The Stolen Hours

A sequel to "The Last Summer", this actually takes place in 1929 before said book but as it was so long ago that I read it, I was not disappointed to know what happened to Mhairi as I could not remember. (Hey, it's been a stressful year and I tend to forget things. I even forget what I have forgotten)

This is book two of a proposed five-book series and it was a nice addition to my already groaning shelf of Karen Swan books. (It is NOT Christmas or summer without a Karen Swan book to read!)

The story is well crafted and the world of St. Kilda is fascinating to read about - it makes me think of the time that "Call the Midwife" went to the Outer Hebrides...it was gorgeous but what an insular place to live.

Enjoy new characters and spend time with the old and be happy that you live where you live,...those are some wild isles out there and unless you are a serious outdoors person, you would have a hard time living there. A nice non-syrupy romance is there as well .

#shortbutsweetreviews

Karen Swan has completely outdone herself with The Stolen Hours. In her author’s note she shares that she had to significantly rework this book during the writing phase and her hard work has certainly paid off. Each word seems strategically placed to set a mood, each turn of phrase wielded to construct a time and place. Absolutely brilliant.

While the first book in this series, The Last Summer, spends time building Swan’s world of St Kilda and introducing us to her incredible cast of characters, The Stolen Hours hits the ground running, with copious amounts of action and drama right from the first chapter.

I’ve been a big fan of Karen Swan’s for years and always recommend her books to others, but these books are stand outs and at a whole new level. Constructed from incredible research and showing impressive historical detail, I recommend these to any historical fiction lover. Can’t wait to see what’s next in book three!

Set on a very small island in the 1929/30 in Northern Scotland, St Kilda, where there is a tiny village. The inhabitants barely scrape out a living, but still have to give the Landlords Factor a great deal of what they have every quarter. The Factor is a mean miserable man, who doesn’t care that he extracts from them. The main character is Mhaira, the oldest of 9 children and in the early part of the story she is told by her father that he can no longer afford to feed her, she has to find a husband. The choices are slim on the Island, but one of her dad’s friends knows a bachelor on a nearby island in need of a wife. Duncan has business with the guy, so he takes Mhairi to meet him. She comes back unhappy, but never the less engaged. She has the winter to come to terms with the arrangement. But a lot happens in the next 6 months. It is a story of forbidden love, some drama and violence. It is well researched and based on a true story and we learn about the hardships of living on such a small isolated northern island. Very interesting and well worth the read.

I am a big fan of Karen Swan's writing and this book did not disappoint. From the very beginning, the book takes off and doesn't slow down until the very end. Highly, highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Net Galley and Pan Macmillan for allowing me to read an advance copy of The Stolen Hours by Karen Swan in exchange for an honest review. I’ve long been a huge fan of this author and having already read The Lost Summer, the first of the series. I was eager to dive into this book.

Set on the isolated, remote island of St. Kilda off the west coast of Scotland, this is the second in Swan’s The Wild Isle series. The attention to historical detail, descriptive language and the fascinating cast of characters drags the reader back 100 years to 1929-1930. I truly felt that I had a bird’s eye view into the life of the 36 crofters as they eked out a hard-scrabble existence on their rock in the middle of the ocean. I can’t imagine being a 19-year-old girl growing up in such a manner.

While the first book in the series revolved around Effie, this book is centred around Mhairi and her love story. She and Effie and their friend, Flora, share a close friendship and have each others backs throughout. In 1930 the British government decides to permanently evacuate the island, moving all 36 inhabitants and their livestock to the mainland forever. The night before the evacuation a mysterious traumatic event occurs and someone ends up dead. This cliff hanger hangs over us as we wait for the next in this very readable, historical series. I can’t wait for the next book!

Love Karen Swan books....have read many over the years and this one fulfills its promise of immersing story and great characters.

Most of you will know that I’ve been reading Karen Swan books for a long, long time now. I was really impressed by the first book in her new historical fiction series, The Last Summer, which was published last year (review here). It was left on such a cliffhanger that I was desperate for the second book. The Stolen Hours focuses on another of the inhabitants of St. Kilda and gives some more details on what, exactly, happened on that last night on the island.

Here’s the book’s description:
A reluctant bride. A forbidden romance. An island full of secrets . . .
It’s the summer of 1929 and 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 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, enjoying a summer of stolen hours together. Only, those last days on St Kilda will also bring trauma and heartache for Mhairi and her friends, Effie and Flora. And when a dead body is later found on the abandoned isle, all three have reason enough to find themselves under the shadow of suspicion . . .
I wasn’t sure how Swan would start off this one. Would it be an immediate sequel, picking up exactly where book one left off? Would the cliffhanger from book one be resolved by the end of book two? It turns out the answer is no to both. I KNOW. I need answers. But I also really appreciate what Swan is doing. This is an ongoing saga and to know the full story, you have to have multiple stories. Instead of continuing where Effie’s story left off, Swan goes back in time and then moves forward to the evacuation once again but this time from Mhairi’s perspective. There were some overlapping stories where pieces from book one started to make a little more sense but there was a lot of new information as well so I wasn’t bored by any repetitive details.



I was, however, a little less…engaged? Maybe? In Mhairi’s story. I loved her, don’t get me wrong. But there were a ton of aspects about that time period that just drove me (and my modern sensibilities) bonkers. I tried to temper that because it’s not fair to put my beliefs and expectations onto characters whose lives are very, very different from my own. When I was able to tamp down my 2023 expectations, I was glad to get a glimpse of what life was/could have been like for women on St. Kilda at that time. I don’t think I would have dealt with it well for all kinds of reasons!

I want to be careful not to share too much about this story because I do think the series needs to be read in order plus there are revelations in this one that I want to keep quiet. Though I will say I did NOT see any of that coming and I wonder how much I may have missed in book one or if Swan cleverly hid some of these details. Whatever it was, it worked for me! I didn’t love some of it but I appreciated how it was all revealed.

I read The Stolen Hours in just a few days - quite the feat for a 400 page novel! I’ve really been enjoying Karen Swan’s journey into historical fiction and I’m desperate to know what actually happened when the residents of St. Kilda were about to be evacuated. I’ll take book three any day now, please!



*An egalley and an ARC were provided by the Canadian distributor, Publishers Group Canada in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*