Habits of the Sea Review

Hello, all!

Let's chat about Habits of the Sea by Shea Ernshaw.

Pub Date: 7-7-26
Adult - Fantasy

Clay Lockhart's wife and children die in childbirth, and right after he finishes burying their bodies, the storm that was raging intensifies and breaks his land away from the Scottish coast, setting it adrift in the Atlantic. Thirty years later, twelve-year-old Ellie Mills is lured out of bed and discovers the mysterious Saltwell Island floating just off the shore of her Nova Scotia home. She goes to explore and finds Clay still living in the little clapboard house perched on the hill. Ellie spends an hour with Clay, but when she returns home, she discovers she was missing for an entire week, and the island is nowhere in sight.

Decades have passed since that night, and Ellie--now in her thirties-- still questions whether her experience was real or not. When she gets wind that the island has been spotted again, Ellie drops everything to investigate. She manages to make her way back, and she is shocked to discover Clay hasn't aged a day since she last saw him. At first, Ellie is trapped on the island with no way off, but the more time she spends with Clay and amongst the stillness of Saltwell, she realizes it's where she always belonged.

This is now the third book I've read by this author, and it's time to admit that her writing isn't for me. I love how atmospheric it is, but everything else doesn't click. I also enjoyed the premise, but it quickly lost me. I didn't love either of our main characters, so I wasn’t invested. I didn't believe their chemistry, and I also couldn't get past how they originally met when she was a kid, and how it had been decades for her but barely any time for him. It also turned into some post-apocalytpic-Waterworld vibe towards the end that threw me off. It was a very quick read, so I'll give it that, but it wasn't my cup of tea.

Rating: 2/5

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