’ll be a book I reread in the future, but for now, it’s all about finishing MIDNIGHT SUN.
BECAUSE BOOKS 