Quite a number of years ago I stumbled across the writing of Elisabeth Gifford when I found her début novel Secrets of the Sea House in the library not long after it was published. It is a book that has always stayed with me. Subsequently, I really enjoyed her second book Return to Fourwinds but since then I have not read anything by this author. Her newest book The Lost Lights of St. Kilda has reminded me just what an incredible author Elisabeth Gifford really is.

The cover for this book is haunting and beautiful and its only when you finish the book that you appreciate its relevance to the overall themes and the plot. Admittedly, at first I did find the story difficult to get into as I found the pace quite slow and I found myself wanting something to happen or it was almost as if I want to reach the climax long before it actually occurred. But just as I reached the halfway point it was like I had a realisation that this was a very special book that needed to be slow in its pace and I needed to take my time whilst reading it in order to savour every glorious word and image that was coming forth with every turn of the page.

The author was in fact weaving an incredible love story but what sets this book apart from any other in the genre, and makes it much more than just a tale of people, is the spectacular and imaginative descriptions of an island community clinging on to the old ways of life isolated on their own unique and remote archipelago cast adrift from the mainland and the modern ways of the world. There are a small band of people that follow the traditions of many hundreds of years where heritage and custom is so important and amongst them is a young girl called Chrissie whose life will be changed for ever by the arrival of the son of the owner of the island Archie and his college friend Fred.

The story develops along two frames that of the summer of 1927 and the years leading up to 1930. But also during World War Two we follow Fred and his experiences of life on the run after his squad The Cameron Highlanders were forced to admit defeat in a small area of France and retreat. I love dual timeline stories and normally the books which I read and feature this aspect have a modern day setting and a setting during the past. But here the timeframes weren't too far apart and both focused on the same characters instead of some distant relative in the present day trying to solve a mystery of the past. So this allowed real development in terms of both plots and characters not to mention the imagery created throughout which only added to the story and helped everything become so clear and vivid in your mind.

The parts of the story that featured Fred as he was trying to make his way back to England during World War Two were incredibly well written and connected so well back to his time spent on the island. Fred is fuelled by his past experiences and his love for a woman is what drives him on as he escapes from his first set of captors and wants to try and get back to his homeland. He now knows more than ever that that summer many years ago was a pivotal point in is life and that mistakes were made. If he is given the chance again he wants to make amends and to let his feelings be known. Through such difficult and challenging times Fred keeps battling forward and with the help of the French resistance he believes he can make it home.

Recollections of good times and the love that is only ever increasing for Chrissie who stole his heart on a remote Scottish island are what sustain him and keep him taking one more step through the fear, pain, terror and hunger. I found Fred's journey to be interesting and riveting and I desperately hoped that all could come good for him but there were many dangers to pass and land to traverse before happiness could hope to be sought. He is all alone in the world with no relatives left to miss or mourn him but he hopes that Chrissie might be out there somewhere hoping and praying that one day they shall be reunited. Having been forced to leave the island Chrissie could be anywhere but her memory implants itself on Fred's mind and she is the reason that he must make it.

In 1940, we learn of Chrissie's whereabouts and how her situation has changed. Someone is asking questions which force her to recollect the past and in doing so the reader is transported to St. Kilda. What follows is a simply magnificent depiction of life on a series of small rugged islands so cut off from everything else far away from civilisation, 100 miles from the mainland. It's lonely, windswept and full of hardship but oh so beautiful. There are no words in which to describe the way the author brought the island to life. I could picture everything so clearly in my head, the high cliffs which the men scaled in summer to catch birds which would sustain the islanders for the winter. The cattle grazing in small windswept fields. The bothies where families lived and worked and during the winter spun wool by the fire and light of the oil lamps lit by the oil of the fulmar birds. Weather played a huge role in this story and as I sat reading I could hear the gales echoing across the island and the massive waves crashing onto shore during the winter months when no ship could get near the island completely cutting off those who lived there. The island was a place of rare beauty, full of history and traditions which the dwindling number of residents cling to.

