Tuesday 26 November 2019

Coming Home to Winter Island by Jo Thomas



Coming Home to Winter Island
Jo Thomas
Rating: 4 stars

Wrap up warm and explore the breath-taking beauty of a remote Scottish island and an old house waiting to unlock enchanting family secrets.

Fans of Jill Mansell and Milly Johnson will love this irresistible new winter novel from Jo Thomas.

Do you need to find out where you've come from before you can know what the future holds?

Ruby's singing career is on the verge of hitting the big time, when her voice breaks. Fearing her career is over, she signs up for a retreat in Tenerife to recover.

But an unexpected call from a stranger on a remote Scottish island takes her on a short trip to sort out some family business. It's time to go and see the grandfather she's never met.

City girl Ruby knows she will be happy to leave the windswept beaches behind as quickly as she can, especially as a years-old family rift means she knows she won't be welcome at Teach Mhor.

But as she arrives at the big house overlooking the bay, she finds things are not as straightforward as she might have thought.

There's an unexpected guest in the house and he's not planning on going anywhere any time soon ...

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As always I couldn't wait to delve straight into another Jo Thomas novel. Jo Thomas was one of the first authors I read when I first started reading Chick Lit books - and I haven't regretted it! Every book of hers I read is so refreshing and unputdownable that I remember them for a long time afterwards. This one in particular I really loved the cover, I love the light snow falling, the sea and the main character in the bottom right.

The synopsis sounded really interesting and completely different, as I said above, to what I've read before and I was really excited to read more about Ruby and her story. I enjoyed that the setting was in Scotland, it sounded so picturesque and idyllic. It was interesting to see what was going to happen and whether Ruby was was going to stick around on the island or whether she was going to flee back home.

Out of all the characters (there aren't actually too many in this novel), I really liked Hector and Lachlan the best. Hector because of what he was going through bless him, and Lachlan because he just seemed to be so caring and thoughtful. A few characters I didn't really take too (but maybe that's the point) was Isla and Joe. And too be fair, what I thought was going to happen didn't happen so there was quite a bit of surprise and a few twists along the way which kept me wanting to read on.

One thing I didn't enjoy was the ending with regards to Hector, I didn't think anything like that would happen and was disappointed that it did as it didn't seem necessary - bless him! It definitely made me teary-eyed and I was left quite emotional afterwards! Overall though, it was a great read with festive feels and I really enjoyed it. Thank you to the publisher for a chance to read an advance copy of this novel via Netgalley, which I have reviewed honestly.

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