This was a good read! I didn't LOVE it, but I enjoyed reading it. I mostly really enjoyed the theme of a 29 going on 30 year old

Thank you to both #NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine Books for providing me an advance copy of Josie Silver’s romance novel, One Night on the Island, in exchange for an honest review.

I had been meaning to read a book written by Josie Silver since her debut novel, One Day in December, was released. While I still have yet to read it, #OneNightontheIsland provides some insight for what I should expect. Based on the reviews of the author’s first novel, however, I have a sneaking suspicion that #OneNightontheIsland is nowhere near as captivating or well-written. Although there were some passages that flickered with promise, I felt that even the sex scenes were passionless.

Basically, the author is a good enough storyteller to mildly intrigue me to the point of wanting to know how the novel ended, but the plot and characters were not interesting enough to force myself to read it on my own if it had not been for the purposes of a review. The best part in the novel occurs at approximately two-thirds of the way through when Cleo finds the hidden grotto and the execution of the self-marriage scene. Other than those two scenes though, I found it rather dull and somewhat depressing.

If you are looking for a novel that features romance or erotica, keep searching. If you are looking for a smattering of romance, lessons on learning to love yourself, and the disintegration of a marriage, then this book just may be your “Salvation.”

This book was a tough one for me to relate to. It moved a little slow in the beginning but the pace did pick up. There's some funny moments and beautiful descriptions of the location (I want to go to Salvation Island!) but the overall storyline and plight of the main character was hard for me to connect to.

First off I must say, as I approach thirty in the coming months, I related to Cleo so much.

One Night on the Island was a beautiful and magical story. This wasn’t just a story about finding “the one” but finding yourself. Learning to love and trust yourself.

Cleo and Mack arrive on an incredible island at the same time and are double booked at Otter Lodge. After many failed attempts of finding different lodging, they give in and accept the circumstances. I don’t want to give too much away because you need to read the story to understand just how amazing Salvation Island and all of its residents are. I laughed, I cried, and I hoped for happiness in all of the characters.

Truly though, this book will make you want to seek adventure, drink in a pub, make friends with strangers, find hidden caves, hold a self-coupling ceremony, and even take up knitting.

I almost wish the book had a different title, because they definitely spend more than just one night on the island. I think the only thing holding me back from a 5 star review is it was a little longer than I like a book to be, and I wished for a little more in the end.

Overall, I think people will love this one. Curl up with a good cup of coffee (or whisky), sit by a nice fire, and get ready for some good feels.

Huge thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Wow, what a beautiful book! I loved every minute of it and was so sad for it to come to an end. I loved both of Josie Silver's previous books and so I had high expectations going into this, but it truly exceeded all of them!


The story was really something special and the writing was exceptional. The setting was one of a kind and I found myself so enamored with Salvation Island and it's wonderful inhabitants. Cleo and Mack were so real - flawed, vulnerable, honest, determined, and strong. Their story was beautiful - absolutely heartbreaking at times but ultimately hopeful and inspiring. I really enjoyed reading about both of their stories, and of course how their lives intersected.

I wish I could go back in time and start this one all over again - I just loved it so much!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing/Ballantine for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is really a fun read…entertaining…different…set in present time…not going back and forth in time periods…love that it does not do that…the main characters are ones we can relate to…looking for change…love…happiness…contentment…set on an isolated island…the boat comes once a week…just a book for an enjoyable afternoon…I liked this novel…I look forward to reading more from this author…this book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review..

I just finished reading this book literally a minute ago, but I feel like this review will be it’s best if I get all my thoughts out immediately. I want to start by talking about Mack’s marital status. It’s mentioned so early in the book that I don’t consider it a spoiler, and I wish that it had been mentioned in the description of the book because I’ve seen other reviews that have said that Mack being legally married made this book not for them. And I get it, I really do. But I hope you’ll continue reading this review to see why I think that shouldn’t talk you out of giving this book a chance.

This isn’t a black-and-white ‘the hero of a romance book is married and the heroine isn’t his wife’ story. I’m going to quote a line from the book because I feel like it’s so important, and that is: “You’ve been separated for almost a year now, and I’m sorry that your heart didn’t get the memo.” Mack has spent almost half his life loving the woman he married. It’s what he knows, it’s what he wants, and after growing up having a strained relationship with his dad, he just wants to keep his family together. But his wife doesn’t want them to be together anymore, to the point that it’s been a year since they separated and she has moved on and he lives on his own. Yes, they are legally married, but to me, there’s a big difference between married and separated. Mack even thinks “As far as I’m concerned, you don’t give up on family. Ever” and I think that’s a big part of him being told that his heart hasn’t ‘gotten the memo’ that it’s okay to accept what’s happened and acknowledge that that doesn’t mean you’re giving up on your family. That’s a really hard thing for people, and you can really see throughout this entire book that that’s really something Mack struggles with.

