My grateful thanks go to lovely Chloe Davies for a copy of The Stolen Hours by Karen Swan in return for an honest review. It’s my total pleasure to share that review today. I cannot believe I’m only now properly discovering this amazing author! I’m thrilled that I also have the next book in Karen’s Wild Isles series, The Lost Lover, waiting for me on my TBR too.

Already available in other formats, The Stolen Hours is released in paperback on 9th May 2024 by Pan Macmillan and is available for purchase through the links here.

The Stolen Hours

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 that he can’t support her past the coming winter. Options are limited on the island of St Kilda, but the MacKinnons’ neighbour, Donald, has a business acquaintance on Harris also in need of a spouse and offers to chaperone Mhairi there on his final crossing of the year.

She returns an engaged woman, but is in love with the wrong man – one who can never be hers. As she dreads the spring, when she will be sent from home to become a stranger’s wife, word arrives that St Kilda is to be evacuated.

The lovers are granted a few more stolen hours together, but those last days on St Kilda also bring heartache for Mhairi and her friends. And, when a dead body is discovered on the abandoned isle, they all find themselves under the shadow of suspicion . . .

The Stolen Hours is the second book in Karen Swan’s bestselling Wild Isle series, which began with The Last Summer.

My Review of The Stolen Hours

The second book in the Wild Isle series.

It doesn’t matter that The Stolen Hours is the second book in a series as it stands alone perfectly, but it is such a fantastic read that you’ll want to go back and read the first and by the end of The Stolen Hours you’ll be desperate for the next installment. 

The Stolen Hours is dramatic, captivating, sweeping and gorgeously crafted. The plot races along so that Karen Swan holds the reader entranced. I hated being taken away from the story as it’s one of those books where I genuinely thought about what might be happening when I wasn’t reading it, as if I might be missing out. Although the story is rooted in fascinating historical fact, there is an imaginative and mesmerising story here too. 

In addition, this meticulously researched, historical narrative is achingly beautifully written. The sense of place, the use of the senses, the weather, the sea, the everyday lives of the inhabitants of St Kilda – every aspect of the setting and historical detail is absolutely perfect. Writing with a painterly eye that is vivid and filmic Karen Swan places her reader alongside her characters as if they are also on St Kilda or on the Scottish mainland. Reading her descriptions is like looking at photographs. 

Equally wonderful are the characters. There’s a powerful focus on Mhairi’s perspective so that the story vibrates with passion, with true depth of feeling and with heartbreak and joy. I thought this feisty yet vulnerable young woman was depicted perfectly. Indeed all the characters were so multi-dimensional that I experienced strong feelings about them all. I’m desperate to say which characters I loved, to which I could happily have caused physical harm, which I mourned and which I celebrated, but to do so would give away too much of the plot. Suffice it to say that the microcosm of St Kilda holds everything and everybody a reader could want in a story.

With themes of physical and emotional isolation, family, trust, betrayal, survival and belonging, The Stolen Hours feels mature in its telling and understanding in its execution. 

It’s clear that I thought The Stolen Hours was quite, quite brilliant. I loved every aspect of reading this story – even when it was making me rage or breaking my heart. I can’t believe it has taken me so long to discover Karen Swan’s superb writing. What a pleasure to know I have such a back catalogue waiting for me. Karen Swan has a new fan and if you’ve yet to read The Stolen Hours, I cannot recommend it highly enough. 

About Karen Swan

Karen Swan is the Sunday Times top three bestselling author and her novels sell all over the world. She writes two books each year – one for the summer period and one for the Christmas season. Previous summer titles include The Spanish Promise, The Hidden Beach and The Secret Path and for winter, Christmas at Tiffany’s, The Christmas Secret and Together by Christmas.

Her books are known for their evocative locations and Karen sees travel as vital research for each story. She loves to set deep, complicated love stories within twisting plots.

Her historical series called The Wild Isle, is based upon the dramatic evacuation of the Scottish island St Kilda in the summer of 1930.

For further information, find Karen on Instagram @swannywrites, or Facebook, and follow her on Twitter/X @KarenSwan1.