Review: Summer on a Sunny Island

Summer on a Sunny Island by Sue Moorcroft
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rosa flees her ex and her ex best friend and goes to Malta to spend the summer with her mother Dory who is writing a Mediterranean cookery book. Their upstairs neighbour is an Englishman called Zach who has fled the UK with his own demons, his sister Marci and her daughter Paige.

You can run away from your problems and your family, but soon they'll come knocking at your door. Soon Zach is embroiled in the troubles of a young man at the youth centre where he volunteers, Rosa is enchanted by Marci's daughter and romance is in the air.

I love Sue Moorcroft's Middledip novels but for some reason I have never warmed to her books set overseas, so shame on me for requesting another one. The first quarter felt all tell and no show, we got a tourist guide to Malta on every page and the stilted way in which each character felt the need to give long detailed back stories for everything was very wearing. There's a scene at a party early on where Zach talks about the youth centre where he volunteers, but he goes into the history of the centre and who founded it and their philosophy, then Rosa says, oh I work somewhere similar in the UK and gives her own long, boring detailed history of the founder etc.

I persevered (although TBH I was just trying to get to 30% before I DNFd) and gradually the characters took over from the author telling, there were multiple plots unfolding and it all started to get better.

Overall, if you don't mind a slow beginning, or have a deep fascination with the history of Malta, this is a charming fun holiday read. Warning your wine and beer consumption is likely to increase as the characters always seem to be sitting on the terrace with a glass of something cold and alcoholic in their hands LOL.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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