Now that I have probably talked far too much about that, we’ll move to another topic. While I didn’t love the ‘self-coupling’ aspect and moments in this book, I understand why it was part of Cleo’s storyline, and I really liked the character growth shown in her because of it. I loved watching her develop, and find where she belongs. My personal favourite side character was Delta, it was truly a joy to read about her and how wonderful she was, especially to Cleo.

Mack is just… wow. He’s romantic and he’s complicated and he’s just such a good man. He loves with every part of him, and does so much to make others happy, despite how it makes him feel. I don’t know if I felt the same level of growth in him as I did in Cleo, to be honest. But I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. It did make this book have more of a HFN vibe instead of HEA, but I do think he grew as a character, it was just more subtle than Cleo, and I think he just needs more time. Aside from the epilogue, this book only spanned 6 months and it’s understandable that his life and way of thinking may not do a total 180 that quickly.

I’m going to wrap this up by saying that much like One Day In December, Josie Silver’s writing has left me speechless. Hard to believe after this slightly long winded review, hey? Something about the way she writes just gives me the most emotional, heavy feeling. I feel like I need to take breaks reading her books more than any other author. And I’m saying that in a good way. A great way, really. She truly can make a person just fall into the story and experience love and heartbreak along with the characters.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine & NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book! I really recommend picking up this book when it comes out on February 15, 2022. I hope you fall in love with the story and the town the same way I did.

Update to add: it’s the next morning after I wrote this and I was listening to Taylor Swift on my drive to work (as one does) & ‘Come Back… Be Here’ and wow, I was immediately taken back to this book. It’s not in the story like ‘Thunder Road’ was, but the lyrics and emotions just felt so fitting as I listened to it this morning.

I adored this wonderful romance book set on a small island in Ireland. Mack, from Boston, and Cleo, from London find themselves sharing an accommodation due to a double booking. From there, a stance develops that just lifts your spirits. Two broken people come together qnd fall in love with unattended consequences. Be ready to read the day away!

This was just okay. I much preferred her other book, One Day in December. This plot was so similar to the better written & more interesting book, Christmas Island by Natalie Normann. I received ARCs of this title from NetGalley & Edelweiss+.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC. This is not the first Josie Silver book that I have read and it most certainly will not be the last. Wow, what a story of 2 lost souls who find each other on a remote island near Ireland. The characters are so real that you feel their every emotion too. This is just simply an awesome book. I am so glad to have read it.

4.5/5 ⭐️’s!

This usually isn’t my type of romance novel, but it was such a heartwarming read! I feel like typically in romance novels the female MC is always the one who need to overcome something and find herself, so I really really loved that Cleo and Mack were BOTH on a journey of self discovery in this one! It made them relatable/comforting characters in such different ways and I felt like I was going on this self discovery journey with them.

I also REALLY loved the island setting and all of the locals who were so sweet and welcoming of Cleo & Mack. It added to the warm and fuzzy vibes of the book and honestly just made me want to come live on Salvation Island too!

Overall, this was an emotional/raw story that still had plenty of feel good moments and I really enjoyed it! I think I wanted a little bit more from the ending, but otherwise it was a great read!

Thank you so much to netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

I was introduced to Josie Silver after reading “The Two Lives of Lydia Bird” with such an intriguing premise that I read it within the span of 24 hours. Hence, I was delighted for a chance to read her newest effort, “One Light on the Island.”

London-native, Cleo, a writer, heads to an island off the West Coast of Ireland to write about the trend of self-coupledom for the magazine she works for. Assigned to her same “solitude” cottage is American, Mack, who is seeks his own time alone after separating from his wife. Of course, the two butt heads or else this story would not be categorized under romance. Yet, I warn you that this is not a clichéd romance with all of the expected hurdles before the couple finds their happily ever after. Instead, the readers are the ones who fall in love with both Cleo and Mack as they learn to discover themselves and why they make the choices that they do. Better yet, the writer doesn’t force the characters to fall for each other, but instead, lets the characters take over and do so naturally. Expect to also be charmed by the delish island landscape and the colorful secondary characters. How can I book my own opportunity for self-coupledom? Beware: once you start reading, you won’t be able to stop.

