ISLAND TIME features a beautiful island setting that will truly make you wish you were stranded on an island! This book has some great lgbtq+ rep, a large cast of characters with multiple POV!

ISLAND TIME follows the Lee family & the Kelly family who have nothing in common besides the fact that their daughters are married. When a nearby volcano erupts, they find themselves stranded together on a remote island for six weeks

This was my first novel by Georgia Clark and I was immediately drawn to it because of that gorgeous cover!I went into this book thinking it would be more of a rom-com, but it was definitely more of a family drama! There are a lot of characters to keep track of, which made the dynamics interesting but it was difficult to distinguish them apart in the beginning.

I never got attached to any of the characters, which made this book drag along for me! I think this book would have benefited from being a bit shorter, and including header’s of whose POV we were focusing on. Overall, I enjoyed this book set in Australia, the setting was described perfectly and Clark really knows how to write about nature!

Two families are joined together when daughters from each side marry. What starts as a long weekend trip to an island off the coast of Australia turns into a six-week-long “getting to know you” time. Based on the cover and the synopsis, I was expecting more of a rom com but the family drama delivered. There were some moments of levity and some spicy bits, so it feels like a lighter story. The story was told from a lot of different characters’ perspectives, which I normally like, but this time there were a lot of stories to keep straight. I also didn’t particularly relate to or care much for any of the characters, so I wasn’t as invested in their issues of their resolution. I really enjoyed learning more about Australia and its native people, animals, and environment. The writing was good but the book just wasn’t the best fir for me.

Unfortunately, I didn't like this one. I legit have read multiple books by this author and I just get so bored and struggle to push through her books.

This was the perfect summer LGBTQ read! Lots of drama, lots of secrets! It was chalk full of a few different romantic relationships, family drama, and friendships!

The Kelly’s and the Lee’s are on vacation on a remote island in Australia together. When a volcano erupts nearby, their two week vacation turns into six weeks being stranded together before transportation can arrive. With only themselves and two other workers on the island, everyone is forced to overthink what they really want their life to look like.

It did take a minute for me to get all the characters straight because there are so many who are telling their side of the story but the author describes each person in such detail you can practically visualize them and eventually you know exactly who is who! It reminded me a lot of how the movie Love Actually is set up.

A long book but a good one if you need one to round out the last month of summer!

🎶 song to go with this book: Island in the Sun @weezer

This book didn’t really work for me. I felt like with all the different characters’ perspectives that I didn’t really get enough insight into any of them. I also cared the most about Amelia and Liss but not too much about most of the others. This made the chapters not about those two kinda drag. I think it would’ve been helpful to have the character’s name as a header on each chapter because there were a few times where I was unclear whose perspective the chapter was in. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the ending. It just felt a little too abrupt and up in the air for everyone.

I will say that I enjoyed the writing itself as well as the setting. There were also a few moments that truly made me laugh out loud.

Overall this one wasn’t for me, but I think someone looking for a romance with several characters and exploration of familial relationships might enjoy this one.

I loved Georgia Clark's last book "It Had to be You" and was so excited when I got this ARC, but sadly this one did not live up to my expectations. This ended up being a DNF at around 60%. I am not one who usually DNFs books, but I just could not get myself to push through on this one.

I did enjoy how the book started and the early chapters using the alternating POV, however there ended up being way too many POVs for me and I was often double checking who I was reading about. I also felt like this book gave a lot of extra information and began to feel too long.

I did enjoy learning about the island and it's history and appreciated all the diversity in this book. I will definitely read Georgia Clark's next book, but I think this one was just not for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Atria Books for sending me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately I DNFed at 18%. I had a few big problems. First, the humor just did not feel right. It felt as if the author did not try. Now the characters are supposed to be Australian, so it is possible I just didn’t get them. Second, the characters are all so whiny and unlikeable. I truly tried to find at least one of them I liked and failed. Finally, there are way to many POVS and we’re constantly switching without notice. It would have been much better with the POVS of our two love interests. There was way too much back story and descriptions of things and people that we truly don’t need. I am hoping to try Georgia Clark again and with better luck next time.

