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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
Fun book taking place in Block Island!!! Great beach read!!
REALLY enjoyed this one. Perfect light summer read. Set on an island with characters I could really relate to (especially the SAHM of two boys with a secret life as a food blogger!). Story is fast paced. Didn’t want to put it down til the end :) If you want a fun escape this summer this is it. Highly recommend.
THE ISLANDERS is the first book I've read by Moore, but it won't be the last. While I didn't absolutely love, love, love the novel, it was enjoyable enough that I'm definitely willing to read more by the author. The story is told by three main narrators: Anthony, Joy, and Lu (with a couple sections by Maggie, Joy's teenage daughter). All of them are sympathetic and complex, but Joy is the only one I really found likable. Anthony is just kind of sad and dull. Also stalker-y. I'm still not sure what Joy saw in him. In fact, their relationship felt a bit insta-lovey and sparkless. While I found Lu's exhaustion, resentment, and dissatisfaction relatable to a point, she also seems overly self-centered. Their various challenges, though, were intriguing enough to keep me reading. The atmospheric Block Island setting provides a vivid backdrop to all the drama, making it all feel more authentic. At just over 400 pages, THE ISLANDERS is a long novel, but it never feels unnecessarily drawn out. I sped through it in just a couple of sittings. Like I said, this novel didn't knock my socks of or anything, but I enjoyed it overall. I'll read more by Moore.
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really really enjoyed this novel. Every character was flawed in believable, yet endearing ways. I loved learning about the island and how it functioned. It was a perfect summer read.
This was my second Meg Mitchell Moore book and I think that she's just not an author for me. The Islanders seemed to me like a wannabe Elin Hilderbrand book. It is set on Block Island, rather than Nantucket, but the island vibe is certainly part of the story. However, there seems to be a bit of island superiority ("as true islanders would know..." seems be a common phrase throughout the entire book) that was really off-putting to me.
The story takes place in alternating viewpoints, all of whom are keeping secrets. However, none of these secrets are these huge things that they couldn't tell who needed to be told and cut a solid 150 pages from this book. Lu is running a food blog in secret (the fact that she keeps it from her husband should say more about their relationship than anything else). Anthony is a writer with a secret, who decides he doesn't drink, until he does and then it's ok? His storyline was really far-fetched and predictable and I didn't really love any of it. Joy is trying to make it as a small business owner and single mom to teenage Maggie. She is constantly woe-is-me and again, doesn't know how to communicate. It's hard to see how "strong" she is when she can't even get people to sign a contract or have a supplier compensate her in some way when they fail to make a delivery.
By the time I got to the end, I was just waiting to be done. There was a name listed at the end in the newspaper and epilogue and I have no idea who it is and I couldn't handle trying to look back in the book (and it was a physical book, normally this laziness is saved for audio or ebooks) to figure out who this person was because I just didn't care. I asked the question in this forum, but if I couldn't remember the character, it must not have been important enough. I'll stick with Elin Hilderbrand.
The story takes place in alternating viewpoints, all of whom are keeping secrets. However, none of these secrets are these huge things that they couldn't tell who needed to be told and cut a solid 150 pages from this book. Lu is running a food blog in secret (the fact that she keeps it from her husband should say more about their relationship than anything else). Anthony is a writer with a secret, who decides he doesn't drink, until he does and then it's ok? His storyline was really far-fetched and predictable and I didn't really love any of it. Joy is trying to make it as a small business owner and single mom to teenage Maggie. She is constantly woe-is-me and again, doesn't know how to communicate. It's hard to see how "strong" she is when she can't even get people to sign a contract or have a supplier compensate her in some way when they fail to make a delivery.
By the time I got to the end, I was just waiting to be done. There was a name listed at the end in the newspaper and epilogue and I have no idea who it is and I couldn't handle trying to look back in the book (and it was a physical book, normally this laziness is saved for audio or ebooks) to figure out who this person was because I just didn't care. I asked the question in this forum, but if I couldn't remember the character, it must not have been important enough. I'll stick with Elin Hilderbrand.