It was remarkable how ingenuitive they were and how ways and methods passed down from generation to generation still existed but yet the call of the modern world was beginning to make itself known. Three years after Fred and Archie leave the island after a summer spent recording, digging and studying for their respective archaeology and geology degrees the islanders themselves will be removed from the place they called home near to starvation and death. But that is in the future and for now Fred and Archie ingratiate themselves into island life and for Fred, Chrissie will capture his heart but miscommunications, secrets, lies and misunderstandings will play a pivotal role in the shaping of several peoples futures and the course of this story.

The Lost Lights of St. Kilda was a fascinating read and you know the author has done impeccable research and brought a forgotten time to life when you want to go and look up yourself about the island. When I did this, it's testament to Elisabeth Gifford that the image of the island, it's houses, the bay and its residents that I had imagined in my head were very very similar to pictures I found online. Never before has a story created such realistic images in my mind and I really do think this is what helped me appreciate the story unfolding before my eyes. Honestly I didn't truly understand and appreciate just how incredible this book was until I was nearing the end. Faith, hard work, devotion, tradition, a constant, real and true love were all at the heart of this story and each feeling and sentiment comes across in spades.

Chrissie is a young woman who has no experience of the outside world bar interacting with those who come to visit as tourists during the summer so you may think her head was turned by the arrival of two young men one of which she had briefly known in her youth and who had made promises perhaps challenging to keep. But Chrissie followed her heart but would this lead to trouble and devastation? Can she or should she take a risk and change or is the call of the island too strong and the traditions they have there and their way of life just too scared to forgo so readily and easily? Or will Chrissie and many others' future be determined by circumstances out of their control? Will herself and Fred find the redemption they so desperately seek following events of that fateful summer? You must read this brilliant book to discover the answers.

It's very hard to do The Lost Lights of St.Kilda any justice but I hope in some small way I have done so here. This will undoubtedly be a book that come December 2020 will feature on many people's books of the year list. It's a deeply moving and satisfying read with a powerful romance story at its heart. One not to be missed.

A love story set on a remote Scottish island. Captivating, well written and researched.
My thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve started this review several times now, struggling for words to fully convey how much I loved this book – and I’m beginning to doubt that I have the vocabulary I need. So instead, I threw a few words, phrases, feelings and thoughts onto the page, and hope I’ve pulled them together into something coherent. But just in case I haven’t managed it, and for the avoidance of doubt, this book moved me so deeply, and kept me entirely gripped from its first page to its last: the author’s story-telling is simply exceptional, the way she creates her characters together with the conditions they live in, the way she made me feel. I haven’t read a book by Elisabeth Gifford before, and I plan to add every one to my reading list: I really can’t believe it’s taken me so long to discover her writing, and I’m hungry to read more.

So first, I think, a bare outline of this dual timeline story. One of its threads, perhaps the most dominant one, is set within the community eking out a living on the island of St Kilda. It’s a close community, but a dying one – every bleak winter brings its people closer to starvation, as they depend on their meagre crops, their animals, and the birds they’ve been able to catch and preserve to supplement their diets, when the passing ships no longer call. The images are stunning – none more than the dangers of gathering chicks from the cliff face, barefooted, suspended by ropes, taking advantage of that brief window of opportunity.

The descriptions of the natural world and the impact of the seasons are totally exceptional – coupled with the privilege of experiencing the realities of the precarious lives of the people, this becomes so much more than a book you read, it becomes a disappearing way of life you experience with every sense. Small things had me on the edge of tears: the attitude of the summer visitors with their sense of entitlement and superiority; the intricacies of creating a multi-hued piece of tweed; the joy brought by the delivery of a piano that then wouldn’t fit through any doorway; the way they could only summon help in an emergency by sending messages in small ‘boats’, hoping they would be found wherever they ran ashore. It was unlike me, but I also moved by the part religion played in the community’s lives, and the debate about how their belief could possibly be so strong when their existence was hanging on by a fraying thread – and that transmuted into an examination of love and loneliness that continued to reverberate, and broke my heart.