This was an interesting book about family dynamics. There are romantic elements, but I probably wouldn't call it a romance. I think it's much more about family, partnerships, womanhood, and taking time to identify what you really want in life and whether or not you are communicating that with the people in your life. I would say it's a solid 3.5 stars - it would be 4 stars but the middle section was honestly a bit dragging on.

Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. ⁣
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⁣Island Time appears to be a bright, fun summer read. Unfortunately- it’s not. ⁣
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⁣Why was this book so long? Honestly, if this wouldn’t have been an ARC, I would have happily quit reading this one. (Thanks @netgalley and Atria Books). ⁣
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⁣Plus- there were NINE different point of views and so much ridiculous family drama. ⁣
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⁣On the pro side, it had lots of LGBTQ representation and a delightful setting. I wouldn’t mind getting stuck on a remote island paradise for a few weeks! ⁣
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⁣This one wasn’t for me. Two stars!

I feel bad when I don’t love an ARC but this just wasn’t for me. I loved LGBTQA+ vibes and the stuck on an island but there were just too many charachters and I couldn’t connect with any of them. I felt myself forcing to continue. It didn’t feel like a light romance like the cover gives off.

I don’t dnf books especially ARCs because I’m here to help. I think it just needs another round of editing to make sure all parts are truly important and needed in the story. Thank you for my copy I will still be reading your other books :)

I did not like this book. The author clearly had an agenda, which is FINE! I liked that there was LGBTQ representation, but it was poorly done. The instant-love between the two women plays into the lesbian stereotype and detracts from either of them developing as characters. The only redeemable character is the poor dad who is losing his wife, who, by the way, it insufferable.

There are too many points of view, and too many stories being told. One of them, maybe two of them, as their own story would be fine. This is too much with too little fleshing out of the plot.


I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

This book did not do it for me at all. Honestly, I regret finishing it.

The setting was lame and unrealistic to me. Stranded on an island for six weeks, they only worry about food in the beginning and never worry again? No one truly gets cranky. Maybe once is there an actual (almost) clash with nature.

I would probably be able to let all of that go if I enjoyed ANY of the characters. They all seemed too whiny, selfish, and dramatic, only for things to be tied up like an after-school special. Not to mention, that there were just too many characters that it all felt convoluted. I think this book would've improved immensely if we could've had a much deeper focus on any of the storylines but because it skimmed over all of them, they all came across as shallow and forgettable.

Not worth the read in my opinion.

In this novel, an extended family with adult children - parents Jules and Glen, their daughters Amelia and Matty, Matty’s wife Parker, and Parker’s parents Lyudmila and Russell - go on vacation to a small isolated island off the coast of Australia where the only other people there are caretaker Liss and indigenous Australian Jarrah. They’re just supposed to be there for a week, but when disaster strikes, they’re all stranded there for a while, which results in a lot of personal revelations both positive and negative.


As you can perhaps tell from that, there are a lot of characters in this book, most of whom get POV chapters. I loved Georgia Clark’s book from last year it Had to Be You, which also has a lot of characters, but the difference in this book was that most of the characters are annoying and/or selfish. And at over 400 pages, this book just felt too long. On the plus side, I loved the setting for the book and the LGBTQ representation, and I definitely was invested in Amelia and Liss’s stories - I kind of wish the book was streamlined more to focus on that.

All in all, a cute enough book but not a must read. 3.5 stars

This book was a lot! There was SO many different perspectives and nicknames that it got very confusing. So much was happening once. It was just all over the place and not in a good way. I'm confused by we didnt get more povs of the mc and the love interest? That just throws the whole book off.

This book has a gorgeously cute cover and it immediately drew me to it. Based on the cover, I had this notion that the book was going to be a light rom-com. But it definitely isn’t. It is a novel that does have some humour, however, it begins with a scary natural disaster which strands two families on a remote island in Australia for weeks. Stranded with the families are the caretaker of the island and the bartender/eco tourism company employee who takes care of delivering meal kits and attends to the needs of the family during their vacation.

