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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
Food, love, and loss feature heavily in this book. It’s a realistic read, which means it isn’t a traditional romance but has heartbreak and love in equal measures.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
ISLAND APART by Steven Raichlen
ISBN: 9780765332387
Story of Ed and Claire. He lives on the island and everything he eats and uses is from the island. Nobody knows much about him as the tale goes on so he's known as the hermit.
Claire and her friend are summering at Sheilas house when Claire informs her that divorce from her husband and police charges against him make her not want to go back to NY. It's agreed she will stay on into the fall months to catch up on her reading for her publishing job and travel to Boston for chemo when needed.
Brings back memories of what it's like to live on the island where I grew up. Summer months and the island growing to 5times the population. Love the winter months the most where you get to learn about your neighbors and you barter with one another.
Love to hear of the history lesson as to the first inhabitants to the island.
The hermit travels the island on foot and we discover all the hidden treasures.
He found her on the beach knocked out after a bike accident and carried her miles to the ferry where ambulance was called. After she was better she would make food for him, breads, pies, etc and leave them just past the cemetery, he would arrive and get them and return the empty sack to her mailbox at the post office.
The ingredients used to make their lavish gifts came from the island where they probably were just a few feet from one another as they foraged for the fruits or nuts to make flour. Cooking and combination of what goes into a dish is just outstanding!
What Claire does is what I'd want to do, live on the island year round and read. And add in that Mary knits, I'd like to do that also. And being that it's on an island the smell of the ocean would be super.
Tender sex scenes are very loving and passionate. Like how they spend time investigating the island by car.
They each have secrets and the other finds out in time...
Medical and other studies cited are like a mystery solved.
Love and mysteries, nature scenes and island living got to me, priceless.
ISBN: 9780765332387
Story of Ed and Claire. He lives on the island and everything he eats and uses is from the island. Nobody knows much about him as the tale goes on so he's known as the hermit.
Claire and her friend are summering at Sheilas house when Claire informs her that divorce from her husband and police charges against him make her not want to go back to NY. It's agreed she will stay on into the fall months to catch up on her reading for her publishing job and travel to Boston for chemo when needed.
Brings back memories of what it's like to live on the island where I grew up. Summer months and the island growing to 5times the population. Love the winter months the most where you get to learn about your neighbors and you barter with one another.
Love to hear of the history lesson as to the first inhabitants to the island.
The hermit travels the island on foot and we discover all the hidden treasures.
He found her on the beach knocked out after a bike accident and carried her miles to the ferry where ambulance was called. After she was better she would make food for him, breads, pies, etc and leave them just past the cemetery, he would arrive and get them and return the empty sack to her mailbox at the post office.
The ingredients used to make their lavish gifts came from the island where they probably were just a few feet from one another as they foraged for the fruits or nuts to make flour. Cooking and combination of what goes into a dish is just outstanding!
What Claire does is what I'd want to do, live on the island year round and read. And add in that Mary knits, I'd like to do that also. And being that it's on an island the smell of the ocean would be super.
Tender sex scenes are very loving and passionate. Like how they spend time investigating the island by car.
They each have secrets and the other finds out in time...
Medical and other studies cited are like a mystery solved.
Love and mysteries, nature scenes and island living got to me, priceless.
When I started this book that involved a woman recovering from cancer, a hermit with what was most likely a tragic past, and cooking, along with a bit history of Chappaquiddick and interesting tidbits about the life of Wilhelm Reich, I thought I had found a good read-a-like for Anne Rivers Siddons and Diane Chamberlain. But, alas, it was not to be. Even though I cared about the characters and what happened to them, about halfway through the book I got bogged down (probably because of the continuing history and bio info) and ended up skimming to the end, which, by the way, seemed to go on forever.
Anyway, 4 stars to the first half and 3 to the second half for an average of 3.5.
Anyway, 4 stars to the first half and 3 to the second half for an average of 3.5.
This is one of those books whose only purpose is to make me think “wow. i could get something published if this is what they’re putting out there”
It is so bad. So bad. It’s almost offensively bad. This man does not know how to write women or descriptions of women. But not only that he spends way too much time talking about the history of the island? Like way too much. Like Victor Hugo level too much. Makes weird statements about how “savage” and “uncivilized” the indigenous people on the island were. The plot could have been interesting. It’s why I picked it up because a hermit romance sounds so intriguing but this is not what it is. It’s like an extra shitty Nicholas Sparks book mixed with a middle school history class. The history he talked about added nothing to the story and seemed like he just felt like talking about it. There’s also vaguely racist lines about people’s names and like…a reveal that a doctor is a “midget” that…I don’t know how to feel about. It’s really weird. I don’t think men should be allowed to write.