Book 2 of 2023 took me to an island (Block Island, it really exists!) off the coast of Rhode Island as I try and read around the USA. The Islanders tells the story of 3 different people during one summer on an island that usually has a population of about 1000 and is a major tourist destination June through August. Each character is on their own journey grappling with something and you come to know and love all of them. This was such a fun read and perfect for fans of Elin Hildebrands Nantucket books.
Lu, a stay-at-home mother with a secret, has come to spend the summer on Block Island with her sons and husband - all expenses paid by her in-laws. Anthony has come to the island to lick his wounds after being pushed out of the house by his cheating wife. And Joy, the owner of whoopie pie shop Joy Bombs, lives on the island year round with her 13-year-old daughter, Maggie. As the summer passes, the lives of these three will become entwined through the good and the bad.
I enjoyed this story, which was a bit different from my usual read. I liked the characters (aside from Jeremy, he was a big jerk), though at times I wanted to tell them they were being stupid :) This was a nice, light, summery read and I'd recommend it as such :)
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book!
I enjoyed this story, which was a bit different from my usual read. I liked the characters (aside from Jeremy, he was a big jerk), though at times I wanted to tell them they were being stupid :) This was a nice, light, summery read and I'd recommend it as such :)
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book!
How do you describe the perfect beach read? Does it involve romance or a love story? Are their secrets and lies? A gorgeous beach setting of cool ocean breezes and hot drama? How about all of the above?!
The Islanders follows three total strangers on Block Island, a tiny sleepy beach haven off the east coast, and in the three short months of the summer season, we find their lives intertwined in the most dramatic and delicious of ways - just as a perfect beach read should be.
Anthony has come to the island to escape a literary scandal that has potentially ended his career while his superstar author father still casts a giant shadow over him, even though he's miles and miles away.
Joy is the whoopie pie queen, baking up delectable desserts for the locals. Divorced with a teenage daughter and fiercely independent - this summer she fears a foreign food truck invading her island will threaten everything she's worked so hard for.
Lu feels stuck on this island for the summer spending her day caring for her young sons as her surgeon husband saves lives in a fulfilling career on the mainland. She craves stimulation and adult conversation while harboring a HUGE secret that could tear her marriage apart.
Their stories are meticulously entwined with substantial secrets threatening to tear their families apart, relationships that prompt plenty of lies for fear of exposure, and difficult choices that must be made by everyone involved. The way these three lives tangle and weave together is a gorgeous display of storytelling and combined with the fact they every single main and secondary character is so likeable and relatable, I found myself tearing through this wanting to see how close this trio will become and how everything would turn out.
A really fun story for fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Liane Moriarty, and now for me, a fan of Meg Mitchell Moore!
The Islanders follows three total strangers on Block Island, a tiny sleepy beach haven off the east coast, and in the three short months of the summer season, we find their lives intertwined in the most dramatic and delicious of ways - just as a perfect beach read should be.
Anthony has come to the island to escape a literary scandal that has potentially ended his career while his superstar author father still casts a giant shadow over him, even though he's miles and miles away.
Joy is the whoopie pie queen, baking up delectable desserts for the locals. Divorced with a teenage daughter and fiercely independent - this summer she fears a foreign food truck invading her island will threaten everything she's worked so hard for.
Lu feels stuck on this island for the summer spending her day caring for her young sons as her surgeon husband saves lives in a fulfilling career on the mainland. She craves stimulation and adult conversation while harboring a HUGE secret that could tear her marriage apart.
Their stories are meticulously entwined with substantial secrets threatening to tear their families apart, relationships that prompt plenty of lies for fear of exposure, and difficult choices that must be made by everyone involved. The way these three lives tangle and weave together is a gorgeous display of storytelling and combined with the fact they every single main and secondary character is so likeable and relatable, I found myself tearing through this wanting to see how close this trio will become and how everything would turn out.
A really fun story for fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Liane Moriarty, and now for me, a fan of Meg Mitchell Moore!