Author: Emily Cook

Originally published: July 2005

Read: August 2025

Context: after the Deviant strain I was going to swing back to the VNA but decided that I should try to keep up with the 15th Doctor Novels as they were being published, as much as possible anyway. Very much wondering if we will ever get more of these to be honest?!?!, I hope so. I guess we won’t know for a good while about that. Fingers crossed as the 15th Doctor badly needs more adventures.

THE REVIEW

What I thought: I was very much pleasantly surprised by this one. I didn’t have any expectations about going into this one and on reading the first chapter or so I thought this would be a solid but unexceptional 15th Doc adventure. I was wrong. As I progressed further there is something about this story that really got under my skin, I knew nothing about Grace Darling prior to reading this and so was completely hooked on the character/history of this very real heroine. I was amazed by the significance she has to the maritime world I love so much.

For what lets face is is a fairly ‘light’ and child friendly series of Who books this one is packed with detail, feeling and Emily Cook uses the history of Grace to mesmerising affect. I was very moved by the end of this one, I loved it and this is by far the most enjoyable new series adventure I have read thus far, great great stuff.

What I felt? Educated and moved to tears by the end of this novel, an excellent Dr Who adventure doing what Dr Who does best, its all heart this one, loved it.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 shipwrecks: I am only not giving it a five as I wish this was twice as long, but that aside this is a brilliant 15th Doctor adventure. I adored reading this one. More like this please (and more from Emily Cook)

What am I left thinking?

• Why wasn’t Belinda in this one?
• How you can top this within this short format novella style?
• How the Dr Who books of 2026 onward will deal with the lack of Who on TV

Memorable bits

• Fantastic setting, the lighthouse, the sea, the rock…fantastic
• So many memorable parts to this one, a superb use of Grace Darling and pretty much every scene she is in is great, fantastic.
• There ending is superb and so full of hope, best Dr Who message there ever is, so full of grace in every sense of the word.