Beautiful, poetic writing,,, but disappointing story telling. 
 They came in with the tide. The moon illuminated long lines of froth as the waves gathered and gathered and gathered offshore, and when they finally broke on the sand, the capaill uisce tumbled onto the shore with them. The horses pulled their heads up with effort, trying to break free from the salt water. As they climbed from the ocean, my father gripped my arm with a pale-knuckled hand. "Be still," he told me. But I was already still. 
 I had been waiting for this book ever since Maggie mentioned that this was her favorite of all of her books to write and that it was the most "Maggie" of them all. Unfortunately, it was a disappointed read altogether. The writing in this book is beautiful. It is poetic at times and this is what I appreciated from this book, and what ultimately made it a 3 star book for me. I won't bother with a description of the plot, you can pick that up anywhere,, and honestly, the plot was not what this book was about, apparently. 
 The first problem I had with this book was the pacing. It was extremely slow, and it really seemed like we didn't actually get to the heart of the story until 75% in. In fact, it was not until about 80% that the two main characters Puck and Sean began to realize they had feelings for each other. It's never a good sign when the reader is not actually engaged until getting through 3/4 of the book. 
 The plot was very weak as well. Reading the author's notes at the end, I see that Maggie attempted writing this book several times over many years, and I can see why. This book was more about the emotions of Puck and Sean, and their individual struggles to hold on to what they love. Sean's love of his capall uisce stallion, Corr grounded him to the island. Puck's love for the island, and her continuing need to make a life on the island, even as an orphan, struggling to keep her (and her brothers') head above water, is what made the character of Puck. There was just so much missing in this book as far as storytelling. But the prose,,, very beautiful, and sometimes I would catch myself sighing at some passage: 
 I think that's the mercy of this island, actually, that it won't give us our terrible memories for long, but lets up keep the good ones for as long as we want them. 
 I so wish I could have given this book a better review since I love the beauty and at the same time the stark harshness of the prose and life on the island of Thisby, but I cannot get over the fact that there was really not enough substance to make it what it should have been. It had the potential to be so much more.