"This might not be how she had seen her life as she turned thirty, but right now she wouldn't change it for a million engagement rings and a tick on every one of those unachieved goals."

3.75 ⭐'s

Love on the Island is more than just a romance novel, it's about the bond between sisters, about letting go of preconceived plans of how the future will pan out and about letting people you care about do what they think is right for themselves instead of what you think is best for them. Indi and Jade had an unconventional upbringing as kids. When she was just a teenager Indi had to step up and fulfill the role of primary parent to Jade after an untimely accident, planning every milestone of her life to the 't' to gain control of the chaos. When things start unraveling in her carefully laid plan she has to decide what is most important to her and learn to let loose every now and again. Jade's life has always felt out of her control, her health issues meant she couldn't grow up as other teenagers got to and now she finally has a chance to live the life she wants to live, with a man who loves her, but it's not the life her sister would approve of. She has one shot at proving to everyone around her that she knows what she's doing and isn't a making a mistake.

This was a very sweet novel, the real star of this show was the bond and connection between Indi and Jade - Indi's fierce protectiveness of her younger sister was palpable and the sacrifices she's made to get to where they are now were saddening but also touching. Jade's insecurities and worries are so genuine and, while not completely relatable to most people, any young woman would understand why she feels the way she does, both about her body and about her sister. They both gave up their teenage years in different ways and now have to balance a fine line between being controlling and careful of their futures, and also being spontaneous and allowing themselves to enjoy their lives. At times I wanted to throttle Indi and other times I wanted to give her a big hug, it's tough to find the middle ground between worrying about the ones you love and being overbearing, it was great to watch her character develop to be more carefree and actually do something for her own enjoyment rather than to meet self imposed expectations. Same with Jade, it was great to see her grow and mature a bit, plus realize the reasons for how she reacted in certain circumstances. Plus the setting of this novel was absolutely stunning, it made me want to pack up more bags and flee to a remote Greek island resort and forget about all my worries.

Unfortunately, I did feel like this book lacked a little bit of deeper meaning. I think this book could've been a real stand out if a bit more time had been put into really delving into the emotional roller-coasters and upheaval of their lives that many of the characters were going through and a bit more focus spent on building the tension between the romantic love interests. Sadly, the romance felt a little bit one dimensional and superficial, I didn't really feel any tangible connection in their relationship. I think the key thing that was missing from this was the angst, many of the issues that needed to be resolved between the characters were resolved off page or treated a bit flippantly, so we didn't get to ride that emotional wave alongside them. I wished we'd seen just a little bit more confrontation between the characters.

Overall, this was a fun read and I plowed through it really fast, this is a great book to pick up when you're wanting something atmospheric and heartwarming, a great summer, beside the pool read. I think with a little bit more refining and a heavier hand with editing this would be an even more amazing book. At only 290 or so pages it is a quick read, but with the topics being discussed I do think pushing this up another 100 pages would've actually helped the story, it needed that extra depth of content to push it over that edge a little further. Regardless this was still beautifully done and I loved the resolution of this story. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.