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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I loved the characters in this book and always found counting the time to when I could get back to them. I stayed up super late one night to read as much as I could.
definitely worth reading.
not a must own, but a great summer read.
not a must own, but a great summer read.
This story revolves around Joy, Anthony and Lu.
Joy lives on Block Island full time with her pre-teen daughter Maggie.
She runs a bakery where she sells mini Whoopie pies.
Things are going pretty well, if uneventfully.
Her life isn’t bad but it’s pretty predictable.
She’s getting by alright as a single mother. But when her landlord mentions a huge rent increase, Joy knows she’ll struggle to meet it.
Things get even harder when a new food truck to town, a food truck that sells macarons.
The summer also brings Anthony.
Anthony is running away from a major scandal in his life. He wrote a best selling novel, then dealt with troubles writing his next book.
A lot of pressure led him to make a decision that he couldn’t take back.
It led his wife to leave him and his father (a hugely famous writer) to practically disown him.
He isn’t looking for a relationship when he meets Joy but he is immediately charmed by her.
Lu is keeping a secret from her husband. She agreed to be a stay-at- home mom years ago but has actually been working from home.
Over the summer, she’s staying on Block island with her sons. Her husband drives out on the weekends after work. He is a doctor and his parents are actually paying for the beach house.
Despite being at the beach house, mostly without her husband, Lu is finding it especially difficult to keep up her secret job.
I thought this was well written and I liked the way the characters’ stories intertwined. Sometimes Anthony’s storyline was less enjoyable because he felt bad for himself so much of the time. I also do not understand why he wouldn’t take his mom’s calls. She’s the one person who didn’t give up on him, the one person who kept fighting for him, and he would barely answer her call.
I’d probably rate this at 3.5 stars, so I rounded up a bit.
I received an early copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway, thank you!
Joy lives on Block Island full time with her pre-teen daughter Maggie.
She runs a bakery where she sells mini Whoopie pies.
Things are going pretty well, if uneventfully.
Her life isn’t bad but it’s pretty predictable.
She’s getting by alright as a single mother. But when her landlord mentions a huge rent increase, Joy knows she’ll struggle to meet it.
Things get even harder when a new food truck to town, a food truck that sells macarons.
The summer also brings Anthony.
Anthony is running away from a major scandal in his life. He wrote a best selling novel, then dealt with troubles writing his next book.
A lot of pressure led him to make a decision that he couldn’t take back.
It led his wife to leave him and his father (a hugely famous writer) to practically disown him.
He isn’t looking for a relationship when he meets Joy but he is immediately charmed by her.
Lu is keeping a secret from her husband. She agreed to be a stay-at- home mom years ago but has actually been working from home.
Over the summer, she’s staying on Block island with her sons. Her husband drives out on the weekends after work. He is a doctor and his parents are actually paying for the beach house.
Despite being at the beach house, mostly without her husband, Lu is finding it especially difficult to keep up her secret job.
I thought this was well written and I liked the way the characters’ stories intertwined. Sometimes Anthony’s storyline was less enjoyable because he felt bad for himself so much of the time. I also do not understand why he wouldn’t take his mom’s calls. She’s the one person who didn’t give up on him, the one person who kept fighting for him, and he would barely answer her call.
I’d probably rate this at 3.5 stars, so I rounded up a bit.
I received an early copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway, thank you!
Moore does excellent work creating characters I’d like to meet in real life. It was emotional and real. I haven’t read a book like this in a while.
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A nice beach read with good characters and a few interesting plot twists!
The Islanders by Meg Mitchell Moore is a beautiful interplay of three characters on Block Island, with it’s beach town vibe and tranquility, over the course of a summer.
Anthony is a second generation writer who runs to the island to escape a scandal and failed marriage.
Joy is a single mother with a successful bakery in town and a teenage daughter. When a food truck arrives on the island during the profitable tourist season her way of life is threatened.
Lu has come to the island with her two young boys and her surgeon husband who will commute back and forth to the island on most weekends. Lu finds it challenging to continue her secret blog while on the island, particularly since her mother-in-law is nearby for the summer.
I loved this book which is the perfect depiction of a beach read. It is highlighted by romance and personal growth. The theme of an often outdated role for women in the family is strongly suggested, but is counterbalanced by strong women in the book. I’d highly recommend this book for fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Nancy Thayer.
Anthony is a second generation writer who runs to the island to escape a scandal and failed marriage.
Joy is a single mother with a successful bakery in town and a teenage daughter. When a food truck arrives on the island during the profitable tourist season her way of life is threatened.
Lu has come to the island with her two young boys and her surgeon husband who will commute back and forth to the island on most weekends. Lu finds it challenging to continue her secret blog while on the island, particularly since her mother-in-law is nearby for the summer.
