Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Dauntless
SERIES: Dauntless Island
AUTHORS: Lisa Henry & J.A. Rock
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 180 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2025
BLURB:
Welcome to Dauntless Island, where nothing much has changed in two hundred years, and that’s just how the islanders like it.
Joe Nesmith leads a peaceful life as the lighthouse keeper on Dauntless Island, a small community off the coast of Australia where the occupants are proud of their mutinous history and have very long memories.
When graduate student Eddie Hawthorne comes to Dauntless, he brings with him a historical diary that throws everything the islanders have ever believed into disarray—and one of them may even resort to deadly measures to make sure that Eddie’s research never sees the light of day.
Unless Joe and Eddie can stop it, Dauntless’s bloody history is set to repeat itself. On the plus side, if they survive this, they might actually realise they’re falling in love.
Dauntless contains a taciturn lighthouse keeper, a cute history nerd, a dog who thinks she’s a seal, and a diary that’s apparently worth killing for. Also, watch out for the goats.
REVIEW:
Red Joe is “king of the island” of Dauntless. Dauntless is a small inhabited island off the coast of Australia and the population are the descendants of the survivors of a shipwreck/mutiny 200 years in the past. Joe Nesmith’s family is the “hero” leader family – hence his kind of the island tongue-in-cheek title. He had thought about staying on the mainland when he was in Uni, but then his dad died leaving his 15-year-old sister alone on the island. So he came back. And there he has stayed. He is the lighthouse keeper, defacto pharmacist/first responder and erstwhile future “leader” of the island. Is he lonely? Are there any dating prospects among the men of the island? Nope.
Eddie Hawthorne is a grad student in history. He has come to Dauntless because of the discovery of a diary. A diary that disputes the entire narrative of the founding of Dauntless. The islanders are none to happy to have some outsider with the name of the “tyrant” that was hanged show up to cast aspersions on the island’s history.
Only Joe seems to be relatively friendly. When Eddie is attacked and his belongings stolen out of his tent, only Joe seem to want to help figure out who has gone over the edge to violence. The rest of the town seems to not care that Eddie was attacked. Luckily Eddie has saved the diary during the attack. That doesn’t seem to stop whoever it is from pursuing the avenue of shutting Eddie up. And can he really trust Joe? He’s got the most to lose if Eddie’s thesis is correct and the towns ancestors were not so much mutineers against a tyrant as much as perhaps murderers??
I enjoyed this story. I would categorize it more as romantic suspense than a romance though 😉 Although Joe and Eddie quickly hit it off and Joe wants to help and protect Eddie, he has some missteps along the way. The town is a bit quirky and they are not happy about an outsider with the name Hawthorne showing up. Not even a little bit. It’s amazing that Joe actually listened to Eddie – but he seems to have a more open mind than the rest of the folks on the island. Clearly there is a mystery here that at least one somebody doesn’t want this diary to see the light of day, nor are they interested in any alternative viewpoints or sources. I didn’t really much like how the townspeople treated Eddie. Joe had to walk a bit of a tightrope with the locals and still try to be fair to and protect Eddie. My only complaint was I would have liked to see more of Eddie and Joe together and their connection was pretty quick. I’m curious to see what will happen next on this island of quirky personalities. Recommended.
RATING: 
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