5-STAR REVIEW: THE LIGHT ON HORN ISLAND by Valerie Fraser Luesse

Publication Date: April 29, 2025

Just when her life comes crumbling down, she discovers secrets that could shape her future—and heal her past.

When Edie Gardner’s life in New York falls apart, her grandmother Adele “Punk” Cheramie coaxes her back to tiny Bayou du Chêne, Mississippi. Edie spent many happy summers there, a stone’s throw from untamed Horn Island, where she once found love. Can she now demystify the island’s strange new light?

Punk and her colorful friends introduce Edie to the Trove, a fascinating gallery and antique shop. Like Horn Island’s light, The Trove has appeared out of nowhere. Its proprietor, with a gift for discerning his customers’ needs, gives Edie a Victorian parlor game that asks players a series of personal questions, which is harmless fun at first. But Edie and her grandmother’s circle find that the game has a way of uncovering secrets, including a heartbreak that has haunted one of the women for decades. Banding together, this Southern sisterhood is determined to find answers that will bring healing, hope, and happiness—and maybe explain the transcendent illumination of a wild and windswept barrier island.

Tying together themes of sisterhood, self-discovery, and redemption, bestselling author Valerie Fraser Luesse pens another inspirational Southern Christian fiction story perfect for book clubs.

The Light On Horn Island is a gem of a Southern novel. Valerie Fraser Luesse creates the relaxing, loving, and welcoming environment of the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Her characters of Punk, Charly, and the eccentric trio of sisters Sugar, Cookie, and Coco form the community of women who support Edie, a young woman returning to her grandmother’s home for comfort after losing her friend.

As the story opens, it appears as if Edie is where the majority of the story revolves. She has left the big city to heal in the comfort of her grandmother’s home in the community where she grew up. However, each of the women of Bayou de Chêne has a past that has shaped them, and as they reveal their hard-won strengths to Edie, she realizes she has as much to give as to receive. All the while, Jason Toussaint seems more than only the man who asks Edie to catalog photographs of Hurricane Camille. There is a strangeness, almost a light about him. Mysteriously, he seems to always be at the right place at the right time.

Since my upbringing was just over the border in Louisiana, I could easily walk through the scenes, understand the colloquialisms, and even taste the gumbo! I couldn’t have dictated a description of culture any better than Ms. Luesse created for her novel. The sensory detail alone will make readers consider the area for vacation.

The story will easily lure you in with the strong Southern characters that are far from stereotypical, yet the depth of the story lies in the inclusion of the impact of 1969’s Hurricane Camille. Edie curates a photo history exhibit and researches and interviews survivors to recall the devastating events 30 years later.

The Light On Horn Island exquisitely mixes quirky Southern women with the history of Hurricane Camille, then adds a dash of divine intervention.  The blend is unique and will easily appeal to the taste of all sorts of readers.  

Valerie Fraser Luesse is the bestselling author of Missing Isaac, Almost Home, The Key to Everything, Under the Bayou Moon, and Letters from My Sister. She is an award-winning magazine writer best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she retired as senior travel editor. A graduate of Auburn University and Baylor University, she lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her husband, Dave.