One Night on the Island by Josie Silver
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pub Date: 2/15/2022

Thank you to Random House for the free advanced copy and PRH Audio for the advanced listening copy in exchange for my honest review. 

Rating: ⭐️⭐️

GoodReads Synopsis: Spending her thirtieth birthday alone is the last thing that dating columnist Cleo wanted, but she is going on a self-coupling quasi-sabbatical–at the insistence of her boss–in the name of re-energizing herself and adding a new perspective to her column. The remote Irish island she’s booked is a far cry from London, but at least it’s a chance to hunker down in a luxury cabin and indulge in some quiet, solitary self-care while she figures out her next steps in her love life and her career.

Mac is also looking forward to some time to himself. With his life in Boston deteriorating in ways he can’t bring himself to acknowledge, his soul searching has brought him to the same Irish island in search of his roots and some clarity. Unfortunately, a mix-up with the bookings means both solitude seekers have reserved the same one-bedroom hideaway on exactly the same dates.

Instantly at odds with each other, Cleo and Mac don’t know how they’re going to manage until the next weekly ferry arrives. But as the days go by, they no longer seem to mind each other’s company quite as much as they thought they would…

Written with Josie Silver’s signature warmth, charm and insights into the human heart, One Night on the Island explores the meaning of home, the joys of escape and how the things we think we want are never the things we really need.

Review: One Night on the Island is a contemporary romance that dives into small island life, self discovery, forced proximity love trope, and the meaning of home. Overall, this was my least favorite Josie Silver book and it just wasn’t for me. Both main characters were well-developed. The author has a way of creating these flawed characters in complicated situations that makes you curious about how they’ll navigate through the story, but this time it didn’t work for me. Cleo came off as immature while Mack seemed like he didn’t know what he wanted. I just couldn’t get myself to really empathize or care what was going on in the story. I should have DNF’ed but I was already 50% that I needed to figure out what happened which wasn’t worth it. Aside from this book, I would definitely read more work from this author as I loved her other two books.