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A review by diaryofdifference
The Last Summer by Karen Swan
5.0
Another Karen Swan novel, and another book that entirely gripped me. The Last Summer is the first book in the Wild Isle Series, with the Stolen Hours being published this year (2024). Set in the remote Scottish island of St. Kilda, it was the perfect blend of wilderness and romance.
About The Book:
Summer on St Kilda – a wild, remote Scottish island.
Two strangers from drastically different worlds meet . . .
Wild-spirited Effie Gillies has lived all her life on the small island of St Kilda but when Lord Sholto, heir to the Earl of Dumfries, visits, the attraction between them is instant. For one glorious week she guides the handsome young visitor around the isle, falling in love for the first time – until a storm hits and her world falls apart.
Three months later, St Kilda falls silent as the islanders are evacuated for a better life on the mainland. With her friends and family scattered, Effie is surprised to be offered a position working on the Earl’s estate. Sholto is back in her life but their differences now seem insurmountable, even as the simmering tension between them grows. And when a shocking discovery is made back on St Kilda, all her dreams for this bright new life are threatened by the dark secrets Effie and her friends thought they had left behind.
My Thoughts:
Life at St. Kilda is very remote, and we get to find out more through Effie’s adventures. When the island has some new guests, one in particular is about to catch Effie’s eye. After a few days of adventure, and what seems to be, the start of a love story, the islands receive the news that they are to be evacuated for a better life on the mainland.
“I don’t know what you’re so worried about. A girl’s perfectly safe flirting with a man she knows can never marry her, especially the son of an earl. It’s the men who can marry you that you should be wary of.”
The book is split into two parts, before and after the evacuation and the change of tone and atmosphere is evident.
“But I’m not poor, sir.”, she replied, with sudden defiance. “That’s just it. I have everything I need here. A poor man needs what he does not have, but I want nothing more.”
People find it hard to adjust and I couldn’t help but feel for them. I know it doesn’t compare, but it reminded me of me coming to the UK for the very first time. Thinking I know English, and yet, not quite capturing the accent and asking people to talk slowly to me. Not fully understanding the culture and humour, and not quite fitting in.
“I know it’s hard. Hardest of all on the two of you. In a couple of months, our lives are going to change forever. We’ll leave here and everything we know will be different. Every single thing. Some will be better, some will be worse. But I also know a day will come when we’ll look back on this moment – on the three of us sitting on the grass, with feathers in our hair and dead birds by our feet – and there’ll be something of it that still remains.”
This book was a bundle of emotions, but I enjoyed every moment of it. It made me really want to visit Scotland, and especially St. Kilda. I am now quite intrigued and excited to continue this journey and also read The Stolen Hours.
“Their gazes locked again and she had it again – that sensation of falling, far scarier than anything she’d ever known on a rope; a tension seemed to exist between them that paid no need to barriers the factor had warned must keep them apart.”
About The Book:
Summer on St Kilda – a wild, remote Scottish island.
Two strangers from drastically different worlds meet . . .
Wild-spirited Effie Gillies has lived all her life on the small island of St Kilda but when Lord Sholto, heir to the Earl of Dumfries, visits, the attraction between them is instant. For one glorious week she guides the handsome young visitor around the isle, falling in love for the first time – until a storm hits and her world falls apart.
Three months later, St Kilda falls silent as the islanders are evacuated for a better life on the mainland. With her friends and family scattered, Effie is surprised to be offered a position working on the Earl’s estate. Sholto is back in her life but their differences now seem insurmountable, even as the simmering tension between them grows. And when a shocking discovery is made back on St Kilda, all her dreams for this bright new life are threatened by the dark secrets Effie and her friends thought they had left behind.
My Thoughts:
Life at St. Kilda is very remote, and we get to find out more through Effie’s adventures. When the island has some new guests, one in particular is about to catch Effie’s eye. After a few days of adventure, and what seems to be, the start of a love story, the islands receive the news that they are to be evacuated for a better life on the mainland.
“I don’t know what you’re so worried about. A girl’s perfectly safe flirting with a man she knows can never marry her, especially the son of an earl. It’s the men who can marry you that you should be wary of.”
The book is split into two parts, before and after the evacuation and the change of tone and atmosphere is evident.
“But I’m not poor, sir.”, she replied, with sudden defiance. “That’s just it. I have everything I need here. A poor man needs what he does not have, but I want nothing more.”
People find it hard to adjust and I couldn’t help but feel for them. I know it doesn’t compare, but it reminded me of me coming to the UK for the very first time. Thinking I know English, and yet, not quite capturing the accent and asking people to talk slowly to me. Not fully understanding the culture and humour, and not quite fitting in.
“I know it’s hard. Hardest of all on the two of you. In a couple of months, our lives are going to change forever. We’ll leave here and everything we know will be different. Every single thing. Some will be better, some will be worse. But I also know a day will come when we’ll look back on this moment – on the three of us sitting on the grass, with feathers in our hair and dead birds by our feet – and there’ll be something of it that still remains.”
This book was a bundle of emotions, but I enjoyed every moment of it. It made me really want to visit Scotland, and especially St. Kilda. I am now quite intrigued and excited to continue this journey and also read The Stolen Hours.
“Their gazes locked again and she had it again – that sensation of falling, far scarier than anything she’d ever known on a rope; a tension seemed to exist between them that paid no need to barriers the factor had warned must keep them apart.”