The Last Summer: A wild, romantic tale of opposites attract . . . (The Wild Isle Series Book 1)

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The Last Summer (of You & Me), by Ann Brashares (the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series) is an adult novel which tells the story of three friends/siblings: Paul, Riley, and Alice. Each is in their early twenties, and like the generation they belong to, they’re still on the cusp between childhood and adulthood, trying to figure out who they are and their relationships with each other and the rest of the world. Independent I so enjoyed The Last Summer by Karen Swan, which provides fascinating details about life on St Kilda prior to the evacuation of its inhabitants from the island. Powerful writing and a wonderful premise make this a novel you’ll simultaneously want to savour and race through. I loved it and can’t wait for the next in the series!

The loyal servents are described as old-school Russians who still feel like serfs. They are joined by a new addition, Lyu, who is taken on as a bodyguard and secretary to Yegor in an attempt to mitigate Lusinya’s worries following the death threat. Unbeknown to them, Lyu is the rebel student’s chosen assassin. Yegor van Rasimkara, the governor of St Petersburg closes the university and imprisons some radical students. He receives death threats and as a result his wife Lusinya hires a bodyguard, Lyu to protect him whilst his family vacation at their summer home. But little does she realise that Lyu sides with the students. Has she invited the viper into the nest? A dramatic start to a gripping new series set on the Scottish island of St Kilda. The Last Summer is meticulously researched and beautifully told by one of our most prolific and talented writers. It contains all the ingredients of a wonderfully satisfying read: love, passion, drama, violence, menace and peril, and characters you fall in love with - and some you hate! Happily, this is the start of a series so your longing for more will be fulfilled.The book is in two parts, following the life of eighteen year old Effie before and after the evacuation from the island in 1930.

We can see that Lusinya truly loves Yegor, the professor, longing forward to the time she can be alone with him. Whilst the children may not necessarily agree with their father’s political views, and indeed are more revolutionary than their parents may realise, they obviously care for him. As for Lyu, whilst he intent on his mission the longer he spends with the family the more he grows to feel for them. His letters become tinged with something akin to regret as the story progresses. I loved the author’s vivid descriptions of St Hilda which told of a very different life to the one I know. The author writes the book so I felt like I was actually there scaling the cliffs and hunting for birds alongside Effy. I was so intrigued that I spent a lot of time googling the Isle to see how it looked in real life. I doubt I’d have been able to cope with the harsh life there but it was interesting to live it through Effy. The description of the house and the community there amongst the servants was also really wonderful. I loved following Effy as she adjusted to life at the house and made new friends. Life is hard for the villagers on the island but it's the only life 18 year old Effie Gillies has known. Effie is wild and determined she has had to work as hard as the men to help support her ailing father. Following a rather violent student protest, Yegor von Razimkara, the governor of St. Petersburg, closes the state university. The implicated students await the trial, which will take place by the end of the summer. Meanwhile, he and his family move to the countryside and his wife hires a young, clever man called Lyu as a secretary and bodyguard to protect her husband from any (real or imagined) threats. Lyu has very devious, violent plans, though, which are gradually revealed in his secret correspondence to an accomplice called Konstantin. Throughout the many hours listening I was kept hooked and I didn't want this to end! Especially like it did! Literally a cliff hanger - excuse the pun!They meet again a few months later when Effie accepts a job offer from the Earl of Dumfries. Now, Effie has the opportunity to see Sholto in the society which he is part of. The status differences are now more obvious, and their story seems impossible, even before it really begins.

Several times I've caught myself rereading a particular sentence over and over, and I think, what a lovely sentence. With all the lovely sentences in there, I can't figure out why I'm not more impressed with the writing.