There’s an entirely enthralling love story here too. Chrissie is a wonderful heroine at the story’s centre – strong, intelligent, resilient, entirely wedded to the life she lives and the community she’s part of – who grows out of her childhood infatuation with the feckless Archie, instead finding a love that’s deep and real with his companion Fred. It’s a love that makes you ache inside because of the sheer impossibility of a happy ending – their lives are so different, so separate, their beliefs so very different. There are twists and turns to their joint story – there in 1927 St Kilda – that have you in pieces, hoping beyond hope that there might just be a way.

And then we have the other thread of the story – the 1940s, Fred’s escape from wartime internment, and his gripping and perilous journey home, with Chrissie as his focus for survival. And I think it’s fair to say that I found Fred’s story every bit as enthralling as Chrissie’s life on St Kilda and the way it worked out – no wrenching, no regrets on departing from Chrissie’s life, a quite wonderful story of survival, the kindness of strangers, extremes of danger, depths of despair, all threaded through with a glimmer of hope and that longing and yearning for the woman he loved. There are some real surprises to the story too, perfectly handled, the need for trust against the threat of treachery, with deeply-seated emotions painfully brought to the surface.

This book really was entirely exceptional – the finest of writing, the keenest of observation underpinned by a love for her subject, setting and characters, the most delicate touch with emotional content, and a story I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget. I don’t need to say “one of my books of the year”, do I? I really defy anyone not to love it as much as I did.

Before reading this book, I'd never heard of St Kilda. Having read the book followed by a tiny little bit of research (hello Wikipedia!), The Lost Lights of St Kilda has even more charm for me. The book tells the story from the perspective of two main characters; Chrissie, born and raised on St Kilda and Fred, a one-time visitor to St Kilda who is now a captured prisoner of war in Nazi-occupied France.

Chrissie's perspective paints the history of St Kilda, the people and the struggles and joys of their lifestyle, starting from her childhood right through to her being a grown woman.

Fred's perspective is of a man trying to right the wrongs of his past whilst desperately trying to escape and return home. As their stories are told, we find out how Chrissie and Fred met, how their friendship ended and what happened to each of them once they each had to leave the island behind.

For me, this book started out a little slow but once we'd got to know the characters, it definitely picked up. Despite this, it is quite a heavy read. We're shown the struggles and pains of living on a remote island where visitors are rare and how those that do visit see the inhabitants as almost savages. The sense of community within the pages of The Lost Lights of St Kilda is both heartwarming and heartbreaking as life on the island becomes more and more of a struggle.

Beautifully written, Elisabeth Gifford has tried to pay tribute to the life and struggles of the previous inhabitants of St Kilda whilst also giving us a wartime love story with an ending that will warm your heart.

Thank you to NetGalley, Elisabeth Gifford and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book took me a while to get into especially as it jumps between characters and years continuously from the very start but I did really enjoy the story and the way it used various characters to tell stories from the past.

As far as historical fiction goes I do need more to draw me in and this isn’t an easy read, it holds a lot of description. I can appreciate this is well written love story but for me it just fell flat.

The characters were interesting but it would have been nicer to have more descriptions on their relationships and their feelings rather than the area that they live in.

An interesting insight into how it must have been to live on an isolated island in a time where life was more basic.

This is a wonderful and heart felt story about a romance set on a small Scottish island. 

The descriptions are beautifully done. The characters are wonderful. 

I felt like I was transported to this little island and watching it all play out in front of my eyes

A sweeping, compelling and convincing love story. I was completely absorbed. Gifford's descriptions of the cruelly beautiful land- and seascapes of St Kilda are so transporting and profoundly evocative. This is a gorgeous novel with a truly gripping premise and impeccable, engrossing historical detail. Utterly wonderful and I only wish I could read it for the first time all over again!

https://brightstarbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/03/04/the-lost-lights-of-st-kilda-book-review/

I loved this book. The descriptions of life on St Kilda are fascinating, and while the author conjures up a beautiful environment, she also stresses the extreme material poverty, and incredibly hard work required from the islanders. The love story is touching and very human, and all in all this is a very enjoyable book.

