Island Time

“Figuring out how to make myself happy, her happy, and us happy as a couple, which is actually three completely different things.”

Georgia Clarke wove yet another magical journey. Following two families as they have a tropical weekend getaway turned Island stay, the characters bring in all types and ways people love. Full of personal growth, dynamic characters and beautiful language, this is a book worth savoring.

Check this one out if you are looking for:
🌿 A tropical island adventure
🌿 Multiple POVs and storylines
🌿 Queer love representation
🌿 Thought provoking lines like, “You are the weaver of your own story… What story are you going to create?”

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria for this ARC! Island Time is on shelves now!

3.5 stars

I'd say this book is best described as a regular fiction read. I hesitate to call it a family drama as the story has a lighter feel to it plus not every character featured is part the family. And while romance is a key storyline for some characters I think it's a stretch to place it in that genre. Instead it just has a bit of everything to offer the reader.

I really grew to appreciate the novel the more I read. I didn't love the characters but I did enjoy being part of their world for a bit. There's a charming quality to the story and a lot of that is due to the premise. When you are stuck on an island, you have time to reflect and I like how the characters were given the opportunity to figure exactly what they wanted out of life. I only wish that every storyline would have gotten equal treatment in the development department.

At 400+ pages it probably should have been trimmed down in length but with so many characters to follow the pacing somehow manages to be decent.

Georgia Clark has definite talent. I enjoyed many aspects of this book that turned it into a "like" for me, but not "love." Island Time is sort of like one of those movies where an entire extended family goes on a vacation together and you get to see a large cast of interconnected characters and all their story lines. What results in this book, is a group of fully-formed people with a very in-depth story that probably could have read shorter.

Part romance, part family drama, part adventure, and part self-discovery, this book covers it all. The Kellys and the Lees head to an island off the Australian coast for what is meant to be a half-week getaway but quickly end up stranded there for a month and a half. As time goes by, secrets come out and various decisions are made. There is fantastic LGTBQIA representation that I adored. This is so much more than a romance book. One couple goes through various conversations around starting a family and how that works with their careers. Another is experiencing the end of their marriage and what that will look like. There is love, loss, and laughter throughout. There are wonderful nods to the indigenous peoples of Australia and their way of life. And while all of this is great, my favorite parts of the book might be the bromance between the two dads on the island and the love of all things nature. The respect for the natural world is shown throughout the book.

If you are able to be patient with a slower-paced story and keep track of all the characters's story arcs, I do believe you will find a ton of enjoyment in this book. It very much felt like a true getaway and that you were right there on the island with these two families. I really appreciated the writing and look forward to reading more by Clark in the future.

Thank you Atria and NetGalley for the eARC! All opinions expressed are my own.

☆ Overall

Was excited for queer representation, was horrified with almost everything else. I wanted to DNF so many times, and quite frankly I wish I had. There are other reviews here on Goodreads that go more in depth with the issues seen in this book, but I do not have the capacity to detail those here.

I strongly recommend reading reviews and content warnings before reading this book.

(Also - 9 POVs??? I cannot keep up.)

DNF - Super cute cover and interesting premise, but not quite what I expected. I expected more cute romance on an island, but got a more drawn-out family drama story. It was just a little too slow moving for me!

Thank you to Atria for the copy of this ARC!

I was super excited to read Georgia Clark's new book since I absolutely LOVED It Had To Be You. Unfortunately, this was not what I expected. I thought it would be more of a typical romance. Instead it was more about the two families. Exceedingly well written though. And I would still give it four stars. It's just not what I was hoping for.

I struggled so much with this book. I really wanted to love it because the premise had me thinking it was going to be a fun summer read. Although it is perfect to read this season, I struggled so much with the story itself.

This book does have some great lgbtq+ rep, which I really enjoyed. However, I didn’t care enough for these characters. They felt very dull IMO. Also, there was a lot of drama and chaos in this book.

My biggest concern with the characters was that there were way too many of them. I kept getting confused with the different POVs and nd nicknames they had. With there being too many, the story just lacks that connection to these characters. Therefore, I couldn’t really “click” with them.

Another concern was the story dragged way too much. I personally felt like it could’ve been a bit shorter - just to keep the reader invested more.

I did really enjoy the lgbtq+ representation and the short chapters. If this is on your radar then I still encourage you to read it and take my review with a grain of salt.

This book screams of disaster (I mean, a volcano did erupt...). Force two families who are completely different together and throw in 2 referees and you'll have Island Time. Somehow, I felt stranded along with them. I could feel the sun warm on my face (or maybe that was the actual sun?). I think this is the perfect Beach read!

This story had a lot going on in it and it was hard to keep everything straight. It was also too long, in my opinion. I was not able to enjoy this story.

I didn’t enjoy this book like I thought I would. It was cute and I found the characters charming but overall it was just okay.

Island Time is part queer romantic comedy and part family drama. While romance is key to the story for many characters, it's not a traditional romance novel which is one thing I've enjoyed from Georgia Clark. So, don't go in thinking light and fluffy. This book is neither of those things. It's not dark and heavy either. I think when people go into a book with expectations of genre they are going to be disappointed. Don't do that here.

The characters are layered and flawed and finding their way through life and love and family and careers. The multiple point of view switching (even with chapters and paragraphs) takes some getting used to,. The setting of a fictional island off the coast of Australia was great and I was disappointed to learn that I can't really travel there some day. It was just a bit long in the middle and given that it wasn't a fast read that did make it drag a bit in parts. But I was enjoying myself so I didn't really mind too much.

I enjoyed this one and I hope you do too. Just don't go in with false expectations based on the cover of what this book will be.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the electronic copy.

