Book info

• Title The Last Summer
• Author Karen Swan
• Year 2022
• Genre Romance

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 lays 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... Then, 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.

Thoughts

This is such an interesting book with a few different layers. It’s got the history of St Kilda, a fascinating island that was so remote but eventually abandoned by the inhabitants. It’s also a bit of a drama and mystery, it’s a fish out of water story both on and off the island, and of course more than anything a romance at heart. It did take me a while to get into it but once invested, I really couldn’t put it down. I wanted to know what happened and oof, it only goes and ends on a cliffhanger that means I absolutely have to read the others in the series.

Rating: 4 / 5