Synopsis:
Seven years ago, Quinn finally dared to transform from a seal into a human and took her first steps on land. As a selkie, she is both a daughter of land and sea. But when a human stole her pelt, he stole her freedom as well, forcing Quinn to become his wife and bear his children. As legend tells, capturing a selkie will bring you luck, and she became a coveted prize.

Constrained to a life that was no longer her own, Quinn longed for nothing more than to find her pelt and seize her freedom. Then one day, her eldest daughter hands Quinn her pelt and without a second thought, Quinn snatches it and escapes to the sea. But she’s no longer used to swimming and doesn’t know where her herd has gone. And after an almost disastrous encounter with her former husband, leaving her severely injured, Quinn doesn’t have the strength to go searching.

Instead, she finds herself taking shelter on a nearby island with a lighthouse and three lighthouse keepers. Quinn doesn’t trust humans anymore and wants to stay hidden from the keepers. But she can’t survive on her own. Can she learn to trust these humans and shed her hatred of all humankind? Or will she give into her fears and accept the monstrous fate that others have bestowed upon her?

Review:
I spent most of the first 7 or 8 chapters wondering why I was trying to push myself to keep reading, finding it very hard to fall into. The stories of the selkies were excellently interwoven to the story, and this is the first novel I have read that featured them as the main creature. Quinn felt different on land and didn’t get along with humans, but we learn more and more as the time went on how she made no efforts to attempt to fit in, and likely no one understood why she was so standoffish. By the time she had children it was too late; no one would allow her into their circles. Once Quinn makes it to the island shelter the story seemed to take off, for me. I loved the story of found family, of learning to trust people despite tragic happenings in your past. While the ending is adequate, I couldn’t get over that Quinn was willing to do everything she could for them while leaving her children behind when it had allegedly bothered her so much previously.

Star rating: ✯✯✯