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.

I think I fell in love with the island more than the plot. The whole opposite kind of families stranded on an island is an interesting setting and you can expect a lot of family drama. I liked the queer romance part and the author clearly how she can excel in it with her previous book but the pace was slow throughout which made me skim through quite a bit. It has a really good mix of characters and each character brings in varied personality to the 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)

This books focuses on two families who become stranded on an Australian island after a volcano erupts. The book focuses on themes of descriptive imagery of the island, history of the indigenous people, family drama, self growth for multiple characters, some spice, and elements of queen romance. The setting of this book makes it a perfect summer read! I was hooked by the vivid descriptions of this Australian island setting, and the author's writing style made me feel as if I was stranded on the island with the Kelly family. Although, I found it hard to relate to the characters, mainly because there were so many of them to keep track of, but they each were on a similar journey of trying to find their sense of self. I'll be honest, parts of this books seemed to lag for me, but I enjoyed the queer romance story line, making this a perfect read for #pridemonth!

Thank you to @netgalley and @atria for providing me an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I really enjoyed this book and just recently purchased Georgia Clark’s last book. There were parts of this book that I loved move than others but I really enjoyed the way Georgia Clark writes romance books. I liked the plot location and the characters. I will definitely recommend this book to friends for a summer read.

This is my second book from Clark, my first was “it had to be you”. Her style is true to a romcom Love Actually vibe and this one adds in a bit of “the family stone” with in laws and conflicting personalities.

We meet the Kelly family (American) parents are Jules and Glen parents to Matty and Amelia. Then we have the Lee family (Australian) parents are Randall and Ludmila parents of Parker.

Matty and Parker and married and trying for a baby soon while Amelia is looking forward to introducing her family to her new boo. Then a volcano erupts and they are all forced to quarantine for six weeks on a remote Australian island. (This feeling is all too familiar coming off of 2020 quarantines)

I really love the premise and all the relationships. She captured nature and real relationship dynamics from many angles. Her writing style is truly vacation inspiring in this one. Each family brings opposite vibes one is fully in love and the other more tense and stressed. Each can learn from each other and their kids bring them together in a beautiful way.

I did feel it was hard to start and settle into all the storylines right off the bat. There is no slow ramp up just each character starting with where they’re at exactly in that moment. However it is a very fun story and heartfelt writing from Clark.

Thank you to for my ARC

Happy Pub Day to Island Time and thank you to the author, NetGalley, & Atria for the eARC! I felt like this was a great story to start off the summer! Island Time definitely has a lot going on; the story features multiple POVs across the different characters and family members stuck on a remote island together after a natural disaster. At times, the family drama was a little overwhelming to me but I appreciated that the "side characters" had a measure of depth to them and weren't just background noise behind a central romance plot. The setting of the story on this tropical island with Clark's lush descriptions of the wildlife and the scenery was another big highlight of this story for me. Overall, I think Island Time had a lot going on at some points, but was a great summer read to kick of Pride Month!

I wanted to love Island Time and there were definitely parts I really enjoyed. I loved the setting on a remote island in Australia! I don’t read too many books set in Australia so I really enjoyed the location in this book. The book was really well written in this aspect. I also loved all the unique wildlife descriptions in the book. In my opinion, there were way too many characters and the author gave a little backstory on each character. However since there were so many characters, it was hard to remember who was who and I think it took away from the main storyline. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would definitely read more from this author!

Island Time is an ensemble rom-com (think Love Actually or Valentine’s Day) about two very different families who come to a remote Australian island to celebrate their daughters’ marriage. They are only intending to stay for the weekend, however, after a volcano explodes they become trapped together for six weeks.

This was a delightful read. I loved the mix of characters and the family dynamics between them. (The friendship between the two dads was especially endearing). There was romance, humor, and more near-death experiences than one would think based on the bright cover. I highly recommend as a fun, summer read.

Happy pub day to @georgialouclark ! I got completely sucked into the gorgeous island of Mun’dai which is a character onto itself in the glorious romantic prose of Island Time. I enjoyed all of the characters and relationships that populated this very fun, very summery read. If you are on vacation, going on vacation OR just dreaming of doing so like me, ISLAND TIME will get you there 🤭 five stars!

Thanks to @atria @goodreads and @netgalley for the early copies!

Ended up purchasing a copy for myself cause of the amazing pre-order campaign and waiting till I got my physical copy to read but thank you again for the ARC approval.

Sadly this didn’t work for me. Billed as a steamy romance read, this felt entirely too long. I found myself at 25% in wondering where the romance was? All the family characters and dynamics at first seemed like they could be interesting but seemed like they went no where and muddled the story. It became hard to stay focused on any one character.

I think a lot of the characters could have been simplified to give more room for the love story which felt like an after thought more often than not. I’ll look forward to the author’s next book.

Happy Pub Day!
If you love family drama and romantic comedy this is for you! There are so many characters and so many point of views that it made the story so interesting. The descriptions of the islands are amazing such a perfect summer read!

This book was a bit difficult to follow as it had so many POV’s. It was not so fluid as it felt like it was jumping back and forth. There was also a poor taste in the humor as it eluded to rape and other derogatory words. It just was not for me. Thank you NETGALLEY and Atria books for the digital arc.