Based on the cover, you would think this is a fun, summer, beachy rom-com. What it actually is, is so much more. This book covers so many topics from extinct birds, indigenous life, every type of romance, and a lot of family drama.

The amount of topics and characters was overwhelming at times. One thing that the author really did well was the sense of place, the male friendship between the two dads, and the budding romance between the two females.

3.5 stars rounded up! I did a combo of the e-ARC I received as well as listened to the audio version and I really enjoyed it! I don’t think I was expecting SO many POVs in this one. I appreciated how there were multiple narrators and I think that my experience of listening to the audio version really brought this book to life for me.

I pretty much went through every emotion reading this one. I was happy, angry, annoyed, sad, surprised and confused haha. It was a rollercoaster of emotions while reading and I think I wanted to scream at every character while simultaneously wanting to give them each a big hug. They were all so flawed but realistic and human.

I came for the sapphic romance and stayed for the crazy family dynamics. I loved the look into each relationship and the variety of storylines we got in the book. I felt the romance between Lyss and Amelia was slightly insta-love but it made sense pacing wise due to the various story lines.

Overall, I had a really fun time listening/reading Island Time and it surprised me in a lot of ways. I would highly recommend the audio version! The cast of characters were really great and it really made the book shine.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this story so so much. Starting it I was expecting a simple either one or dual perspective read, and getting so many perspectives and stories was absolutely a treat. I loved each and every character, and the stories we got about them. The stories all felt so personal and well done, and I was really rooting for everyone to succeed. The island setting was so interesting, I think the overall concept of this book is so unique, two families stuck on an island with two strangers? sign me up! I absolutely neeed to read more from this author, this was such a great book!

I received an eARC from NetGalley and the publisher for a review.

I really enjoyed this book. An extended family is trapped on a tropical island off Australia due to a tsunami. It's LGBTQ+ romance but also includes other characters with marriage and life challenges. I enjoyed the characters, their relationships and the situations they ended up in and the book contained interesting information about the native flora and fauna as well as Indigenous issues.

Overall a very enjoyable, fun read.

I had a really hard time with this one and ended up DNF'ing at 21%. I don't intend on being mean with this review, but I will be honest because I truly was so disappointed by this book. I was completely fooled by the cover of this book, I expected a sweet Island Romance and instead was given a multiple POV mess that was hard to follow and overly wordy. The premise of this book is interesting and had potential but was drowned out by the nine different viewpoints. I appreciate the LGBTQ+ representation in this book but the character development was lacking, likely because there were too many characters to shape. The cover is beautiful and I have heard wonderful things about this others other work, so I will give another chance - this one was just a giant miss for me.

Read if you like: multiple perspectives.
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When a family gets stuck on an island after a natural disaster, each person is forced to confront their deepest fears and secrets, and figure out what they want out of life.
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I loved reading from the perspectives of each character, especially Amelia. She seems kinda annoying at the beginning but really shows a lot of character growth. Each character had some flaws that they needed to work through which was nice. The pacing was quick and kept me engaged right from the beginning!
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CW: sexual content, divorce, near-death experience, homophobia.

The cover and description for this book are very misleading. This is not a rom-com, it more accurately resembles a serious family drama. Not only did it follow far too many characters (9) for a typical romance, but the majority of the plot-lines were non-romantic and kind of depressing. I also found nearly every character to be fairly unlikable.

Overall, the relationships in this book were difficult to invest in as a result of both the unlikable characters and the shifting focus. I didn’t feel like I saw enough of Amelia and Liss to really justify their romantic feelings, Parker and Matty spent most of the book on opposite sleep schedules, and Jules was kind of the worst. My favourite relationship in this “rom-com” turned out to be the bromance between Glen and Randall. Their friendship was just so pure and light-hearted compared to the drama-filled relationships going on between the other characters.

While I did enjoy the island setting and the inclusion of Aboriginal Australian history and culture, I wish it had been the setting for a different book.

🔊Song Pairing: Land Down Under - Chachi, Paige

💭What I thought would happen:

Love island romance. Nothing says love like the scent of coconut body oil and skinny dipping in the ocean…yeahhh not quite right

📖What actually happens:

The Kelly’s and the Lee’s are about to embark on a grand family vacation to a remote island where very few have access due to the preservation of the land. Soon after they arrive a tsunami takes out the entire island leaving everyone there stranded until help can come (6 weeks time).

