Not too much to say about this one. I just didn’t enjoy it. It’s not a bad book, but the whole series is just getting a bit samey. I am also not a fan of Joel at all at this point. I understand he had a hard childhood, but at this point it’s just all about him at all times and not Flora. And I don’t understand why she wants to be with him outside of the supposed hot sex they have all the time. He doesn’t do a thing for her at all. She’s the one who has to support him the entire time. I wish I felt sad about everything with Colton, but I just felt like eh. He was never my favorite character and I still find what he did in the last book to be really manipulative. The what is going on between Saif and Lorna is just exhausting too at this point. Also long time readers reminded me that in the first book in this series, Mark and Marsha had kids and now in this one they do not. I noticed that Colgan often has inconsistencies in her book series. I noted some of them in the “Little Beach Street Bakery” series and that’s why I never did go back and finish the last book in that series. Why in the world did I give this 3 stars? Ah well.
“Christmas on the Island” takes place a few months after the last book in the series. We have Flora and Joel still dealing with him flying back and forth to finish up Colton’s business. Flora though realizes that she’s going to have some pretty big news to tell Joel that may ruin things between them. Lorna is staying away rom Saif though she loves him and his children. And we have some of the usual goings on between longtime characters in this one as well.
As I said above, I don’t like Joel and think the best thing for this series would have been for Flora to choose herself. Being with someone who you have to constantly worry about upsetting is not a relationship. I felt sad for Saif and Lorna, but thought the whole subplot with his kids in the Christmas play was so insensitive I had no words. Plus the island people bringing a Christmas tree and presents to his house had me going, arghh a few times. I just have no idea why that was even included. Also Colton’s past comes to him (literally) in this one and I loathed the character who came to Mure. Sorry, not sorry, I felt appalled by the whole thing.
The writing was fine, but the storylines all just get bogged down. I found myself not caring about any of these characters and could not believe how slow things were moving.
I thought Mure would be fun to read about during the holidays, but the whole book just felt curiously blank I thought. There was too much drama to even enjoy any of that. I don’t really think this is what most readers would want in a romance Christmas book. There’s not a lot of that going around.
The ending has me realizing that I doubt I will continue with this series. I just don’t have enough interest in most of the characters anymore.