One Night on the Island

BOOK REVIEW 3.5/5 ⭐️

“Life is the stuff that happens between the cracks in your plans and expectations.”

All the books I read this month had the element of travel on it.

Josie Silver has such a way with words, I felt the lyrical prose down to my core. This was my first book by her and I'm already a massive fan. I will be sure to read all her other books!

One Night on the Island is about two people who visit a remote Irish island and end up having to share a cabin, which happens to be the only accommodation available. Both Cleo and Mack are at a crossroads, trying to figure out how to move forward in their lives.

This book reads like a millennial's escapism fantasy. Getting away from the hubbub of work and the hamster wheel life, to a remote and peaceful location with lovely people, and a love that won't smother you or try to change you. If someone asked me to change places with Cleo tomorrow, I'd say yes.

I loved the focus on self love. It was definitely more prominent than the romantic love. That both of our main characters put their own needs above the romantic interest was empowering, So much so that I would have loved this book regardless of how the romance was resolved, because their individual stories were so strong.

That's not to say the romance wasn't amazing. Everything from their first kiss, where it seemed like I felt the emotions together with them, to how they were there for each other, but still gave the space to the other to do their own thing, was amazing. It felt like a fundamentally good, real, adult relationship.

But what makes the book so great is that it's not about just Cleo and Mack, it's also about the island, and the people on the island. The island felt like another character in the book after all. And all of them, including the island, are such welcoming and warm characters, even though on the outside they're inhospitable, they become true friends to Cleo and Mac, and as you're reading, it feels like they're your friends too. I loved them so much, I can't even name a favorite, they're all unique and amazing people.

I know Josie Silver doesn't usually do sequels, but I'm really hoping for one about a relationship between two islanders that seemed to be alluded to at the end of the book.

Is the book perfect? Possibly not, at the beginning I had some trouble buying into the premise of marrying yourself or that these two characters really had no other option but to stay together, but once I got over that, I loved this so much.

This book took me on a journey to Salvation Island, gave me a hug, told me I'd be okay, and gave me an adorable romance to read along the way. HIGHLY recommended.

Cleo and Mack unexpectedly end up reserving the same Irish island cottage for the same dates. There are no other accommodations on the island and the weather has curtailed the transport off the island. Cleo and Mack are stuck together, and both have issues which sent them to this remote retreat. How can the two figure out a way to share the cottage and work on the problems they face in their personal lives?

Cleo is turning the big 3-0 and still hasn't found the one to settle down with. Mack was happily married and living the life Cleo dreamed about until he wasn't. Both are hoping to find solace in Otter Lodge on Sanctuary Island.

This novel is everything I look for in a romantic comedy. The characters are adult, believable, and flawed. They grow. They discover themselves and evolve as a human. The romance is authentic and one that you wish you could find yourself.

The writing in this novel shows how much the author has grown in her storytelling craft. It is a wonderful, heartwarming novel that is definitely recommended for fans of Christina Lauren and Talia Hibbert.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thought it was slow and a bit lukewarm all the way.

I just wanted a nice little romance to reset my brain. What I got was a weird mix of hippie crap (self-coupling my arse), commitment issues (Susie, Cleo, the kids, Mack; all suffer, none win).Cleo, a writer for “Women Today”, writes a column about finding what she calls her “flamingo”, meaning her “soul mate”, “forever love”, you name it.In an act of defiance - orchestrated by her editor, though - because she keeps finding (and promptly losing) sparrows instead of flamingos, Cleo goes on a trip to (brace yourselves!) “Salvation Island” to “self-couple” for a while in isolation and to ultimately “marry herself”.By chance, fate or, more realistically, a careless mistake by the owner of the “Otter Lodge” which her magazine rented for her, hectic Londoner Cleo meets “inconvenient American” Mack who intended to recover from a painful separation from his wife in the loneliness of his ancestral island home: Mack's grandmother used to live on Salvation Island.Thus set up, the two first make a truce (including a chalk demarcation line and a DMZ!) and, this is a romance after all, decide to have a holiday romance, a “micro-love” as they're going to call it.Integrated into the “Salvation Island” society by means of knitting (Cleo) and generally being manly and drinking (Mack), both try to make peace with their lives. They're just not very good at it, sadly.Mack is still strongly hung up on his wife Susie. Just like Mack on “Salvation Island” with Cleo, Susie has an affair. An office affair. With her boss, Robert. Separated from Mack for a year, Susie has been with Robert for months but pretty much the minute Mack tells her about Cleo, she wants him back. Cliché? No, not at all! Mack himself barely resists the urge to kiss Susie under a convenient mistletoe and when Susie kisses him (on Christmas Eve, of course!) the focus conveniently moves away just in time...Complicating matters, the two have two kids to whom Mack's entire life is devoted and for whom he's willing to sacrifice everything - even his own happiness. I've kept wanting to slap Mack, telling him that if he's so unhappy, he can try as he might; he won't be able to fool his kids and simply won't be able to be the father he wants to be for them.All the while, Cleo stays on the island, sitting in the sand (on a cushion, we don't want an inconvenient wet arse!), marries herself (which gives her feelings of being deeply profound for reasons entirely escaping me), cries a lot, pines after Mack and talks a lot about “micro-love”.Tragedy strikes the island, one life ending, one life beginning, Cleo finds her new self and, ultimately, during the big finale, Mack returns to suggest a thousand holiday romances for the two of them to which Cleo meltingly and enthusiastically agrees. Thus, conveniently never fully committing to each other, they're implied to have a thousand happily-ever-afters.I thought I had signed up for a “romantic comedy” but what I got was a bland, half-arsed story about shallow people with commitment issues. Is this something you'd like to read? Me neither.Two out of five stars because... it's not total garbage (just mostly).Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam

DNF 24%