Book info

• Title The Stolen Hours
• Author Karen Swan
• Year 2023
• Genre Historical

Summer, 1929. Mhairi MacKinnon is in need of a husband. As the eldest girl among nine children, her father has made it clear he can’t support her past the coming winter. On the small, Scottish island of St Kilda, her options are limited. But the MacKinnons’ neighbour, Donald, has a business acquaintance on distant Harris island also in need of a spouse. A plan is hatched for Donald to chaperone Mhairi and make the introduction on his final crossing of the year, before the autumn seas close them off to the outside world. Mhairi returns as an engaged woman who has lost her heart – but not to her fiancé. In love with the wrong man yet knowing he can never be hers, she awaits the spring with growing dread – for the onset of calm waters will see her sent from home to become a stranger’s wife... When word comes that St Kilda is to be evacuated, the lovers are granted a few months’ reprieve. But will a summer of stolen hours together just lead to more heartbreak...?

Thoughts

At first, I wasn’t sure this book was going to grab me in the same way that the first one did but as it gradually retells the story from a completely different point of view, with a new romance to follow and a different approach to the eventual evacuation of the villagers to the mainland. It’s a really good read, and again it makes me want to read the next in the series to see things from yet another perspective.

Rating: 3 / 5