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I’ve always believed that certain places stay with you forever — their air, their light, their stories. For me, that place is Saint Simons Island, Georgia. I’m a professional landscape architect by trade, but a storyteller at heart. My summers on the island were filled with salt air, drifting marsh grass, and the quiet watch of the lighthouse, and they left me with a deep love for Southern history and the beauty of its coastal landscapes.
By the Light of the Bluff was born from that love — and from my fascination with the resilience of the human spirit. I wanted to tell a story about a woman who, like the lighthouse itself, stands tall in the storm. Jesse Whitmore’s journey is one of survival, courage, and the search for sanctuary in a world still healing from the Civil War.
The novel grew from long walks under moss-draped oaks, research into the island’s past, and an imagined blending of its real history with the people who might have lived it. I’m drawn to the idea that lighthouses don’t force the way — they simply shine, and we choose whether to follow.
Today, I live in the Orlando area, where I continue to write stories that bring together history, heart, and the enduring beauty of the South. If my books can transport you to a windswept bluff, a creaking dock, or a quiet marsh at sunset, then I’ve done what I set out to do.
Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite
By the Light of the Bluff by Blake Gunnels is a historical novel that takes the reader to the small island of Saint Simons off Georgia’s Atlantic coast just as the South is trying to rebuild after the Civil War. For Jesse Whitmore and her two young children, Saint Simons was to be a hiding place, a refuge, an escape from Jesse’s abusive husband. Since returning from the war, her husband, William, had become a different man, prone to unpredictable, extreme violence and abuse. Terrified for her safety and that of her children, she hopes Saint Simons might be far enough away from her Virginia home so that William can never find them. What Jesse discovers in Saint Simons is friendship, community, family, and a half-completed lighthouse that will play a massive part in her family’s future.
By the Light of the Bluff is a powerful, sweeping narrative that will capture the reader’s attention from the very first lines. Author Blake Gunnels has painted a windswept but beautiful island where Jesse and her children can flourish and grow without the ever-present violence of their home life. Jesse is a wonderful character who portrays courage, spirit, and determination, but still manages to maintain dignity and humility, which makes her so appealing. To leave her husband, regardless of his violence, took immense courage in the 1870s. Under the law, a man’s wife and his children belonged to him - they were effectively chattels. I loved watching Jesse grow and develop from the mild, timid woman who first arrived on the island to the confident, self-assured member of the community of Saint Simons. The lighthouse, with its powerful beam cutting through the darkness, was the perfect analogy for the way the caring and loving community of Saint Simons managed to cut through Jesse’s darkness and flood her doubts, suspicions, and life with love and light. This is a wonderful story that I thoroughly enjoyed. I highly recommend this read.
