Saturday 23 April 2022

Publication Day: The Island in Bramble Bay by Victoria Walker

Welcome to Bramble Island! Find breezy, sunshine-filled days, shaded woodlands, glittering sea and a summer of love…

Maggie Cassidy is the new park manager of Bramble Island in Dorset. A job on an island where she is the only year-round inhabitant is the perfect fresh start for her. But when she’s torn between the job she came to do and the island she has grown to love, can she hang on to her perfect new life without compromising her dreams?

Charlie Mackenzie is the forester on Bramble Island. He is a loner full of secrets, burnt out by the life he left behind in San Francisco. When his past catches up with him can he finally face what he has spent three years running from without jeopardising everything that healed him?

Bramble Island lulls them both into an idyllic existence but when the outside world bangs on their door, is history about to repeat itself for both of them?

Purchase Links
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Bramble-Bay-Victoria-Walker-ebook/dp/B09X4MDK6D/
US - https://www.amazon.com/Island-Bramble-Bay-Victoria-Walker-ebook/dp/B09X4MDK6D/

Review

Maggie Cassidy wants a fresh start. Charlie Mackenzie is worried she's going to interfere with his own. However, falling in love is only the start of their story. If they want more than a summer fling, they're going to have to face the pasts that brought them here to begin with.

There are so many little details about this story that are just so cool. Firstly, the setting - even more remote than a village, Bramble Island is a natural reserve popular with summer holidaymakers but deserted in the winter, as a setting it was almost a character of its own and I loved how it tied in directly with the leads - Maggie is the new park manager and Charlie the forester. Both rare jobs in romances, I love the care that they give to the plant life of Bramble Island and how it brings them together. It's clear that it's not some job pasted on to make sure the characters don't starve, but an integral part of their characterisation and the plot. Even Charlie's past job is given meaning and nuance when he must decide what path he truly wants to take.

There are lots of obstacles in their way - almost everything mentioned in their backstories comes back to bite them, sometimes more than once, and their relationship and communication skills are really put to the test again and again. I appreciated when Maggie put strong boundaries out, as painful as they were, and that it forced them to reassess their feelings and priorities.

Best enjoyed surrounded by nature - if you can make it into native bush, all the better - this is a story about finding the strength to face your past and make better choices.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book via Rachel's Random Resources; all opinions are my own

Author Bio

Victoria Walker has been writing romantic fiction since a visit to Iceland in 2014 inspired her first novel. As well as writing, she spends her free time dressmaking, knitting and reading an inordinate amount of contemporary romance, occasionally punctuated by the odd psychological thriller and saga.
In the past she has worked as a cinema projectionist, a knitting and sewing tutor and has owned a yarn store, all things which will no doubt appear in her books if they haven't already.
Victoria lives in the Malvern Hills with her husband and two teenage children.

Social Media Links
Twitter -@4victoriawalker
Instagram - victoriamakes

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