Lozza's Book Corner : Review | Summer at Rose Island (White Cliff Bay Book 3) ~ Holly Martin

Thursday, 26 May 2016

Review | Summer at Rose Island (White Cliff Bay Book 3) ~ Holly Martin

Today is my stop on the Summer at Rose Island blog tour hosted by Star Crossed Tours, and I'm delighted to finally be able to share my review with you.

Published 13th May 2016

Pre-Order

Fall in love with the gorgeous seaside town of White Cliff Bay this summer and enjoy long sunny days, beautiful beaches and… a little romance.

Darcy Davenport is ready for a fresh start. Determined to leave a string of disastrous jobs and relationships behind her, she can’t wait to explore White Cliff Bay and meet the locals.

When Darcy swims in the crystal clear waters of the bay, she discovers the charming Rose Island Lighthouse. But it’s not just the beautiful building that she finds so intriguing…

Riley Eddison doesn’t want change. Desperate to escape the memories of his past, he lives a life of solitude in the lighthouse. Yet he can’t help but notice the gorgeous woman who swims out to his island one day.

Darcy is drawn to the mysterious and sexy Riley, but when it seems the town is trying to demolish his home, she soon finds herself having to pick sides.

She’s fallen in love with White Cliff Bay. But is that all Darcy’s fallen for?

Pull up a deck chair, sink back with a bowl of strawberry ice cream and pick up the summer read you won’t be able to put down.

I feel like I have been waiting for ages for the third instalment of Holly Martin's White Cliff Bay series. I loved Penny and Henry's story in Christmas At Lilac Cottage and discovering the area more with Libby and George in Snowflakes On Silver Cover but I was excited to see the fictional village way from the snow and storms of the winter weather.

With a romantic story, gorgeous settings and plenty of humour, Summer at Rose Island certainly lived up to my expectations.

I don't want to give too much of Darcy's story away but I will say I completely felt sorry for this character - everything she has done she has been made to feel a complete failure so it's no surprising that she decided to move to White Cliff Bay, a place she fell in love with at a young age when she used to holiday and stay with her beloved Aunt Ginny.

With some free time before starting her job at the local council, Darcy dives into the waters surrounding Rose Island with her dog, Ben.

Very quickly both Darcy and the reader are introduced to the lighthouse keeper, Riley - a grumpy American at first glance but over the course of the book, Darcy discovers there is more to this man and falls for him fast!

Whilst Darcy was friendly and chatty, Riley wasn't and had shut himself off from the rest of the villagers, but as their relationship grew, It was great to see their characters change and develop.

Of course all good love stories have a glitch in there somewhere and whilst my suspicions were right about Darcy's new job and the role linking to Riley and the lighthouse, their story was one I simply couldn't put down and even through some of their rocky scenes and more serious conversations I found myself laughing out loud.

Other than the love interest, there is a fairly big story line involving the lighthouse (along with a few smaller plots) and it is incredibly clear how much research was done on this and Darcy's career as the book was very informative but without giving you brain overload!

Holly Martin never fails to capture the reader, I was utterly sucked in to the book right from the opening page and when I wasn't reading Summer At Rose Island - I was thinking about it!!

One of my first thoughts on the book was 'Disney's The Little Mermaid for Grown Ups' - and that theme continued throughout the book.

It was magical and captivating yet with a realistic feel.

Although this book could quite easily be read as a standalone novel, I loved the fact that I had read the previous two as not only were some of the landmarks familiar there were mentions of Libby, George, Penny and Henry too which gave hints as to where they are and what they are up to now but at the same time Rose Island brought new discoveries keeping it fresh, interesting and exciting.

I really hope that there is more to come from the White Cliff Bay series - I've loved all three and can't recommend them enough.