[The Faraway Island is a] standard story of overcoming self-consciousness and making adjustments, but the theme is neatly interwoven and characterization is insightful.

Veronica Howley, "The Book Review: 'The Faraway Island'," in School Library Journal (reprinted from the May, 1977 issue of School Library Journal, published by R. R. Bowker Co./A Xerox Corporation; copyright © 1977), Vol. 23, No. 9, May, 1977, p. 60.

Hamilton's twelve-year-old narrator/heroine [in Love Comes to Eunice K. O'Herlihy], a familiarly feisty type who always refers to herself by her full name, falls hard and fast for Makepeace Keaweamahi, the sixteen-year-old of a Hawaiian family that has been fleeced by a "land developer" into buying a few uninhabitable acres of land near the Montana town where Eunice lives…. Eunice's delivery is breezy and she proves her tough-cookie rep isn't just talk: she bloodies more than one nose protecting Makepeace's younger brother from bullying locals. But the humor is practically always at the expense of the culture-shocked Keaweamahis who are pictured as good-natured, pidgin-speaking incompetents who wouldn't last a minute in the wilderness without the help of the haoles (Caucasians). And for all the inserted snippets on Polynesian foods and wildlife, this tells us as much about Hawaiian culture as a hula hoop. (pp. 850-51)

"Younger Fiction: 'Love Comes to Eunice K. O'Herlihy'," in Kirkus Reviews (copyright © 1977 The Kirkus Service, Inc.), Vol. XLV, No. 16, August 15, 1977, pp. 850-51.