Very slowly getting back into the swing of things, thank you for your patience! Before I go any further, I would just like to extend my thoughts to Helena after the death of her father. We are all thinking of you here at TWG.
Many thanks to Anne for inviting me to take part in this blog tour, and to Helena for the ARC. Here is my review:
On the windswept Scandinavian Åland Islands, the festive season is snowy and chilly—yet breathtakingly beautiful.
It’s time for Alicia to enjoy her first Christmas back on her beloved Islands with her family. There’ll be traditional dancing around the tree and sipping mulled wine in front of a cozy fire. But peace is broken by Alicia’s estranged husband, Liam, who springs an unwelcome and devastating surprise, while her ex-lover, Patrick, temps her with an altogether different kind of future. Alicia faces impossible choices to keep her family together.
With her world crashing around her, can Alicia create the idyllic Island Christmas she’s always dreamt about?
Meanwhile, Brit, Alicia’s best friend, returns to the Islands to lick her wounds after a particularly bloody break-up with an Italian chef. When she meets her new boss, the Captain of a Baltic cruise liner, sparks fly.
Brit can’t help but fall quickly in love with Jukka, but when she discovers his murky past, she fears her heart is about to be broken yet again. Are the rumors about Jukka true, or just typical small island gossip?
What does TWG think?
Ooooo! Well there is definitely more to ‘An Island Christmas’ than I was expecting!! Helena Halme seems to have gone all out with her Scandinavian storyline, combining emotional family drama with Russian dominance, and Christmas with a life on a ship! I mean, where on Earth does she get her influence from?
Alicia is back on the island where her heart belongs, yet her heart seems to have a different idea when it comes to the man who is taking her fancy! Legally she is married to Liam, however he may no longer be the man for her. Whilst she tries to decide where her heart lie, a lot of other drama grab hold of her attention, putting her own feelings to the back of the queue.
For me, the storyline took a long time to get going. We were given a lot of information to sink our teeth into, but for a while it felt like that was as far as it went. I was pleased that as readers, we were able to touch base with the various different characters in the story, however due to the frequent character change, it meant that the storyline took far longer to get into the swing of things and, given the nature of some of the topics discussed in the book, I would have preferred it if I was able to sink my teeth into it much earlier.
That is, of course, just my opinion and, despite that, I did really enjoy ‘An Island Christmas’ and seeing how festivities are done across the pond. Helena Halme is a beautiful, descriptive author who brings each of her stories to life as though the reader has front row seats to the entire novel. As I said at the beginning of this review, this book has so much more to it than I could ever have dreamed of, making it such a pleasure to read.
The Writing Garnet 