Four and a half stars.

Thank you the Josie Silver, NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this novel.

Silver has a way of taking real-life scenarios, twisting them up, and spitting them back out in a roller coaster ride of a novel! This isn't your traditional romance book; it weaves back and forth as Mack tries to figure out who he sees in his future and Cleo just tries to find herself. Their backgrounds make it even more interesting, and the island is a supporting character all on its own. Not a one-night read, or even a terribly light-hearted one at that, but an overall good read that will leave you with a feeling of hopefulness.

One Night on the Island made me laugh, cry, and want to immediately up and move to Ireland -- all at the same time. I've read and loved two other books by Josie Silver so far, and this was no exception. A communicative blight finds two singletons under the same roof for a while and... the rest is a perfect, romantic, inevitable history.

Josie Silver's writing is as cozy as the warm wool quilt that readers will stumble across later in the narrative. I particularly appreciated how the witty banter and sweet love story also dealt with more serious topics like the difficulty of adult friendships and the internal conflict that comes with falling out of a long-time love. I wish I could read this book again for the first time and experience it all over!

Many thanks to Josie Silver and Ballantine Books for this ARC. This review will also be posted on The Storygraph 2 weeks prior to the book's publication date. Link provided below.

First, thank you so much to the publisher RHPG - Ballantine and Netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. I wanted to like this novel as much as I enjoyed One Day in December but the underlying premise made it a difficult read for me. It's one thing to be in love with your best friend's boyfriend for years; it's another thing entirely to suggest having a holiday dalliance with a married man - one who has explicitly stated his intention to go back to his wife and figure things out.

While this novel is certainly charming and romantic at times, the seriousness and weight of the baggage carried by the male lead character (Mack) prevented me from actually rooting for our main couple. At the end of the day, throughout the entirety of the novel, he is married - legally, mentally, and emotionally - and even after our lead couple's Salvation Island rendezvous, Mack goes back home to his wife and sons and contemplates whether his marriage is still salvageable. I don't care if his wife was with another man first - two wrongs don't make a right. And saying it's not "wrong" to sleep with other people while you're still married if you've been "separated" for months is also a technicality. Considering that it hurt both of the involved parties (both Mack and Susie were upset to discover the other had slept with someone else), I think they'd agree with me. It might not be "wrong", but it certainly wasn't right.

This probably won't bother most, but the whole premise and foundation of the lead couple's romance occurring during a period when the male lead is still very much married made me uncomfortable the entire time. I kept thinking, if you know there's even the slightest chance that this man might go home and reunite with his wife, why would you enter a physical/sexual relationship with him at all? Wouldn't the better person encourage him to sort out his feelings and emotions and then come back and find her if/when he's decidedly ended his marriage and left his wife? I feel like it's an important distinction that Mack didn't come to the island mourning the end of his marriage/relationship. He came to the island to give his wife the space she asked for to figure out whether she had fallen out of love with him. He was still very much in love with her and dedicated to his family. It all just rubbed me the wrong way and I found myself rooting for Susie and the boys instead of our single, British protagonist.

In the end, Josie Silver is a fine writer but this premise just didn't do it for me. I loved Salvation Island as a setting and the cast of locals - but they were overshadowed by main leads who were immature, impulsive and mostly acted like horny teenagers rather than grown adults in their thirties with responsibilities and respect for others.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!! I enjoyed Silver's previous book, but this is a whole new level! This had all of my favorite tropes in it, including enemies to lovers, women finding themselves, gorgeous landscapes, and welcoming villagers. What a wonderful book. I wish I could read this again for the first time again and again. I really loved it.

One Night on the Island was a sweet, sentimental romance set on a secluded Irish island called Salvation. What I loved most about this book were the descriptions of the island. The author really painted a picture of the colors, sounds, smells of the island and made me wish I was there. The way she described the island's residents was also beautiful. Side characters are well-developed and add to the story in their own ways. '

I also like that the protagonist experienced significant personal growth during the course of the story. In terms of the romance aspect, I felt that the jump from the MC and love interest being at odds to being in love happened a bit abruptly. Of course they face obstacles, but for me where this book really shined is the descriptions: about the island and it's people, and about how the MC and love interest feel about one another. Overall, I found this to be a dreamy romance with an especially magical setting.

