My hopes were high for Island Time by Georgia Clark. I mean: The cover! The setting! The representation! And I liked it, I really did, but it needs to be about 100 pages shorter.

That said, the book is about two families that get stuck on an island together. There’s romance, yes, but I’d say it’s more a family drama or family saga. The characters are human and complex, and it was great getting to know them and witness their growth.

Pick this book up if you’re seeking a story about family and friendship, heartbreak and love, but be mindful that you’ll have to wade through a lot of extra to get to the heart of the story.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Georgia Clark is masterful at “painting” is a lush setting. The fictional island of Mun’dai sits off the coast of Australia and is home to beautiful foliage, pristine beaches, storytelling locals, oh and, an angry volcano. Two families are stuck together and comedy (barely any really), drama and a little romance (sadly way too little) ensue. The book is a great beach read, and offers its readers a little bit of everything. I was waiting for a bit more romance, but I still enjoyed the multitude of POVs (8 or 9 I think), though was confused by who was talking half the time and had to keep going back. But that’s what you get for reading at 1am! 3.5 ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my review!

I enjoyed reading this book. I found the characters interesting - but not super likeable. I wanted to know where the story was going and what would happen next. However, I feel that this book could have benefited from A LOT of editing! The story had a slow start because everything was described in minute detail and not only did we get paragraph long backstories awkwardly inserted into the story, but the backstories seemed to have backstories. As the book continued I found myself curious as to how the various conflicts and relationships would be resolved. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy in return for my honest opinion.

Sisters Amelia and Matty have chipped in to organize an island get together getaway. They’ve invited their parents (Jules and Glen), Matty’s wife (Parker) and In-laws (Ludmilla and Randall), and Amelia’s boyfriend (James) is planning on joining them a day later. Also on the island are caretakers, Jarrah and Liss.
The plans are to enjoy a week together, family closeness etc, in these spectacular exclusive island houses. The reality is more than a little messier than that. A nearby volcanic explosion is only the beginning. During their unexpected extended stay secrets come out, huge life changes are made, and they all have more adventure than they planned on. To say they all leave the island different than when they arrived would be an understatement.

Overall I enjoyed the ensemble cast of characters, they’re all introduced well as the book begins. Vague to avoid spoiling anything, I admit there were a couple characters I found unlikeable - one extremely so - but the thing is I was still invested and wanted to see where their stories went.

The storylines drew me in and a couple times I forgot they were in this temporary bubble, like I think they did. It was strange that they would get power/Wi-Fi etc back so quickly after a disaster big enough to leave them stranded, but sometimes you’ve just got to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride.

Outside the romantic plotlines, I was SUPER invested in the friendship of Glen and Randall. I would seriously pay actual dollars to read a book of just them and their bird hunting adventures. Liss might have been my favorite, but these two were close behind!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC

An interesting book that kept my attention from the start to the last. This book is more family drama than rom com, so don't let the cover fool you! But I did enjoy the family dynamics and how they slowly work through lots of new and old issues. The many points of views did get somewhat confusing, but in the end, I really enjoyed this book.
Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to enjoy this one, I really did. The cover art is great, but the story left me bored. So many characters and so much going on it was hard to keep up. Not for me.

An excellent read, but I can't describe too much without spoilers! Contains love and heartbreak, family drama, unexpected friendships, and gorgeous descriptions of Australian island beauty that will make you feel like you are there! A few characters you will love, a few who will drive you crazy - just like your own family 😉 Fans of Georgia wont be disappointed, readers new to her work will be quick to grab the rest of her titles!

part travel log , part romance. I found these characters to be very well developed and honestly like each character by the end ( although Glen and Randall will be my favorites) . All characters had well fleshed out good and bad traits. The things that I didn't love : the nicknames ( boo boo and sausage esp) and the length of book. This could have easily been done in 300 pages without losing any of the story line.
The game night could have come directly from my family conversations!
Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley and Georgia Clark for the ARC.

Georgia Clark did a great job of describing the nature and animals on the island. I also liked the different narrators, it kept me engaged throughout the entire book. This was a fun, comical, thrilling romantic read! Island time showed me that it’s never too late to change your destiny in life.

I really enjoyed the setting of Island Time, as well as the descriptions of the island, nature, animals, and the native people and customs. I loved that this was a romance featuring multiple queer relationships. I also really enjoyed the relationship between sisters Matty and Amelia. Even though the book and cover suggested that this would be a light, fun rom-com, it was more of a family drama to me.