I loved the setting of this novel, it is an amazing getaway and the author does a fabulous job of taking us to this gorgeous, isolated place that is very exclusive. I enjoyed the addition of the history of the Indigenous Australians and the culture. I also thought the friendship that developed between the two men from each family was so much fun and was well done, as older males sometimes have difficulty forging new friendships, especially with the preconceived idea that they had nothing in common. This novel was also inclusive with representation for the LGBTQ2S+ community. Proceed with caution also as this story is s-p-i-c-y; It is definitely open door and 4/5 chili peppers hot.

Where the novel fell flat for me was the conflicts the various characters experienced were introduced quite early and were ongoing and I felt they went around in circles for too long. Also, in describing an emotion or a feeling, the author resorted twice, to references of needle drug use. I didn’t get why that was necessary and it was so jarring because it just didn’t fit with the context of the story or any of the characters. Unless I didn’t pick up on a subtle inference.

In the end, it was the setting, the crafting of an interesting plots for the characters, and the characters of the two families themselves that earned the novel its three stars. I will read the next novel by Georgia Clark.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy of Island Time, in exchange for my honest opinion.

Trigger Warnings: Discussion of colonization/land back, cursing, IUI, lying, alcohol, cheating, wild animals, volcano eruption, animal death, divorce, panic attacks, racism, masturbation, sex, removal of Indigenous children from their families, alcoholism, addiction, past death of a parent, injury, miscarriage, weed

Representation: Australian, Chinese, Russian, Lesbian, Non-binary, Bisexual, Black

Island Time is an adult contemporary romance staring two families with little in common. The Lee’s and the Kelly’s travel to an island off the coast of Queensland to celebrate their daughters’ marriage. When a volcano erupts trapping both families for 6 weeks, tensions rise, as do silly moments, love scenes, and run-ins with wild life. Will they last stranded together?

What a perfect summer book! This story was a beautiful, tropical getaway from the current heat wave we are experiencing. The story is very character driven with less events occurring. In the beginning, I was wishing for more action, but the author makes you so invested in the families that you barely notice the lack of plot points. Each “couple” experiences life on the island in their own adventures. I didn’t even realize until I read the acknowledgements that this was the author’s Covid book. Now looking back, it makes sense but its also so far from a lockdown in a pandemic that you don’t feel the trauma of reliving those events.

One critique I have for this story is the transitions between POV/chapters. I think it helped that each chapter started a new character’s POV, but sometimes the final sentence didn’t feel like a chapter ending so there’s just an awkward pause then a new character starts.

Overall, a great read for anyone looking for their next breezy, summer read! Perfect for the beach and your home, as you’re taken away to the beauty of Australia.

I didn't finish this one so I'm not sure if I should write a review.

I went into this intrigued by the premise. However, I feel let down by what I did read. There were too many characters to keep track of, especially ones with nicknames thrown in. I didn't enjoy reading about the same events from multiple perspectives. I also didn't think any of the characters I encountered were very nice or sympathetic.
I can see that this book has some positive reviews so I may attempt this one again, but it's not for me right now.

I did enjoy reading about the gorgeous island setting.

georgia clarke!!!! love her words and her stories that just throw me in the worlds of the characters she so carefully crafts!

This one really didn't do it for me. I had heard great things about the author's previous book, so I was excited to read this one, but at least to me, it felt very all over the place. Too many characters, too many bizarre plot directions. I thought it was going to be a fun story about a family on vacation and it sort of felt like a hot mess. Disappointed, but I'm sure I'll still read her next book!

1.5⭐️ | If I wanted to see a bunch of people bitch on a remote island, I should have just watched an episode of Survivor. I hoped to enjoy this because I usually like stories with ensemble casts and multiple POVs, but this book was just too long. I hated all the characters, and not even in the fun way.

In addition to the generally unlikable cast, ISLAND TIME also included:
- Woody Allen praise in 2022
- Questionable native representation
- A too-personal relationship between one character (a therapist) and one of her patients (a teenager)

This was a big miss for me. The only thing that pushed me to finish was the full cast audiobook.

Content Warnings: Tropical storms, cheating, miscarriage, talk of pregnancy, internalized homophobia, divorce, drowning, wild animal deaths