Blog Tour Review: The Enchanted Island by Ellie O’Neill

Title: The Enchanted Island

Status: Read from November 03 to 04, 2015 — I own a copy {Courtesy the publisher/netgalley}

My Thoughts:

The Enchanted Island is Ellie O’Neill’s captivating second novel about self discovery, modern day malaise, and magic.

When apprentice solictor Maeve O’Brien is sent to Hy Brasil, a tiny island off the coast of Ireland, to finalise a deal for a client, she’s determined to prove herself. Sure, she has made some mistakes, betraying her best friend and burying herself in debt among them, but she’s confident that this assignment will help her turn things around. All Maeve needs is a signature from Sean Fitzpatrick, so that the client’s plans to build a bridge between the mainland and the island can go ahead, but the landowner proves to be elusive, and most of the locals uniformly unhelpful.

Stuck on Hy Brasil, determined to complete her mission, Maeve is initially panicked at the thought of being on her own, but without the distractions of retail therapy and her busy city social life, she begins to reevaluate what she is looking for in life. O’Brien pokes fun at our modern day obsession with packaged beauty, social media and consumerism. I really liked the way in which Maeve changes through the novel, letting go of her shallow obsessions, and becoming a more confident, authentic person.

And while many of the locals, especially the elderly are distinctly unfriendly, Maeve makes some new friends including two stoner app developers, a charming gay couple and the handsome local schoolteacher, Killian. It’s not until she finally corners Sean Fitzpatrick though that she learns the secrets of Hy Brasil.

As in Reluctantly Charmed, O’Neill draws on the folklore of Ireland to add a touch of mysticism to this contemporary novel. Hy Brasil is an island of great, almost unspoiled, beauty, rumoured to offer you your heart’s desire, but there is an underlying atmosphere of menace that makes Maeve uneasy. The locals are secretive, bone chilling cries rent the night air, and a dark sort of energy seems to lurk unseen.