Saturday 13 June 2015

The Island Escape - Kerry Fisher


Synopsis:


Octavia Shelton thought she’d have a different life. One where she travelled the world with an exotic husband and free-spirited children in tow.


Instead she’s married to safe, reliable Jonathan, and her life now consists of packed lunches, school runs and mountains of dirty washing. She’s not unhappy. It’s just that she can barely recognise herself.

So as Octavia watches her best friend’s marriage break up, it gets her thinking. What if life could be different? What if she could escape and rediscover the person she used to be? Escape back to the island she visited years ago? And what if the man she used to love was there waiting for her?


What did I think?

What an amazing story!  I thought I was picking up a summer/beach read but this has to have the best opening page to a romance-style novel EVER!!  I thought I was reading the wrong book, so bravo Kerry Fisher!

Octavia and Roberta are best friends who have married unsuitable men.  Octavia's husband, Jonathan, is anal and pernickety whilst Roberta's husband, Scott, is a controlling selfish bully.  The story is therefore two-fold with Roberta and Octavia being the subject of alternative chapters.

Roberta, not surprisingly, leaves Scott and has to adjust to single life and find somewhere to live with their teenage daughter, Alicia. Roberta eventually dabbles her toe in the shark-infested waters of internet dating and meets the lovely Jake.  Of course Scott is still hanging around in the wings like a pantomime villain trying to spoil her Happy Ever After.

Octavia's marriage has clearly gone stale, although she has three beautiful children.  Jonathan loses his job but eventually gets offered a position in Sardinia.  He is reluctant for Octavia to visit him (we can guess why, the snake!) but she eventually does.  As Jonathan has no spare time to spend with her she takes the ferry over to Corsica where she revisits the haunts of her teenage travels and the homeland of her first love, Xavi.  Will fate intervene and bring them together again?

Do not mistake this for a no-brainer chick-lit book.  This is an engaging story of two best friends and their quest for happiness, with a sprinkling of humour along the way.  It is beautifully written, it made me laugh and almost made me cry, especially with the line "maybe hands were like memory foam mattresses, carrying the imprint of people they've loved forever."  Food for thought, indeed.

If you think I've overdone the exclamation marks, go read the book yourself - you won't be disappointed!!!

I received this e-book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much for this lovely review...it's made my day - really appreciate you taking the time to read and to write a review.

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