‘Who doesn’t love an adventure? Especially when it’s set in the Caribbean!’ Linn B Halton‘Who doesn’t dream about a vacation in the Caribbean?’ R is for Reviews‘The author’s words will transport you to the beautifully sunny and warm Caribbean.’ Kate’s Book Spot‘The author’s obvious knowledge and love of the Caribbean shines through.’ Best Chick Lit.com‘You feel like you are living the story.’ … living the story.’ Netgalley Reviewer
‘Janice’s descriptive passages capture the very essence of the Caribbean.’ Carol E Wyer
‘I really enjoy Janice’s writing style.’ Mandy Baggot
ISLAND IN THE SUN: When successful jewellery designer Isla Ashton unexpectedly inherits her eccentric Aunt Kate’s Caribbean island, she is obligated to return to the place she associates with heartache and regret. To where she grew up and fell in love with her childhood friend, Leo Fernandez. Fully intent on selling the island and finally putting the past behind her, Isla is soon compelled to put together the pieces of what really happened on a fateful night ten-years before. She begins to believe that in going to prison, Leo hadn’t only been shielding her from the same fate. She also starts to suspect that her late Aunt hadn’t been entirely honest in sending her away under the guise of recriminations. Who had they both been protecting and why?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Janice Horton, also affectionately known as the backpacking housewife, writes contemporary romantic fiction with a dash of humour and a sense of adventure. Once her three children had grown up, Janice and her backpacking husband sold their empty nest in Scotland UK along with almost everything they owned and set off to travel the world. Since then they have been travelling full-time and have explored over 50 countries, living out of an apartment, a hut, or wherever they happen to find themselves.
Janice keeps in touch with her readers on social media and from her website at: https://thebackpackinghousewife.com/
more
Janice Hortin’s Island in the Sun is a fabulous read. The setting is beautiful and it really felt as if I was there. I love Janice Horton’s writing. She brilliantly takes you to the location of her novel and keeps you there with her incredibly realistic characters.
Speaking of characters, Isla, Kate and Leo have such fascinating lives and I loved reading about them all. The mystery and secrets added to the pace of this novel and I loved the action as well.
I highly recommend checking out Island in the Sun! It’s a fantastically written mystery with wonderful character development.
*I received this book as part of a blog tour organized by Rachel’s Random Resources. All opinions are my own.*
Island in the Sun by Janice Horton is one of those rare gems of a book to just savor and enjoy! It’s one of those books that I read each and every word…devouring them! That’s why it is an all-time favorite read and a top read of 2019 for me!
Isla Ashton is a very successful jewellry designer in the UK. She is looking towards the future, having left her painful past on a beautiful island in the Caribbean. However, the past comes roaring back when she discovers she has inherited her aunt’s island, yes an entire island! She plans to sell and get out before confronting her past in the form of her past love, Leo. But, that is easier said than done when she finds her aunt has left her some surprises she never expected.
Both Isla and Leo are adults who have made decisions about their lives based on things that happened in their past. Neither of them are perfect by any means, especially their stubborness. That just made them more human and easier for me to connect with. As much as this book is about them and their journey to find one another again, it’s also a great deal about Kate. What a character this woman was….talk about a flawed character, she was definitely one. There were times I thought she was incredibly selfish. Yet, I somehow came to love her! She was so complicated and so human.
The book was incredibly well-written, and the writer, Janice Horton, is so talented in creating such a beautiful setting. I could see the blue seas, feel the sand between my toes, smell and feel the balmy salty breezes. It’s not very often I come across a writer that can create such a visual setting, one that I find myself completely immersed in.
Make sure to read the section about the writer herself. She is quite intriguing, and I loved how she finds the locales for her books!
This is a perfect book for the spring and summer. It has it all…great characters, a family saga full of secrets and discoveries, and a gorgeous setting. You can’t get much better than that! The epilogue also contains a surprise. So…I’m hoping there might be more to the story that will result in a future book!
Favorite Quotes:
Her memories though, were like snippets of old video mixed with feelings of fledgling excitement and anxiety.
To encourage attendance, Minister John has suggested using fine port wine for his blessings and the best filtered vodka as holy water, although I got him to agree to using plain water during the baptism of infants. As he predicted, this Sunday, there was a queue for communion and a great demand for adults to earnestly profess their faith. John’s sermons too are rather unconventional as he often quotes Bob Dylan or Pink Floyd or John Lennon lyrics rather than those of the Bible.
My Review:
This creative tale covered several highly eventful timelines and was brimming with unusually complicated and frustrating, yet highly compelling characters, who had come to call a small privately owned island in the Caribbean their home. A dead woman’s journals pulled all the elements and long-buried secrets into focus with layers of shocking revelations within her recounting of a truckload of exciting events, all craftily layered with unique twists and included several generations of family drama, dark secrets, a glamorous lifestyle, criminal histories, love affairs, gambling, treasure hunting, infidelity, manipulative lies, and mental health issues. Ms. Horton’s writing was absorbingly engaging and lushly detailed while filled with a bevy of intriguing, quirky, and stubborn characters. I couldn’t seem to read fast enough as the missing pieces to several mysteries started to shake loose.