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  • The Last Summer

  • Wild Isle, Book 1
  • Written by: Karen Swan
  • Narrated by: Katie Leung
  • Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)

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The Last Summer

Written by: Karen Swan
Narrated by: Katie Leung
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Publisher's Summary

Opposites attract in this epic and spellbinding historical novel, which transports us from the untamed beauty of a remote Scottish island to the glamour and intrigues of high society in the 1930s. The Last Summer is the first book in The Wild Isle series by Sunday Times bestseller Karen Swan, inspired by the true history of St Kilda and its small island community.

Summer on St Kilda – a wild, remote Scottish island.
Two 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.

Three months later, St Kilda falls silent as the islanders are evacuated for a better life on the mainland. With her friends and family scattered, Effie is surprised to be offered a position working on the Earl’s estate. Sholto is back in her life but their differences now seem insurmountable, even as the simmering tension between them grows. And when a shocking discovery is made back on St Kilda, all her dreams for this bright new life are threatened by the dark secrets Effie and her friends thought they had left behind.

©2022 Karen Swan (P)2022 Macmillan Publishers International Limited

What the critics say

"The Last Summer is meticulously researched and beautifully told...a wonderfully satisfying read: love, passion, drama, violence, menace and peril, and characters you fall in love with... Happily, this is the start of a series so your longing for more will be fulfilled." (Santa Montefiore)

"The most exciting, enchanting and evocative story of forbidden love I’ve ever read. I truly loved it and am waiting feverishly for the second instalment." (Cathy Bramley, author of The Summer That Changed Us)

"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!" (Jill Mansell, author of And Now You're Back)

What listeners say about The Last Summer

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The last Summer

Another excellent book by Karen Swan! Everything about it was great! Can we give it 10 across the board instead of 5?
Narrator was superb!

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Last summer

The book’s was very interesting and kept you wanting to read it very good book

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So good!

This is the first book i've read from Karen Swan and I am hooked! I loved everything about this book.

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Great come to life story about St. Kildans

If you’ve ever visited St. Kilda, this book will greatly enhance your imagination of life on this remote isle and afterlife of the 36 former residents. Can’t wait to read the second of the Wild Isle series!

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