Upon finishing this book, I felt relief at learning what happens and seeing Saoirse's painful and haunted journey to a "close", and immense sadness at finishing the book and needing to say goodbye to Hurtoboise's magical storytelling, the characters, and Ireland. I LOVED this book!

Saoirse is both a heartfelt exploration of a young woman put in perilous situations over and over again that manages to find love and happiness in her life and a searing indictment of how people are willing to abuse and manipulate others they have control over.

This happens to Saoirse (then known as Sarah) as a child and teenager, forced into criminal acts by her stepfather, while trying to care for her much younger sister Lea while their mother overdoses. When the circumstances she's faced with become so traumatizing she can't bear them anymore, Sarah flees, using the passport of a friend from Ireland, to travel there and start a new life under a new identity.

But even here she is being manipulated and controlled, by a man she meets on the international flight that welcomes her into his home, but quickly goes from friendly to overbearing. Taking on the name Saoirse from a man named Daithi that she quickly falls for, she dreams of a life with him and expressing herself through art, only an unexpected pregnancy upends her new plans and leaves her in the grasp of Paul and his family.

Pushed to the brink, Saoirse finally gets a chance of the freedom she's been searching for and finds herself happy for the first time in her life. But her exceptional artistic talent is drawing more attention than she anticipated, with the secrets from her past threatening her new life.

The book is wonderful, and heartbreaking. It was somewhat disorienting in the beginning as it starts in Saoirse's present, but then alternates back and forth between her time in the states and her arrival in Ireland. It eventually catches up to her present, and the reader has an opportunity to see the trauma she's faced at every turn of her life, with little support and protection. While she has technically committed crimes, it's hard not to feel sympathetic for a character that seemed to be in no other position but to do so if it meant her own survival.

Hurtubise's writing is elegant and in a way sparing, capturing both the emotions of Saoirse and the beauty of her adopted country without seeming excessive or overwrought. This is not her first book, but it is her American debut, and it is well worth reading.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A haunting, beautifully written novel about reinvention and survival. The story follows an artist living in Ireland under a stolen identity, trying to bury a traumatic past and build a safe life — until success threatens to expose the secrets she’s kept hidden. The prose is lyrical and immersive, and the tension between past and present keeps the pages turning.

This book is absolutely stunning: quiet, emotional, and completely absorbing. Saoirse unfolds slowly in the best way, letting the atmosphere, the art, and the weight of the past settle in your chest. Sarah’s journey of reinvention feels so raw and real, and I loved how Ireland itself became part of her healing. The tension isn’t loud, but it’s always there, simmering beneath the surface as her secrets threaten to come undone. The writing is beautiful and thoughtful, with so much heart. This is one of those books that stays with you long after you finish. Gentle, haunting, and powerful. 🌊🎨

A stunning book. Lyrical and filled with images of Ireland that made me want to hop a plane, but also so heartbreaking in the depth of the pain Saoirse was running from I had to actively stop myself from crying.

This book is beautiful in its hope. Centered around a young girl who takes a huge risk and runs away from the life that will surely kill her, she finds a new life, and new trials, in Ireland. Haunted by the one decision that brought her here, she wants nothing but a simple life, and to stay safe, even at the expense of her own happiness.

It highlights how the world fails children, especially young girls, and some of the more backward beliefs that, at the time the novel is set (not sure if things remain the same) how the world was stacked against women (abortion and divorce are not legal, to start with). You can feel the desperate spiral that Saoirse finds herself in as her new life beings to gain traction and her talent attracts attention. No matter what she does, she is hurtling towards an unknown conclusion and she doesn't know who she can trust.