Stephanie Sullivan: Review - Wild Dark Shore

TITLE: Wild Dark Shore (audiobook)

NARRATORS: Cooper Mortlock, Katherine Littrell, Saskia Maarleveld, and Steve West

RATING: ★★★★

RELEASE DATE: March 4th, 2025

Summary (from Goodreads): A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

REVIEW: This book broke my heart. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a truly wonderful story, but it did leave me heartbroken and in tears. This was the first time I’ve read Charlotte McConaghy’s work, and she’s an amazing writer. I listened to the audiobook version, and I was pulled in from the very beginning. Saskia Maarleveld is one of the four narrators, and I would listen to her read Old McDonald Had a Farm because she is honestly one of the best narrators I’ve ever listened to and one of my favorites. I purposefully seek her out, which is one reason I stumbled upon this book in the first place. The other narrators are enjoyable too, although sometimes it was hard to understand the character Dominic’s narrator. (I don’t remember his name). He has a deep voice that is sexy and spine tingling, but he also has an Australian accent that is sometimes hard to understand. There were several times I had to rewind the book and turn up the volume to try and grasp what he said. That wouldn’t deter me from recommending this book though because I would HIGHLY recommend it to everyone, especially the audiobook version. The plot was very different and unique from anything else I’ve read before, and I loved that because I never knew what was going to happen next, and it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. But, alas…that ending. *deep sigh* I’m not going to give away any spoilers, but I will say the last thirty minutes of the book left me in tears - literally - and broke my heart. I still can’t get it off my mind.

(DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this title from NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.)