I wanted to read this one after @simoneandherbooks interviewed the author a few years ago. I followed her on Instagram (she is delightful), so I’ve seen her work on this book for a few years and I’m happy to say I really loved this story. It’s wonderfully escapist, but with enough edge to make things interesting. Two families get trapped on an idyllic island after a natural disaster, giving Clark the opportunity to explore the messy parts of the characters. No one is at their best in this situation, and everyone’s behavior starts to break down a bit, making for fascinating storylines. Jumping between characters that aren’t necessarily “likeable” may not be for everyone, but I really enjoyed it — I loved watching secrets come out and people taking introspective looks at themselves and their lives. While there were times I cringed, it never got to the point where I was truly uncomfortable, so thumbs up from me!

A set of sisters, a married lesbian couple, both of their parents and two outsiders get stuck on an island and crazy is about to happen. Matty and Amelia are the sisters. Matty and Parker are the lesbian couple and the Kellys are Parker's parents and the Lees are Matty and Amelia's parents and while that sounds confusing, they are written so uniquely that is easy to keep them straight from page one.

While I can't pinpoint one thing, I can just say that I just didn't love this book. This is my second Georgia Clark read and I would like to read more before I make a full decision. The characters in this one were fine and they had a good arc, but I can say it felt weird that they weren't more exasperated that they were stuck on this island. I felt their response to their situation was underwhelming. The pacing also didn't work for me and I know that is part of my own reading life right now, as my reading time is limited, I need books that are constantly moving and this one had quite a few quiet moments that for me fell flat.

I will say the characters kept me reading and I was definitely invested in them and wanting to know how all the things would be resolved, so I am thankful that from the beginning I cared about the entire cast and there was no way I was going to DNF and not know all the resolutions.

I almost DNF this book, but powered through. I really wanted to love this one because the cover is just SO stunning and it seemed like a perfect summer read. The setting was fun and interesting and let's face it, who doesn't want to be sitting on an isolated beach on vacation.

I think where I was derailed was the amount of characters and their various POVs. It was all so confusing to deal with the amount of POVs in this story and it honestly made the book drag. This was a long book to begin with and the story-line made it seem longer. This book just didn't deliver for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC version of this new release in exchange for my honest review and opinion. 2.5 stars for me.

I DNF’d at 25%. I received an eARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers and was very excited to read it as it looked and sounded like a fun summer read. I think it was at first and the whole earthquake/volcano situation was very interesting and I sped through those couple of chapters, but after that it just felt so slow. And there were WAY too many POVs (nine!) that I was confused about who was married or related to whom and what the heck was going on. I didn’t reach for it or really care to know what happened. I know there are some who really enjoyed this book and that there are apparently some nice steamy parts, but unfortunately I couldn’t read it long enough to get to those parts.

While I loved Georgia Clark’s book It Had To Be You, Island Time seemed too long and was hard for me to get into. It features two families who get stranded on an Australian island after a tsunami, although they still had wifi and were able to connect to their jobs. I mostly read this but also tried listening as it was long and not that exciting. I liked the climate and environmental aspects of this story. It was a great read for Pride month with queer couples at the forefront.

Read/Listen If You Like:
🌈 Diverse Rep & Authors
🌴 Stories about disasters
❤️ Multiple POV
❤️ Short Chapters

Book Review:
This book was a selection for PRIDE month as I’ve read another book and loved it from Georgia. Sadly, this one missed the mark for me with too many POVs being introduced to allow for me to fully appreciate what was going on.

The natural disaster storyline was also hard to fathom and feel that what was described was something that would actually happen due to some issues with not accounting for lost of power/service if a natural disaster struck.

Also, some of the character thoughts/jokes/etc just didn’t hit for me and made the characters hard to like or relate to.

I did love that this was meant as a love letter for the authors home as during COVID they were unable to return to their home.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria for the ARC of this book! I am so grateful to obtain a copy to read in advance of its release in exchange for my honest feedback!

well let's start with the positive thing here..... the cover. Its stunning
So now for the book, holy cow this book too me a lot of try to read. I could not get into it at all.
The humor was bad and off, the mom in the story has some really messed up thoughts (like pyscho to creppyand not in a good way for this book). its a rom-com
there are way toooo many POVs in the book
the characters are not enjoyable to read or get to know
this was just a bad book in my opinion sorry

I would like to thank NetGalley for letting me have an advanced copy of this book to read and my thoughts are voluntarily and my own.

I will admit to having a really tough time getting into this story. I felt sad because I so loved her previous story...it was my top read that month. I'm not sure if it was because there were so many points of view or how forced everything felt but I nearly didn't finish. However, I needed to find out how it ended so I persevered. I'm glad I did. I found the ending to be satisfying. It was a 3.5 star read for me but I rounded up because of the beautiful scenery described

Did Not Finish.

Island Time is categorized as a RomCom, yet I found nothing very funny about it. Or maybe it’s just that my humor doesn’t match that of the characters.

The basic plot is that two families are taking an isolated beach vacation for a late celebration of the marriage of their respective daughters. One family is American and you are led to believe “uptight” while the other is Australian and crude or “funny.” They are then stranded on the island after a long-dormant volcano erupts, so they are unable to get off the island, but the wifi still works??

So I didn’t finish Island Time, and I didn’t get through all the points-of-view, but you get a POV for every stranded person on the island…which is N.I.N.E. And they all read the same, with no chapter headings to give you a head’s up before changing.

I wish I had enjoyed this more, as I was looking forward to the queer romance I could foresee. But I couldn’t get past the annoying characters. The virtue-signaling married Australian sister, who started dating her wife while she was still in a relationship with a man. Or the Australian mother, who fantasizes about her husband’s death while she waits for the right time to divorce.

Hard pass.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the review copy.