It is so bad. So bad. It’s almost offensively bad. This man does not know how to write women or descriptions of women. But not only that he spends way too much time talking about the history of the island? Like way too much. Like Victor Hugo level too much. Makes weird statements about how “savage” and “uncivilized” the indigenous people on the island were. The plot could have been interesting. It’s why I picked it up because a hermit romance sounds so intriguing but this is not what it is. It’s like an extra shitty Nicholas Sparks book mixed with a middle school history class. The history he talked about added nothing to the story and seemed like he just felt like talking about it. There’s also vaguely racist lines about people’s names and like…a reveal that a doctor is a “midget” that…I don’t know how to feel about. It’s really weird. I don’t think men should be allowed to write.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
4.5. This book is amazing! Let me just give you a little taste of what you're in for with this book:
"We're all wounded in some way," he said. "It's not what you have that makes you beautiful. It's what you've lost and still managed to go on living without."
How perfect is that quote? You may want to read it right now and that's okay. But there's more! This book really has a little bit of something for everyone. There's great characters (the two main characters, Claire and the Hermit, are heartbreaking and wonderful and so real). I really, really loved these characters. They're so tragic in their own way and they come together for something really beautiful. There's food! Claire and the Hermit are both wonderful cooks and make things that make you want to lick the pages just so you might get the tiniest taste of what they're cooking. There's a good love story with a great lesson. There's a mystery! See, there's really a little bit of something for everyone.
There's also a great setting. Chappaquiddick is where it's set, which before this book was only known to me as the place where Ted Kennedy had that car accident which killed a young woman. Fun fact: I have a newspaper front page from when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, which happened to be right around when Kennedy had the accident so there is a story on the same front page about that. Kind of creepy, no? Anyhow, what I love about the setting is that from the way that it is written about, you can tell that the author really knows the place. He does a great job of making it come alive.
Now I loved the story but there were a couple things that I didn't get about the story. I don't want to give anything away (you all still really, really need to read this book). First, why didn't Claire do something besides mope when she found on the big twist? I thought that she would take more action. Why didn't Sylvie try to make amends? Would you really send a letter like that? I didn't fully understand the motivations behind the characters, which took me out of the story a little bit.
That being said, this book is still pretty fabulous. This is the book that you get lost in. It's the one where you make sure you have a ton of time to devote to it because you know that you aren't going to want to stop reading it for awhile.
"We're all wounded in some way," he said. "It's not what you have that makes you beautiful. It's what you've lost and still managed to go on living without."
How perfect is that quote? You may want to read it right now and that's okay. But there's more! This book really has a little bit of something for everyone. There's great characters (the two main characters, Claire and the Hermit, are heartbreaking and wonderful and so real). I really, really loved these characters. They're so tragic in their own way and they come together for something really beautiful. There's food! Claire and the Hermit are both wonderful cooks and make things that make you want to lick the pages just so you might get the tiniest taste of what they're cooking. There's a good love story with a great lesson. There's a mystery! See, there's really a little bit of something for everyone.
There's also a great setting. Chappaquiddick is where it's set, which before this book was only known to me as the place where Ted Kennedy had that car accident which killed a young woman. Fun fact: I have a newspaper front page from when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, which happened to be right around when Kennedy had the accident so there is a story on the same front page about that. Kind of creepy, no? Anyhow, what I love about the setting is that from the way that it is written about, you can tell that the author really knows the place. He does a great job of making it come alive.
Now I loved the story but there were a couple things that I didn't get about the story. I don't want to give anything away (you all still really, really need to read this book). First, why didn't Claire do something besides mope when she found on the big twist? I thought that she would take more action. Why didn't Sylvie try to make amends? Would you really send a letter like that? I didn't fully understand the motivations behind the characters, which took me out of the story a little bit.
That being said, this book is still pretty fabulous. This is the book that you get lost in. It's the one where you make sure you have a ton of time to devote to it because you know that you aren't going to want to stop reading it for awhile.