Beautiful. This is a love story and so much more. The story is set over 2 different time lines. I loved learning about St. Kilda. Any Scottish Island I have been on is amazingly beautiful. The scenery is described so well I can imagine being there. I want to sit and read this book again and enjoy it some more.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I loved, loved, loved this book. It was so interesting to learn about the people of St Kilda and their lives on the island, it's not something I knew anything about before. The research felt extremely thorough, everything felt incredibly vivid. I loved how the folklore of the island was woven into the tales of the islanders. The author writes her characters so beautifully that I immediately felt invested in their stories and lives. She beautifully described the island and life upon it, expertly weaving it with a concurrent WWII France. I couldn't put this book down, I would absolutely recommend it.

The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford is a tale of love, and hope, and of a culture on the brink of disappearing forever. Set before, during, and after World War II, it’s deeply atmospheric. For days afterwards, I kept thinking of these Scottish islands, and the people who lived there – because they felt to me like real people, the characters in this story (always the sign of a good book!). I don’t want to say too much else about The Lost Lights of St Kilda, because I want everyone else to read it, to go into it blind, like I did, and to disappear into the pages. (And also because I’ll be writing up a full review and interview with the author for publication in Scottish Islands Explorer very soon!)

Wow! I really enjoyed this book. St Kilda is a place which fascinates me which is why I choose to read this book and I am so glad I did. I have never been to the island but have visited the Hebrides. This book is both a great story and even better description of life on St Kilda. There are some surprising facts about the way the people lived. I was also interested in the chapters describing the reasons and process of evacuating the island last century. Some books I rush through but this one I almost wanted to eek out to make it last. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review. I highly recommend this book!

This is a historical fiction that features several narrators that of the author, Fred, Chrissie (Christina) and her daughter Rachel Anne. Not only do the narrators change from chapter to chapter but the timeline as well as the location changes.

From 1910 to 1930, Cambridge Undergraduate Fred arrives to work for the summer on an island, St. Kilda, a remote island off the coast of Scotland where people are isolated and living in a poor but well-knit community. He falls in love with Chrissie, a local islander. However, he gets enlisted.

From 1930 to 1940, Chrissie and Rachel Anne had evacuated to the mainland in Scotland where they live.

Finally Fred, a prisoner of war narrates in 1940 from occupied France,he is reminiscing about the past and hopes for a better future.

I liked how the author had three first person narratives because it makes you have a greater insight of all the characters. The author also used beautiful descriptions to interest her readers.

Firstly I have to say how much I love this cover especially after reading the book as it captures the story so perfectly.
The story unfolds in two very different locations. One in Europe through the second world war in 1940, as Fred Lawson has made a daring escape from his captors, as he focuses on the time that he met a young Chrissie, who lived on St. Kilda. His goal is to finally get back to her. The other location is that of St. Kilda which was the furthermost of the Hebridean Islands, being 100 miles off the Scottish coast.
Fred Lawson had gone to the Island in 1927 with the Laird's son Archie MacLeod where he has a summer job and meets Chrissie a young Islander, where friendship soon turns to a much deeper relationship. The story is told through Fred while he is making his way through dangerous territory, while Chrissie is telling her story to her daughter.
The vivid descriptions of St. Kilda and its inhabitants tell of harsh life on an unforgiving land where tragedy struck so many families but also of a community that looked after their other. There wasn't any discrimination of age where the steep slopes lead to the cliff face and claimed regular lives. The bitterly cold winds and harsh winters that made the residents reliant on the ships that called on them in winter, when they could get through. In 1930 the residents had to be evacuated as life there become unsustainable and an era ended.
A truly captivating story of love set in an unforgettable location beautifully brought back to life by this outstanding author. Thoroughly enjoyable.
I wish to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

I loved this book, the descriptions of the small island of St Kilda and the way the people who lived on this island was wonderful. I could almost smell the grass, feel the wind and here the sheep it was so vivid in my mind. This was a dual time line which jumped from 1922 or earlier and onto 1940 and onwards. It wasn’t at all confusing and I was carried along with this story from beginning to end.
I felt sad when I finished it and I feel that this fantastic book will stay with me for a long time.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

What a beautiful book. Such evocative pictures Gifford creates with the cries of the birds and the wind howling. This story has everything, love, war, history. The characters are written so beautifully you find yourself nervous for Fred in his escape, and finally understanding his forgiveness.