Amelia Kelly is dealing with being apart from her soon to be fiancé but also can’t seem to peel her eyes from Liss, the caretaker of the island. Parker Lee and Matty Kelly are newlyweds who have decided to leave their busy fabulous lives in NYC for Australia (where the Kelly’s reside). Jules and Glen Kelly have split but are waiting to tell their daughters but must share a bed to keep up with the façade. Randall and Ludmila Lee just aren't certain about their new in-laws.

🗯Thoughts:

Where do I start…I was expecting a romance…then ended up being a natural disaster and I thought okay cool. Love an unexpected twist. However, when everyone stuck on the island is a self-centred ass hat (okkk not Randall, Glen or Liss but they were frightfully dull) just makes for a mediocre read at best.

At 40% I just wanted it over. I skimmed a lot
of the latter half of the book just to be rid of it. I truly wanted to like it. I LOVED the LGBTQ+ representation throughout the book.

I will say that as I am currently writing this review I have Buffy the Vampire Slayer on (repeatedly referenced in the book) and I’d never seen it before so that was kind of a fun takeaway from the book!

Overall, will never revisit this book but I think would make a great show or movie (would totally watch)

I think what I enjoy most about Georgia Clark’s books is that they play out like the movie Love Actually. There’s so many stories in one. I absolutely adored It Had To Be You last year, so I was very excited to be approved for Clark’s newest book, Island Time.

This focused on Amelia Kelly who has arranged a weekend on an island for her family to meet her new boyfriend, there she meets the caretaker, spunky Liss. Then we have Amelia’s sister Matty and her wife, Parker who are in the midst of some pretty big life changes. The girls parents Jules and Glen who are keeping a secret from their daughters. Parker’s parents Randall and Ludmila who are very different from their in-laws. And finally Jarrah who lives on the island.

When a natural disaster strikes, the families four day trip turns into a six week stay on the island. What ensues is 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘢, everyone coming to terms with who and what they want in life.

This had a lot of fun moments, and I love the LGTBQ+ rep, but I had some complicated feelings about most of the characters, while I liked them for the most part, they all had their flaws, some bigger than others and it was hard to believe that some of these relationships would work out in the long run.

Overall, Island Time was a book I really enjoyed, with an interesting setting, and a lot of information on Aboriginal Australians, it’s perfect if you’re looking for some LGTBQ+ romance into your lineup!

It is absolutely delightful and smart summer beach read!
I would recommend it to everyone who likes believable realistic characters and would like to relate to them.
Nice setting, beautiful fictional island in Australia, rare fauna and family issues which we can all relate to.

I really enjoyed this book. I think I actually love it. It was fun, quirky, very outrageously dramatic, sexy and funny. It seems mostly advertised as a romantic comedy, but I didn’t really think it met that genre as much. It felt more like a family life/drama type book than anything else. Don’t get me wrong, there was definitely romance and some good spice too, but it just didn’t read as a romcom as a whole. It is also an LQBTQ+ book. There are a lot of topics related to sexuality, gender, etc. that are highlighted and discussed.
Genre aside, this book was great for me. My favourite thing about it is the multiple POVs. There were nine, and I know that sounds like a lot, but it worked! Some POVs were more frequent than others, and a few were more the main focus of the story. I have always loved multiple POV books, so this was a huge win for me.
This book covered a lot of family dynamics and drama. There was everything from sibling comparison to different parenting styles to separation and divorce. Because of the multiple POVs, you actually get to see each side of a story and how things look from different viewpoints. There were also different “side stories” with each character or group of characters, which I loved. My favourite was definitely the building bromance between the two dads. The growing friendship between them was one of the best parts of the book. They were my two favourite characters because they were both genuine and very likable, unlike most of the other characters. Which brings me to how unlikable most of the characters were. It didn’t take away from how much I liked this book, but out of the 9 (main) characters, I only liked 4. The rest of the characters ranged from bordering on dislike to hating. They were all very well written, I just didn’t like their personalities but I like a book that doesn't have a full roster of lovable and likeable characters. Having characters to dislike adds something extra to the book and I enjoyed that.
 
Overall, I loved this book. The story covered a lot of big topics. It had a great focus on climate change and how serious the consequences are and will be for years to come. Obviously, LQBTQ+ had a major role too, as the author herself is part of the LQBTQ+ community. Also, a huge part of this book is about the indigenous people of Australia and their land, culture, and history too. It was great to see that representation in the book, and Georgia Clark covered it very respectfully.

