Island Time was my second Georgia Clark read, and it did not disappoint! It’s a contemporary fiction/romantic comedy about two families - one American and one Australian - who are isolated on a remote Australian island after a tsunami hits.

This book has:
-a beautiful remote island setting
-flawed characters learning to accept themselves
-LGBTQ+ representation
-an emotional, character-driven, family-centered story

I did think it could have been shorter - there were some parts that dragged a bit. Additionally, there’s a lot of information about the flora and fauna of the island, which I found fascinating, but it felt a bit disjointed from the rest of the story at times.

Overall, I learned a lot from this book, and I found many of the characters so endearing. I’m not usually drawn to family dramas, but I enjoyed this one!

**Thanks to Atria / Emily Bestler Books for the gifted review copy

Unfortunately, this one didn't hook me in. I found the characters to be flat and so was not interested in continuing. Thank you for the advanced copy.

i wanted to like this one so bad! Cute cover, inviting description, etc. However, it felt soooooooo long and drawn out! I couldnt finish the whole book, but made it 1/2 of the way before DNF'ing it. We’re following way too many POVs for a rom com. The POV of the Main character and her love interest is more than enough. It made it so confusing. Also, the nicknames were a bit too much with too much detail.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

I’m going to say the line that I hate when I come across reviews. I really wanted to love this one but it fell flat. It was long and there were way too many characters that just blended together. The only one that really stood out was Amelia who was falling for the island caretaker. After a tsunami the families are stranded on the island for 6 weeks but yet they can still working on their laptops using wifi in the evenings. lol

Thank you Atria Books and netgalley for an arc.

I was originally drawn in by the fantastic cover that just screamed summer read. But I stayed for the story! I loved this book with its diverse cast of characters and set in beautiful Australia! The characters are so relatable. There’s romance there’s secrets and there are 2 totally different families stranded together in a beautiful setting. What could go wrong? Perfect if you identify as queer and perfect if you don’t!

Not my cup of tea, but well written nonetheless. Definitely a beach read that you could enjoy any time of the year if your weather is gloomy.

While I appreciated the story being told and the family dynamics introduced as well as the LGBTQ+ inclusion, I thought this story was a bit too long and could’ve done with some trimming. It was tolerable but I didn’t find myself shifting in any emotional range for this book. The humor also did not mesh well with me. I really wanted to like this more!

I have tried this one a few times. Today I got farther than I ever have but I still need to DNF. there are sooo many POVs and after getting into the set up of the plot, I’m just not into it

I couldn't get through this title. It ended up not being for me, but I hope it finds a hope with other readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I couldn’t keep up with all the characters. But in the authors defense, I’m never really good with books that have a lot of characters. That being said, I still found it to be quite lackluster and dragged.

I'm really sad to admit that I didn't like this. There's some potty-adjacent humor that was not for me at all, and it was really distracting for me. The POV shifts were a lot, too - just a lot going on that made it hard to follow.

Island Time is a book that took a while to grab my attention. It had a lot of characters and would jump from one character to another. I want my reading to be light and help me forget about life. This required too much attention and I found it a struggle to stick with the story line with all of the points of view.

I love Australia and Rom Coms. This story had both plus Queer representation. The banter between characters was fun and I appreciated the bond built between the dads. There were lots of characters which confused me at times with all the dialogue but I just slowed my pace to keep up. I learned some interesting information about the Australian people, plants and animals. This island resort sounds like a nice escape for 6 weeks

I really tried with this book but after making it to 30%, ended up DNFing. I really enjoyed Clark's debut book but this one just got stuck in endless descriptions and meanderings that kept me as a reader from feeling engaged with any of the characters or what was going to happen to them.

DNF at 15%

This is simply a case of a book being completely mismarketed. I went into this thinking that this was going to be an sapphic island romance when this is really a contemporary fiction about a family stuck on an island together and being forced to resolve issues that have festered amongst one. I was totally into the idea of the former and I tend not to gravitate towards the latter.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

I read this book both in audio and kindle form and could not connect with the characters, the pacing or a lot of the story line. I love a good LGBTQIA+ book but I just couldn't connect on this one.

I had a difficult time getting into this book, but it may have been a me thing. I did not think the characters were very likable, and that is something that I look for when reading a book. I put this book down a lot while reading and I just wish it had a little more substance to hook me into the reading.

This was a really great romance and I love the mix of Australians and Americans. I will definitely be reading more from Clark in the future!

I really enjoyed this family romance/drama. I know people have complained about there being too many characters, but I liked the stranded on an island, loads of characters plot. I didn't really like the tsunami, maybe something a little less jarring? I thought the characters were very relatable and so were their issues. Good beach read.