Member Reviews

Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy of this book. I’ve been a long term fan of Karen Swan’s books, always enjoying the flowing prose filled with descriptive sentences that allow the readers to really immerse themselves in the setting as well as the story. Whether the setting is Spain, Rome, Norway or Canada, there is a real sense of place in her books. This time her setting is St Kilda and the Scottish mainland in the 1930s, at the time of the evacuation of the inhabitants of the island of St Kilda, whose meagre population struggles for survival in a centuries old manner, cut off from much of modern conveniences. It is told through the eyes of Effie Gillies, a wild tom boy type whose skill at all the men’s work required for their survival, including rope work along the cliffs, captures the attention of Lord Sholto when he visits with his father, the Earl of Dumfries, just before the evacuation. She becomes their guide, her knowledge and understanding of birds catching the earl’s attention and admiration. But it’s his son who finds her more than a source of information, and his attention becomes irresistible to Effie. The two are drawn together, ever closer, until circumstances forces them apart. Ricarda Huch was not well known in the English-speaking world until the Australian critic and man of letters Clive James devoted pp. 328-33 of his 2007 Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts to her. He called her the First Lady of German humanism and as a bridging figure between Germaine de Stael and Germaine Greer. He reminds readers that she educated at the University of Zurich, from which she was one of the first women to graduate, because in her day, German universities did not allow women to be candidates for degrees. He describes her gift for talking about the powerless as if they had the importance of the powerful, as shown in her book about the Thirty Years' War. According to James, when the Nazis came to power in 1933, they sought to recruit her into the party or at least “co-opt her prestige” but she declined to cooperate. She resigned as the first woman ever elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts, and wrote to composer Max von Schillings, president of the Prussian Academy, asserting that the Nazi concept of Germanness was not her Germanness. She then retired to private life in Jena (she turned 69 in 1933), effectively going into internal exile. The final letter in the novel - and literally the final letter 'Y' - is poignant, brutal and haunting as the ramifications of what this means sink in. However, her ambition and her spark creates many open doors for exploring and despite initial prejudices for her name sake, she wins the hearts of many surprising characters! I can imagine in the 1930s this spirited girl existed and I hope it's true! The last summer is the story of Clarissa, only daughter of the wealthy Granville family, who are the owners of Deyning, a vast and decadent country estate. For seventeen year old Clarissa,Deyning is the only world she has ever really known, and she spends her days in a blissful, innocent haze; however the glass bubble of her world is about to shattered as the growing threat of war draws ever nearer. Before then, however, she is afforded one last, glorious summer, surrounded by her family, her beloved brothers, and it is then that she meets Tom Cuthbert. TOm is the housekeeper's son, studying at Oxford, and though they come from different worlds, there is an undeniable connection between them. Yet their romance is only blossoming when war breaks out, a war that will forever change all their lives and leave Clarissa yearning for that long ago summer. Will Clarissa and Tom's love for each other survive the war and the social barriers between them; or will that too merely fade into a memory?

Lord Sholto has lead a privileged life but when he and his father visit the island they do not show airs and graces as Effie acts as tour guide to the visitors. Sholto falls for Effie the minute he sees her and Effie dreams there may be a life for her off the island. The author certainly leaving us wanting more and I do hope we get to find out who owned the brooch. I actually want to relisten to see if there are any hidden clues! Swan's earlier novels are largely contemporary in which he carefully introduces another story that begins in the past. "The Last Summer" is entirely historical fiction, but I enjoyed it just as much. I've read several of the author's previous novels and I love the way she combines romance and a bit of mystery with a strong sense of place. In this case, I was pleased to learn about the evacuation of the island of St. Kilda. The other thing I hated about Clarissa was that she was worse than helpless. It was like she was adrift in the sea, and wherever the tide took her, there she allowed herself to go. She was more persuadable than Anne Elliot, and she never learned her lesson, either. Whoever was nearest to her at the moment, she allowed to make her life’s decisions for her—be it getting engaged, having sex, giving up her child for adoption, getting married, or shooting up on morphine (I’m not even joking about that part). She was a creature of the moment, never thinking of a plan for the future. A challenge to the status quo by students has resulted in the governor of St Petersburg, Yegor von Rasimkara, closing the university. This controversial action has been countered by a threat to the governor’s life.The writing is taut and insightful laying bare how selfish individual outlooks tend to be. Other than Lyu, whose actions some may consider a necessary means to an end, the cast at first appears benign. Their actions, however, will have repercussions on the less fortunate. They think of helping only when it was of little trouble to them. Peirene issues books in trios. This is the first of the three books in the “East and West: Looking Both Ways” series. The other two, The Orange Grove by Larry Tremblay and Dance by the Canal by Kerstin Hensel, will be released later in 2017.] Thanks to Peirene Press for an ARC of the English translation of Ricarda Huch's Der letzte Sommer. Not easy to capture the German of 1910! This is the first book in a series featuring three young women from the island. This book centres around Effie, a ‘tomboy’ who as the only child of her unable-to-work father, does the work of men on the island. She’s excellent at it, probably close to the best on the island, which does cause some resentment and also garners her some attention from those that she definitely wishes would rather not see her. When all the men are off on another island tending the sheep, Effie is tasked with showing an Earl and his son around, demonstrating the things the locals do such as scaling the cliffs attached to ropes. The Earl is a keen bird watcher and collector and Effie is incredibly knowledgeable and is able to share that with the Earl, who admires her. She also connects with his son – despite them being from two very different worlds. When Effie and the rest of the locals are evacuated, the Earl offers her a job curating his collection. But Effie is in a completely different setting now and she’s hurt when the Earl’s son, Lord Sholto, treats her differently.