This was my first Georgia Clark book but it won’t be my last! Island Time was a fun, timely read with deep roots in family. The romance was well done and unique, and it had some action and thrills as well. A well-rounded, solid read. I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review on Goodreads

Things I loved about this book: the atmosphere of being on the island, the description of the setting, the natural disaster, the lgbtq relationship.
Things I struggled with: I thought this was a rom-com based on the cute cover, but it is not; it has a very deep storyline.

Overall a good read. Lots of characters to keep up with, but I think that added a lot to the storyline. Would recommend if you are looking for books with an lgbtq storyline set on a secluded island.

Families at war. Enemies. Forced proximity on "vacation" for 6 weeks and oh boy! The only thing in common is the daughters are married so be prepared to enjoy this delightful tale. Will they make it back home in one piece? All of them? The island isn't big enough for your in-laws. Remind me not to go to remote islands period, though! It's great beach read.

I wanted to love this book so much. First too many pov’s going on. I did not find the characters very likeable nor their love convincing enough for me. This fell flat for me and didn’t find a lot of romance or love in here to rate it high.

I really wanted to love this book. A multiple POV stranded on an island romance with queer characters? Like sign me up that sounds great. Unfortunately I just got super bored in the middle of this book. It started off super strong with the intro and the aftermath of the storm but somewhere after that I just got lost for like most of the middle of the book. I enjoyed the romance between Amelia and Liss at first but the chaos of everything and everyone else really just distracted me. Chaos is definitely the word for this family. You get 8 POVs in this story. Everyone is just wild and I loved how much I hated some of them. So all the characters were fun and ridiculous for me. It’s just the plot in the middle that lost me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the advance copy of this book. Release day is 6/14!
This will be posted on my Instagram @katebrownreads as well. Will update with the link once it’s posted.

Perfect spring break read! I’m already in such a summer beach read mood and this one hit the spot! Such a cute story with the best plot. I loved all of the characters and I highly recommend for summer!

This book was a lot of fun to read about! I would definitely reread it while I'm at the beach or on an island lol.

This book was about two families (in-laws) going on vacation to a remote island when an offshore earthquake strikes, causing a tsunami that wipes out any chance of going home for the next six weeks. What happens next is a lot of family drama, self-discovery and some romance on the island as they deal with the aftermath and wait to be able to go home again.

I’ve read another book by Georgia Clark and found there to be a lot of similarities between the two. I like that she creates a very diverse cast of characters, but I feel like it comes off as “trying too hard” from a diversity and inclusion perspective. I’m also not a huge fan of different character perspectives in books, but I do find Georgia is able to pull this off well. The chapters are short and the constantly changing perspectives keep the story moving, especially during the middle of this book which I felt just dragged on and on. The book started out really exciting and ended with some excitement, but the middle was quite slow-moving and drawn out in my opinion. Speaking of the ending, I feel like some elements of what happened just came completely out of left-field and unprompted. For example, the fight between Glen and Randall - that was completely out of character for both of them and then didn’t really lead anywhere? What was the purpose of that?

Lastly, I did not find that the title of this book nor the cover image accurately depict what this story is about. I was expecting a light-hearted beach read and the undertone of this book is definitely more on the serious side.

Overall I liked the book - solid 3 stars from me. Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like the book, but I just couldn't. Too many characters to keep up with and didn't really ever find the story to be believable or overly entertaining. I will not post my review on any social media out of respect for the author and her previous work which I have liked.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review an advanced reader's copy of this book. This in no way affects my review, all opinions are my own.

👎🏼 a disappointing “rom-com”

I was so excited to hear that Island Time was available on NetGalley after hearing such rave reviews about It Had to be You by Georgia Clark. I wanted to like this book SO BAD, but it just didn’t work for me.

I think part of the disappointment was from the marketing of this book as a romantic comedy. There are some ridiculous scenes in this book (how many life and death experiences does a character need?) but I didn’t find the humor.

I also found that a lot of the character development was lacking. I just couldn’t understand or get behind some of their actions/decisions. My favorite character was not any of the six women presented, but the main characters dad.

Since most of the characters on the island (all except for 2?) get their time to shine, the main romance was not really highlighted so I wasn’t really rooting for the to get it worked out.

But, what hurt the most is I could see the brilliance of Georgia Clark’s writing. Some of the passages were beautiful! This just wasn’t the story for me.

However, you should definitely read some positive reviews because other people have absolutely adored this book.

Island Time by Georgia Clark comes out 6/14/22


Thank you to atria books for providing this e-arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.