This was a disappointment after hearing all the comparisons to authors I enjoy. I was expecting a slowly paced story with a growing sense of mystery and suspense. Instead, it felt mostly like a dreary tale of a woman caught in a marriage gone bad - not my cup of tea! The modern part of the story did have more intrigue, but I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters for the most part.

Part of the problem was the narration on the Audible version. When she wasn't doing Scottish accents, the narrator had a habit of drawing out the last syllable and slightly raising the pitch of any word before a comma or at the end of a sentence. I don't know if that is just a dialect I'm not familiar with or a personal idiosyncrasy. Either way, it added a weird tension to the story, especially in parts that weren't inherently tense. That was very distracting. I did like that she did do the parts of the Hebridean characters in what I assume is the actual Hebridean accent. That is distinct from the usual Glaswegian or Edinburgh accents I usually hear.

On the plus side, I did enjoy the beautiful descriptions of the land. Maine captured the rugged beauty of the islands well. The underlying themes about protecting the natural world and valuing compassion over wealth were also appreciated. The ending also wasn't what I was expecting.