For a historical tale, this story was a modern fairy-tale retelling. The heroine was Scottish, and she's sent off to the "Beast's" home in Newfoundland. There's no accented speech, no jingo, and modern language usage, which I found pleasant.Phoebe, our heroine, cries a lot, which is a peeve of mine. If she's ever described, I missed it. Her home life is horrible, but that's about the extent of what we're told of it before she's off to be a servant on the ghost-ridden eponymous Somber Island.Much of Phoebe's story is glossed over -- her home life, her perilous trip to Newfoundland. Other bits -- who will carry which tray of food, who then does carry that tray of food -- are ploddingly described.What I missed most was an epilogue of her horrid father and sisters hearing of her wonderful life and love and feeling all bent out of shape over it. That sort of neener-neener would have made me so much happier about this story.All in all, this is a perfectly nice retelling of a classic story. Reading along I thought of this story to remind me of another -Beauty and the Beast (I believe another reader mentioned the relation as well). It was an easy read. I felt that this story wasn't given the time and energy it diserved and needed...it seemed to be either written in a rush or chopped short, there wasn't the details a great story needs. I would think this is a debut author...but it's not. I liked the story but wished the author hadn't held back on the characters and interesting details that would have made it a 5 stars. Would I read it again if I had nothing else to read, sure.
