The first book I read by Sarah Maine was THE HOUSE BETWEEN TIDES and I was blown away by the wonderful story and the atmospheric setting. I was eager to find out if WOMEN OF THE DUNES would be as good. And it was!

To be able to effortlessly write a book with three different storylines without confusing or making any of the storylines less interesting than the others is a gift and I think that Sarah Maine has this gift. I'm so used to dual storylines that getting one with three storylines feels like an oddity, in a good way.

First, we have the present-day story with Libby Snow, an archaeologist, who has been intrigued by the legend of Ulla since she was a small child and staying with her grandmother in Newfoundland. When she gets the chance to travel to Ullanessm, the Scottish Island where it is said that Ulla was washed ashore according to legends, she is thrilled. What she didn't expect to find on the Island is a body from the Victorian era. Who has been buried there and why? As the story progresses, two more stories are also told: the real story of Ulla, as well as the story set in the nineteenth-century with young Ellen, caught between two brothers, one who she has always loved and one who just want to ruin her for his own pleasure.

WOMEN OF THE DUNES made me feel like I was in Scotland. I was with Ulla when she washed ashore and all that what happened to her next. I was also with Ellen when she desperately tried to avoid the clutches of a man that has no good in his heart while she dreamed about a future with the man she loved. And, I was with Libby as she tries to find out the truth about the body in the dunes. I loved how the legend of Ulla that Libby knows has some grain of truth, but at the same time is far from it.

It's such a wonderful book and I'm glad that I haven't read BEYOND THE WILD RIVER, another book by Sarah Maine. I'm so looking forward to reading that one and future books by Sarah Maine.