I loved this book which is the perfect depiction of a beach read. It is highlighted by romance and personal growth. The theme of an often outdated role for women in the family is strongly suggested, but is counterbalanced by strong women in the book. I’d highly recommend this book for fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Nancy Thayer.
This is the second "island" book I've read this summer, the first one being Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand. Both of them are winners.
The island, in this case, is Block Island off of Rhode Island and the characters are lonely and unconnected strangers who come together there one summer and change each other's lives. Some of them are permanent residents and some are summer visitors but they are all looking for something while hiding secrets from the world.
Joy Sousa is a single mother of an adolescent daughter who has painstakingly built a business which supports her and her daughter with very little financial assistance from the absent father, who has remarried and has another daughter. Joy's business is a bakery that specializes in whoopie pies, but this summer her empire is being threatened by a food truck that has come to the island and has proved very popular with the islanders much to Joy's chagrin.
Anthony Puckett is a New York writer who had produced a much-acclaimed best seller as his first novel but had suffered episodes of writer's block in trying to complete the second. He ended up plagiarizing an obscure writer in order to finish and he was found out, resulting in scandal and his publisher revoking the deal for the second book. Moreover, his wife, who was having an affair, kicked him out of the family home and is being uncooperative about letting him see his beloved four-year-old son, Max. Now he's hiding out in a friend's rather ramshackle cottage on the island, hoping the whole mess will blow over and trying to figure out his next move.
My favorite of the characters is Lu Trusdale, maybe because she is a blogger! She is the mother of two young boys, the wife of a surgeon who very much wants a third child, and the daughter-in-law of a very meddlesome woman. She was trained as a lawyer but she gave all of that up to be a stay-at-home mom. She is also the secret author of a wildly popular food blog. No one in her family knows what she is doing or that she has accumulated a substantial separate bank account from earnings of the blog. Now she has been offered the opportunity to speak at a conference of food writers and to author a book. That could be problematic because she writes in the voice of a stay-at-home doting DAD! Yes, all her readers think she's a man.
There are other characters, but these are the main three and they are all wonderfully drawn by their author, but perhaps most vividly drawn is the island itself. Her descriptions of the beaches, the village, the Caribbean blue waters, and the secret places known only to islanders are thoroughly evocative and they make the island come alive as a character on its own.
The way in which Joy, Anthony, and Lu and their families come together and affect and change each other gives the story a nice momentum and sense of anticipation. I found myself thoroughly engrossed in the tale of this momentous summer on the island and loathe to put the book down. It may not be great literature but it is an engaging story about sympathetic characters and a completely entertaining summer read.
The island, in this case, is Block Island off of Rhode Island and the characters are lonely and unconnected strangers who come together there one summer and change each other's lives. Some of them are permanent residents and some are summer visitors but they are all looking for something while hiding secrets from the world.
Joy Sousa is a single mother of an adolescent daughter who has painstakingly built a business which supports her and her daughter with very little financial assistance from the absent father, who has remarried and has another daughter. Joy's business is a bakery that specializes in whoopie pies, but this summer her empire is being threatened by a food truck that has come to the island and has proved very popular with the islanders much to Joy's chagrin.
Anthony Puckett is a New York writer who had produced a much-acclaimed best seller as his first novel but had suffered episodes of writer's block in trying to complete the second. He ended up plagiarizing an obscure writer in order to finish and he was found out, resulting in scandal and his publisher revoking the deal for the second book. Moreover, his wife, who was having an affair, kicked him out of the family home and is being uncooperative about letting him see his beloved four-year-old son, Max. Now he's hiding out in a friend's rather ramshackle cottage on the island, hoping the whole mess will blow over and trying to figure out his next move.
My favorite of the characters is Lu Trusdale, maybe because she is a blogger! She is the mother of two young boys, the wife of a surgeon who very much wants a third child, and the daughter-in-law of a very meddlesome woman. She was trained as a lawyer but she gave all of that up to be a stay-at-home mom. She is also the secret author of a wildly popular food blog. No one in her family knows what she is doing or that she has accumulated a substantial separate bank account from earnings of the blog. Now she has been offered the opportunity to speak at a conference of food writers and to author a book. That could be problematic because she writes in the voice of a stay-at-home doting DAD! Yes, all her readers think she's a man.
There are other characters, but these are the main three and they are all wonderfully drawn by their author, but perhaps most vividly drawn is the island itself. Her descriptions of the beaches, the village, the Caribbean blue waters, and the secret places known only to islanders are thoroughly evocative and they make the island come alive as a character on its own.
The way in which Joy, Anthony, and Lu and their families come together and affect and change each other gives the story a nice momentum and sense of anticipation. I found myself thoroughly engrossed in the tale of this momentous summer on the island and loathe to put the book down. It may not be great literature but it is an engaging story about sympathetic characters and a completely entertaining summer read.
3.5 stars. Decent story but it dragged in spots so it probably could have been 50 pages shorter.