Christmas at the Island Hotel: A Novel
Series: Mure, Book 4
By: Jenny Colgan / Narrated By: Eilidh Beaton
Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
Split reviews between Big Sis and I: Read on, dear Accomplice!
Here’s the deal:
Big Sis listened to our other audiobook first, then hit Christmas at the Island Hotel. Big mistake. Me? I knew the other (An Enchanted Christmas) would be, gosh willing, fairly grand as I looove B. Metzger and PIPPA! So I saved that one for later, knowing I’d like to saaaavor it.
Huzzah for me!
Cuz, you see, that meant this one did NOT pale in comparison, and I could enjoy it… for the most part, even tho’, gotta admit: Contemporary Romances aren’t my Go To for Sweet Ya-Yas.
So while Big Sis gave an almighty >MEH<, I could honestly say I enjoyed it. Tension, my friend. I truly appreciate it when the path to Love ain’t a smooth road.
Fintan, a grieving widower since his husband Colton died, is trying to make Colton’s dream come to fruition. The Big Island Hotel SHALL have a hot restaurant, in time for Christmas. Just one thing? He ain’t trying all that hard cuz grieving is exhausting work. His sister, new mom Flora, is on maternity leave, but she’s Uber talented, Uber motivated, and she just has a knack for running things. A scroungy temperamental French chef, Gaspard, is hired. And he’ll be running the Kitchen along with Konstantin, a banished playboy who’s been exiled to make his own way and to >gasp< work for his money, and Isla, a young woman from the Island who is totally freaked out by Konstantin’s casual and lazy ways.
Rounding out that story are Isla and her mom having a difficult relationship, little girl Agot (according to reviewers’ spelling) being a precocious git, Fintan’s discovery of a new, p’raps, relationship, Flora’s sorrowful attempts to bond with her son, a few other subplots. And?
The WORST idea for a relationship ever. The Island’s school teacher is obsessed with the married Syrian refugee Island doctor. He’s looking for his wife, separated for over two-years, unsure if she’s even alive, just knowing he must find her, their two sons missing her mightily. We never know WHY he’s having a sexual relationship with the smitten teacher, but it reeeally made me uncomfortable… and just plain icky. It did NOT shriek Romance so much as Gross Desperation. As this is a Book 4, I can only assume that these characters existed prior to this, were featured, et cetera, et cetera, et gotta wash this ICK from m’self cetera. No -and- Booooo!
Adding to the Boos are the occasional… well… frequent lapses in accents and vocal tones made by narrator Eilidh Beaton. To cut her some slack, however, author Jenny Colgan DID throw it ALL, and then some, at her. Norwegian accent, American, Scottish, Island, men, women, children. And they’d be jabbering back and forth nonstop, so aside from her over the top French accent, I’ll leave off and just say that… it got confusing at times. There. It’s Christmas, so I’ll not hammer away at her further.
I liked the stories coming together, the redemption. Just keep in mind that character arcs that end in Redemption always start in, as Big Sis parsed it: Dirt Bag Men. Yesss, there is that.
Still, quite a bit of sweetness, tho’ there was a LOT of FRAUGHT throughout, and Happy Endings (For the most part) all around for a finale that shouted Ho Ho Ho.
All in all, Merry Christmas of 2023, y’all!!!
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