Island In The Sun | Katie Fforde
REVIEWED BY LINDA HILL
When Cass splits up from her boyfriend and heads to her father’s Scottish home, little does she realise that soon she’ll be heading on a quest to the hurricane-damaged island of Dominica in the company of a man she might just be falling in love with.
Island In The Sun: book review & synopsis
Island In The Sun is perfect summer holiday reading. If you’re not actually able to get away, Katie Fforde will transport you to Dominica through glorious descriptions of the landscape, food, and quite a bit of rum punch. Because so much of the action takes place on the island, there’s a cohesive sense of unity. With the hurricane taking life back to basics, it truly feels as if the reader is getting away from it all.
However, there’s brilliant drama too. The villainous Austin adds danger, making Island In The Sun edgy and entertaining. He illustrates professional rivalry and betrayal perfectly.
Other characters feel equally vivid, and I loved Delphine in particular as a voice of reason amid the heightened emotions. She is Dominica in human form.
Cass is wonderful. She blends immaturity and bravery, competence and fragility and passion and control. Her desire to please her parents and yet remain true to herself is sensitively depicted. So, too, is the way that she needs to find her own way in life in spite of the attitudes of others towards her creative talents.
Katie Fforde looks at concepts such as creativity, family expectation, professional rivalry, a sense of community and altruism, and individual selfishness and Machiavellian tactics – there’s something of interest for all readers.
Romantic but real…
As well as Cass’s dramatic quest to deliver a map and discover a petroglyph, there’s a warm and absorbing romantic aspect that is filled with just the kind of self-doubt present in many real relationships, making Cass and Ranulph attractive and frustrating in equal measure. It is wonderful to read a book that gives equal romantic status to characters of all ages.
Island In The Sun is sheer escapism, a delightfully told, interesting and dramatic story in a setting that makes the reader desperate to get on a plane. I thought it was super.
Island In The Sun by Katie Fforde is out now (Penguin, PB, £9.99) and available from Amazon.
Read more fiction reviews by Linda Hill including The Trap by Ava Glass, Look In The Mirror by Catherine Steadman, I Died On a Tuesday by Jane Corry, Redemption by Jack Jordan, Our Holiday by Louise Candlish and The Unforgettable Loretta, Darling by Katherine Blake.