I loved this book! The author made me laugh out loud with some of the setting and plot of this book. I will definitely be buying a copy for myself to reread when this comes out!

I was led a bit astray with the cover and synopsis of this book, anticipating to be reading a lighthearted rom com set on an Indigenous island in Australia. While I did enjoy the different narratives of the different couples in the Lee and Kelly families, I didn't find it overly comical and I didn't find that the cover or the synopsis really aligned with what we are reading.

the book itself was good, albeit long. Getting into the narratives of all of the different couples really made for a more general fiction / drama than a rom com, as we are privy to all of the inner workings of the pairings, what is really going on vs. what they show the rest of their family, etc.

It was nice to have some queer characters and experience their process of trying to conceive, but again,, it was more of a dramatic telling than an easy, comedic one.

The Kelly and Lee families find themselves stranded on a remote Australian island for six weeks after a nearby volcano erupts. The only thing the two families have in common is their daughters, who are married. Over the course of their island stay, they are forced to question what they really want.

Based on the cover of this book, I expected more of a romcom vibe from it. However, it felt more like a family drama with some romance. Island Time is written from multiple perspectives of the island guests and I liked how each character got their own story as they navigated their various stages of life (parenthood, careers, ambition, love, happiness and so much more). I found some characters to be more likeable than others and found myself loving Glen the most. I loved seeing the characters developing stronger relationships and connecting with one another over the course of their stay. Since there were so many perspectives, I think readers would have benefitted from headers of whose POV we were reading.

I liked the representation of the book which included aspects of the Australian Indigenous cultures as well as a sapphic romance at the centre of the story (which was very much an instant love romance). I enjoyed the description of the island including the plants and animals which, in addition to the map of the island (love when maps are included in books!), made the island come to life. That being said, at times I felt that the writing was almost too descriptive to the point where it was repetitive and it slowed the story down for me. I think I would have enjoyed this one more if it was a little shorter as I found it on the longer side.

Overall, I liked this book even though it wasn't the romcom I expected it to be! If you are looking for a summery family drama and queer romance that includes a cast of quirky but flawed characters who are working on figuring out what makes them happy, set on an Australian Island, check out Island Time (out June 14, 2022!).

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

The cover was what made me excited for this book, but it wasn't as light and airy as the cover suggests. I found that the family dynamics were sometimes off and the situation seemed a bit difficult to buy into.

As someone who was so excited for the Queer story, I personally don't think it was done justice. Finding it difficult to relate to the characters and the many POVs in the book was jarring to the reader.

Overall, didn't love this book but it might it for someone else.

If you look at the cover of Island Time, it looks like it would be a summer beach read, perhaps a sapphic rom-com, something light. This book is a sapphic romance, but it is not a rom-com. This is a serious book that looks at the inner dynamics of two families related by marriage, all with people that have secrets.

I really liked the family relationships in this book. People are placed in unusual circumstance, a volcano erupting and not being able to leave the island they are on, and are forced to get to know each other in this close quarters. There are lots of characters in this wild family and learning about them all took some time. There are many different story arcs involving all these relationships. You are presented with parent child relationships, budding friendships, romances continuing, new and ending. These relationship were all so interesting to me that I wanted to see what was happening each new chapter.

One things I did struggle with in this book was that it seemed to drag on forever. I think it was a tad overwritten and just went on for to long. I also struggled with there being this big huge natural disaster that forced people to be stranded for a long period of time, but the internet and cell services were still working led to less believability. Georgia Clark did do a great job of presenting various different difficult issues that characters were experiencing, including learning about indigenous people in Australia.

I enjoyed this book and look forward to checking out future books by Georgia Clark! Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’ve read two other Georgia Clark books and enjoyed them, however Island Time was disappointing unfortunately. The premise is that two very different families go on a vacation together and end up stranded. The book tackles queer romance, family relationships, and choosing between a career or a family.

What I liked: The representation in this book was decent. As well, I liked how the author included some Australian Indigenous culture in the book.

What could be better: I was expecting this book to be similar to her other novels - emotional but still light-hearted and fun - and I just did not get that vibe from this book at all. The writing reminded me of Liane Moriarty, in that there were multiple character perspectives throughout the book and it was hard to keep track of who was who, especially in the beginning. It also read like Liane Moriarty because there was a lot of Australian influence in the story.

I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately, this is a two star read for me. If I hadn’t been reviewing it, I probably would have DNF’d because I was not enjoying myself.

*Please note that the ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*