I am a massive fan of Josie Silver's first two books so when I saw she was releasing a third it flew to the top of my TBR list. The story of two people who are broken in different ways come to the island of Salvation to put themselves back together. Even more touching than the love story between our two main characters was the love story of the island and its people. Silver does a fantastic job bringing to life the setting and the secondary characters. It feels like a warm hug and a perfect winter time read.

Random.House|Ballantine Books thank You so much for this amazing eARC!

I enjoyed this contemporary romance way too much!
One Night on the Island by Josie Silver is my first book by this author and damn if it wasn't outstanding.
Cleo and Mack
Mack & Cleo are such amazing characters!
This author has an amazing writing style. I flew through this book.
The characters were well developed and I fell for these two head over heals fell for them!
The story flows exceptionally well and is plot driven!
This needs to be a movie stat!
5⭐ read for me!
I can't thank y'all enough for the chance to read this extraordinary story!
I'm will post to my platforms closer to pub date!

Oh my… my poor heart… my delved heart bleeds… Ms. Silver’s perfectly chosen words like ripped my heart apart ! I cried! I literally howled! I stopped reading a few times to check my emotional state: was I doing okay? Was I able to finish a chapter without hiccup-choking-sighing ritual? Absolutely I wasn’t!

Ms. Silver created a big winner: the main characters who are genuine, flawed, broken but resilient, determined, lost but strong enough to pick up the broken pieces to stand up and draw a new canvas of their life stories!

Dating column writing Cleo feels lost in her own life: she’s youngest member of her family, considered as little baby sister, never having a chance to know her father, dreaming of finishing to write a novel, suffering from the mistakes at her love life is ready to marry with herself. At least her insistent editor pushes to challenge her lifestyle ( of course she also inspired by Emma Watson’s self marriage decision) So she finds herself running away from her crowded and protective family’s surprise birthday party plans, her so-called, demanding and selfish London friends, leaving for her self- couple ceremony and apply each entries at her bucket list on a remote island called Salvation. So poetic, isn’t it?

But she wishes her self- couple-moon holiday isn’t sabotaged by charismatic, brooding American in big read coat and ridiculous head torch who insists to stay at the same room with her. Actually he thinks that’s his reserved room and he’s playing “ I’m related with manager and I came here to connect with my ancestors so I deserve more to be here than you” card!

But you may guess: both parties are too stubborn to leave and because of the weather conditions :the boats aren’t working as they’re scheduled. So they’re trapped in a place they came for different reasons.

Let’s hear out about Mack more: he left his estranged wife and two boys he adored in Boston, missing them a lot, trying to gather the pieces of his broken family life without making mistakes his father did. He’s a gifted photographer, looking like Han Solo, struggling to find balance between the attraction he feels for the unconventional, exceptional woman he shares the room by drawing chalk lines and being faithful to his wife who thinks she’s not happy with him anymore.

This is not a traditional, foreseeable romcom with full of cliches. The emotions are raw and so real. The complex characterization of Mack and Cleo helps you to empathize with their predicaments, reasonings, hesitations so easily.

That’s why I was about to blow up! There was so much angst. You’re easily shaken. As you see the true colors of the characters, you adore their honesty. Especially the conclusion was unusual and amazing!

I loved Cleo, Mack! I loved their individual journeys of self- discovery and I loved their unfinished love story!

And let’s not forget: those vivid, sassy, smart, entertaining supporting characters, yes I’m talking about island’s knitting girls group! Do they remind of us the group of powerful women at Winona Ryder’s “How to make an American Quilt” played by fantastic Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft, Louis Smith. Sassy, sarcastic Delta, logical, mature Dolores, blue haired- straightforward, hilarious Ailsa ( yes, she’s my favorite), friendly Brianne, peacemaker Erin, snarky-the oldest- erotic romance author Carmen: those girls stole the show! They were AMAZING!

That’s one of the books rock your world, transforming you, shaping you, ripping a unique piece from your heart.

When you finish you think about the characters, their stories, their challenges which resonate with your own lives. In my opinion, this is the best work of the author which highly deserved more than my five years, sentimental, beautiful, angsty stars!

As I listen to Springsteen’s Thunder Road for the third time, I’m finally ending my review!
“Oh-oh come take my hand
We're riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh-oh Thunder Road oh Thunder Road oh Thunder Road”

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing/ Ballantine Books for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.