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

Product Information

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?

I can't thank you enough NetGally, Macmillan UK audio and the author Karen Swan and the superb narrator for this advanced copy of this audiobook.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!

After losing her mother and her brother it is just her and her father, with poor health, surviving and she is desperate for her father's attention as not being his son Effy has to compete with the male islanders to provide for her father. So the thing about this book is I only came to it because the author was mentioned in Hans Fallada’s brilliant but wild prison memoir, “A Stranger in My Own Country”, as one of the few German writers who had not only stayed behind in Germany throughout WW2, but also one of the even fewer who was openly (if not cautiously) critical of Hitler and the Nazis. If Hans Fallada likes you, there’s a good chance I will as well. Not only shops and trees but new rules and discrimination never known to Effy before and yes she causes chaos! Ricarda Huch was a pioneering German intellectual. Trained as a historian, and the author of many works of European history, she also wrote novels, poems, and a play.Summer on St Kilda – a wild, remote Scottish island. In the 1930s, t wo strangers from drastically different worlds meet . . . Wild-spirited Effie Gillies has lived all her life on the small island of St Kilda but when Lord Sholto, heir to the Earl of Dumfries, visits, the attraction between them is instant. For one glorious week she guides the handsome young visitor around the isle, falling in love for the first time – until a storm hits and her world falls apart. This is a captivating book, although when I first began reading, I wasn't sure the structure of the novel - comprised entirely of letters to and from the various characters in the story - was going to sustain my interest. But it did and completely. It gives us an insight into all the characters, their thoughts, feelings and motivations without any sense of artificiality coming into play.

Paul is an annoying guy who spends the entire book angsting about Alice. I don't love Alice. I CAN'T love Alice. Wait. I think I DO love Alice. But does she love me? NO, THIS CAN NEVER BE. THIS SHOULD NEVER BE. When a unique visit from the mainlands Earl and his son throws Effy into being a guide for a week she easily impresses with her knowledge of the island and the bird inhabitants and obviously her amazing climbing skills! Of which will never be forgotten. Effy also has her first experience of that loving spark but sadly once again Effys actions are not well received by her father and the others! With the subsequent evacuation of the residents to the mainland, the story then moves to a story line very similar to watching Downton Abbey! We have the gentry of which Sholto belongs and the staff downstairs. There is plenty of adventure and action in this second half of the book: a dead body found on the evacuated St Kilda and plenty of secrets. There’s a little in this for everyone – there’s a mystery that runs through the second half of the story, where someone meets their demise and there are investigations into it. There’s also a bit of romance although I’m not really sure about that portion of the story. I actually thought a much better match for Effie came from one of the men working for the Earl, as I never really warmed to the one that seemed to be end game. I just really didn’t like the way Effie was treated at certain stages and felt like the excuses for such things were very poor (but to be honest, probably not unrealistic).The Last Summer was published in the UK on February 1st. Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch. It even reminded me of places of Downton Abbey (which maybe is what the author was going for, considering she published this, her first novel, when that show is still so popular). I’m not even referring to the upstairs/downstairs romance with a character named TOM (although that was there), but the fact that the Granvilles, like the Crawleys, made some bad wartime investments and nearly lose their manor house. The Granvilles eventually do have to sell Deyning Park after some valiant efforts to save the place.