I originally read this as 'Daughter of the Shining Isles' when first released in 2000 and was exhilarated by this book's tenacity, sass and grit! When the Author changed Publisher to Monkfish in 2010 and the title was changed, I immediately bought and reread and with wiser eyes, my respect, pleasure and admiration intensified. So without being conscious of it, I realized that I'm rereading this novel every 10 years... Elizabeth Cunningham is one of my favourite Authors, due to her prodigiousness in creating Female characters who are complex, fierce, courageous, vulnerable, unpredictable, idiosyncratic and wholly authentic. This quartet defies description and is genre-bending. Maeve is a Magdalen who makes sense in a manner no other has. Her irreverence, Celtic wit and provocative essence reach out and grab you alluringly and engrossingly from the first page and releases you in the final sentence in a state of euphoric fervour with savvy awareness of why She was left out from biblical accounts. If you yearn for juicy Storytelling, which is meticulously crafted and executed to provide soothing balm for the Wintery days and nights this and the entire quartet await you.