I really loved the beginning of this book, and overall I think Stedman is a good writer. I would definitely put her on my "watch-list" to see the premise of her next novel, and hope that my personal taste is more in line with her good writing. But the second half and especially final quarter of this book I simply did not like. 
 Learning of Tom's quiet, contemplative life and background, and his discovering the beauty of solitude on Janus Island was wonderful. It genuinely made me wish becoming a lighthouse keeper was still a viable career option (assuming I could still have modern amenities!). 
 Likewise, Tom and Isabel falling in love was quite sweet, without being overly sappy. They complemented each other very well. I perhaps thought their courtship could have lasted a little a longer, but maybe that's just how things were in 1920's Australia. 
 Coming to see Janus Island as their own private island, and appreciating it in different ways was interesting. Isabel seemed to not respect appreciating things for what they are and had a childish and impulsive desire to deface official documents and property for her fairly cute and innocent whims. I suppose that's a decent insight into her character, all things considered. 
 Then the baby shows up on the island. The way the two protaganists behave here was a bit much for me. I definitely understood their initial motivations, and Stedman did fine job bringing those motivations across--especially Tom's inner conflict. That made things a bit easier to swallow (that and the fact they had to make this choice for the premise of the novel to even exist). Even so, I was inwardly screaming to Tom, "Don't do it! You are repeatedly saying what the right thing to do is! Isabel has these tragic memories of forgotten orphans! THAT can be your future and your beautiful family, this is selfish and ridiculous!" Another reviewer noted that they could have also made discreet inquiries to the island; perhaps ask for a bunch of newspapers in the next shipment. 
 From here on out I will getting into spoilers, and from here on out is where this novel took a downward turn for me: 
 (view spoiler)[ Like the courtship, I though Tom's dealings with discovering the surviving mother and her life, his guilt and his attempts to find a balance between redemption and protecting his family, could have been fleshed out more. But this is a minor complaint, and it was actually handled pretty well in a couple of moments. 
 After the now 4-or-5-years-old Lucy is returned to her birth-mother, the majority of the book, to my mind, is just emotional torture for this child. 
 There were few redeeming traits to birth-mother Hannah--primarily this is just feeling bad for her circumstances: The racism her family and neighbors flung at her husband and child, losing her husband and child, and finally having the child returned to her only to realize the child naturally has an attachment to her "fake" family. Nothing else is likable about this woman. Her grief is very apparent, as is her anger. This makes her initial inability to see the incredible pain Lucy is in forgivable, on a certain level. But it never once gets better. She never truly has that "A-ha," moment, and starts to try draw Lucy out on her own terms, make compromises with the child. She comes across as someone that wants to "play mother", or simply have the role fall into place without effort. 
 Again, this is understandable at first, given her tragic circumstances. But I just kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. It never does. 
 I know it's incredibly complicated, and these morons from the lighthouse selfishly committed a certain form of kidnapping, but that's over now. All that remains is doing what is best for this child--who is constantly in utter grief and agony! She is losing weight from not eating, she wets the bed constantly, she cries, she constantly draws pictures of her old family. The only time she "plays" is when she pretends her dolls are her old family, and when those get taken away as punishment for not immediately loving her new/original mom, she creates makeshift toys to continue playing this game where she gets to see the only people she ever knew her entire life! 
 It was like reading Stephen King's Misery, but the torture was mostly psychological/emotional, and inflicted onto a child. Without any point of triumphant payoff! The only people nice to her were her new Aunt Gwen and her new Grandfather. The mother never seems nice--she only a couple of times seems mildly hopeful that this kid will stop hating her, through zero effort on her part. 
 Why insist on calling the kid her old name at this point? Only the grandfather comes up with a happy compromise for that, eventually. 
 Why insist on constant separation from her old family? I agree that what Tom and Isabel did was terribly wrong, but after that point they took good care of the child--and more to the point, this child is now going through emotional torture. And Tom not only is a war hero, but literally rescued Hannah from assault years before! Combined with the complete agony her daughter is going through, the reasonable thing to do would have some sort of system developed, with temporary and supervised visits a couple days a week. 
 That very idea was expressed by Hannah's sister Gwen....and it goes no where. It happens once, in secret. Hannah is outraged, of course. Then Gwen is never seen or heard from again. This is just bonkers at this point. When Lucy runs away from home, lost and alone, desperate to find her old family Hannah briefly makes a bargain with God: Keep Lucy safe, and she will return her to her old family where she is happy. But, I think after the fact, tacks on a condition: Only if one of the parents gets put in jail for 20 years. 
 When that doesn't pan out, when it is clear both of the parents are equally guilty, there is no compromise in Hannah's mind. It was either: Lucy will live with her old family, or Lucy will live with me. Even though Hanna does forgive them. She reconciles that her husband would have forgave them, so she tesitifies on their behalf to give them a slap on the wrist. But Lucy, in agony, does not get to see them again anyway. Where was Gwen in this? Where was the moment where Gwent sits her down and says, "Look, you were just about ready to GIVE THE CHILD AWAY FOREVER to one of them. Let's go back to my system. Let's let her meet with her old family a couple days a week, under supervision, and they can be like her Aunt and Uncle or Godfather and Godmother, making this transition easier on this child." 
 No. Gwen is for some reason gone forever, not even mentioned in the very unhappy final chapter wrapping things up for every other character. 
 All during this, Isabel becomes hard to sympathize with as well, but that's truly a minor point compared to forgetting to make the woman who gets the child to raise even remotely likable. The notion is "If a kid is young enough, they'll get over their grief. So let them suffer the worst kind of pain for months or years, then they'll get over it. Hopefully she'll have a kind and incredibly rich Grandfather. And a kind Aunt, who may or may not ever see her again." 
 And again, in the final chapter, this is incredibly spoiler heavy, but my goodness. Nothing much good happens to the protagonists in my opinion! Their freedom from jail is about their only redemption. They have each other, which should have been enough from the start, but they then discovered that their greatest joy was both their daughter and the idea of a family. Never another kid, never an adoption. Never does Lucy come to visit them, except for when it's basically too late, decades later, with a very sweet message of "I kind of remember you, I guess. Mostly I remember the lighthouse." Jeez! (hide spoiler)] 
 Like I said, the opening of this book and the writing style was great. I hope future works by Stedman don't involve such lengthy, pointless scenes of emotional torture on an innocent victim. And while maybe "Happily Ever After" isn't always realistic, I would have preferred some sort of more satisfying ending than this.