A beautiful story.

The Lost Lights of St Kilda is the first book I have read by this author and having read it, I would definitely be keen to read more of her work. I was attracted to the book because it is set on St Kilda, a place I find fascinating. And this was indeed a fascinating read, with that atmospheric cover reflecting the story inside.

The book focuses on Cambridge student Fred Lawson who arrives in St Kilda to work for the summer. If you don't already know, St Kilda is in fact a very remote group of islands off the west coast of Scotland. The people who lived there, lived a very different way of life from most, often cut off from the mainland in winter and where survival could be a real struggle. The community which Fred joins will turn out to be the last to live there as eventually, the struggle became too difficult and the islanders were evacuated.

Fred falls in love with island girl Chrissie and she with him. But with very different outlooks on life, it seems that it must be impossible for them to be together. Thirteen years later, Chrissie now lives on the mainland and hasn't heard from Fred since he left at the end of that summer. Fred has been captured during the Second World War but has escaped and while making his way back to Britain, thinks of the girl he once loved, and still does. His determination to see her again is what keeps him going.

This was a beautifully written account of a way of life that was unique and showed the real challenges of living in this beautiful but wild place. The islanders' love for their home and their pride in surviving there was clear. Through Chrissie eyes we see the beauty of nature but also its harshness. We see how fiercely independent the islanders were and how difficult it was for them to finally admit that living on the island was no longer sustainable. I thought it was particularly poignant to think of what they were leaving: not just their homes, their way of life and all they held dear, but also the graves of their loved ones. It must have been heart-breaking.

The Lost Lights of St Kilda weaves together storylines from two different times, moving smoothly from one character's viewpoint to another and from one time to another. It is a detailed, evocative novel telling of the love not just between the characters but also a deep love of the land.

A beautiful, lyrical tale of romance, war and life on the remote islands of St Kilda. I loved the descriptions of the harsh life of the last remaining residents of the Scottish outpost with its Fulmars and Kittiwakes and struggles to provide the basics of food and existence. Chrissie is an island girl with a deep faith and a love of her simple way of life that has existed for centuries unchanged. The Laird's son, Archie, visits for a summer when she is a girl and they form a simple, childish bond. Years later, Archie and his friend Fred revisit to complete a University dissertation on the geology of the island. Slowly romance blossoms but events take over and the tale is told from 13 years later, taking us to the Second World War in Europe and revisiting the final days of the St Kilda community. A love story, interwoven with historical fact, engaging and beautifully descriptive.

3.5*

~ARC received in exchange for an honest review~

'The Lost Lights of St. Kilda' is an atmospheric love story revolving around the remote island of St. Kilda in the Outer Hebrides and the evacuation of its inhabitants in 1930. It goes between different perspectives and time periods, from just before St. Kilda's evacuation in 1927, and 1940 in the middle of WW2.
I was interested in this novel because I'm from the west coast of Scotland myself (albeit the mainland) and was intrigued by history of the Isle, which is something I didn't know much about until reading this novel. I think the atmosphere of the island was portrayed beautifully and I really enjoyed Fred's POV in particular.

~ Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this title ~

The sad tale of a young couple set on the remote island of St Kilda, off the west coast of Scotland. Fred is a student at Cambridge University and visits the island with his friend Archie. The description is powerful and the book is very atmospheric, describing the evacuation of the island. Set in 1927 and through the Second World War, this is a beautifully written love story. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.