Welcome to Litsy!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5
This one has been on my bookshelf for a while now so I decided to give it a go…BUT…this started out strong, fizzled a little and the ending was just ok. I had high hopes for this book because the story itself seems so interesting and fun but it just felt draggy…idk maybe it was just me🤷🏼‍♀️

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

“May we all be loved and love each other so insanely. May we all be so human.”

A charming, cozy, hopeful story with a unique premise and a summery island atmosphere. 🎧

Set on an island with a population less than 100 people that‘s in danger of sinking into the sea, this makes for an entertaining listen as one podcaster/journalist sets out to explain the island & stumbles across a bigger story about the island, its community & its secrets. A few months before Anders ever sets foot on Frick Island, Piper‘s husband, Tom, a crabber, is lost at sea. Piper‘s grief has changed the island & each character comes to life!

Looking through my "stacked" books I see a few I read but didn't review, including this one. It's been a few months so I probably don't remember all the details but I do remember liking this while simultaneously thinking it was weird that everyone went along with the widow acting like her husband was still there. A soft pick.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this book and some tea and the last of this year's roses. 😊

Hanging out at Fall Softball Tournament. Two hours until our next game? No problem! Grandma brought a book. One more win and we‘re in the Championship! Go Rangers!

This book came at exact the right time… a gentle, quietly funny novel about the lengths we will go for the ones we love. ❤️

Everyone says this is a feel good and hopeful book. I didn't really get that. It felt very much like a typical romantic plot, which I am not usually drawn to. Maybe I was just not in a feel good and hopeful mood.

This book had so much potential but for me fell flat. Normally, I can devour a book in a day… these 337 pages took me around two weeks. Nothing really drew me in, I wasn‘t full interested in Anders or Piper enough to want to keep reading.

I just never connected to this main character. His whole premise was built on lying to the people he claimed to care about, and so I just struggled to like him. Also, the conclusion of the story felt a little simplistic, like money is the solution to problems. The mystery and funny characters helped to redeem the book, but overall this wasn‘t my fave.

Oh, this was such a lovely book. I have, apparently, been reading too many thrillers because at one point, I was quite convinced that Tom was quite alive and this was some kind of insurance fraud scheme but Oakley had much better plans for her characters. This was such a warm, lovely story with quirky characters and the story just unfolds in such a sweet way and it was just like a good cup of tea in book form.

Im gonna take a break now

Started this tonight and love it already

I love a book about a small town and the quirky characters. This was just lovely. I want to cast Zendaya and Tom Holland as the main characters in the movie version! 😍Thank you to @peanutnine who sent this to me in a swap!

🌸/ 🏝⛴🦀💔🎤. Haha! I stink at emoji descriptions.
🪷/ I would love a sequel to Lessons in Chemistry
🪺/ 4.5 for tagged book

The book started a little slow, but by the end I was fully invested in the characters. Anders, a journalist, travels to Frick Island for a story. While there he meets Piper, recently widowed and acting as if her husband is still alive. Anders becomes fascinated with her, and by extension all the islanders. He also learns that the island is threatened by rising tides due to climate. He wants to help both Piper and the island.

#SavvySettings Remote Inn
Anders stays at the island B&B while he investigates the strange behavior of the residents.
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

The library's book club selection this month ... really wish I could get something I want to read for once

A sweet story, but one that was a little cheesy in the end. I still enjoyed it and loved the references to a real island in New England. A young woman‘s fisherman husband goes missing and her town helps her grieve in a unique way. A journalist catches wind of the story and decides he needs to create a podcast about the island. Sweet, but less substance than I was hoping for. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

They are known for the Smith Island cake. This is the traditional 9 layer cake. They are amazing!!!

Saw some review of this and thought it sounded good. Started reading it and realize it is based on a cute little island that is not far from where I live and grew up. Go check out Smith Island on Maryland‘s Eastern Shore. You have to take a boat to get to the island, There are no cars mainly golf carts, kids have to take a boat to the main land to go to school and in the winter if the ice is too thick they can‘t make it across. **See next post**

My book haul at a cute little indie bookstore called Buffalo Books & Coffee in Buffalo MN. They had an amazing selection of books, but I was in the mood for a couple of lighter reads and so here they are. Aren‘t they beautiful?

Newest add to my TBR!

The plotline feels so unique and wholesome to me.

Piper lost her husband to a fishing accident - yet she chooses to believe that he is always there besides her. She believes this so much that her small remote island community plays along with her in believing that Tom is still alive and well. Anders Caldwell, a journalist finds that Piper's story is much more captivating then the story he was sent to the island to cover.

"Every human being—every single one of us—wakes up each morning hoping, believing, that today is not our day. Not our time. That the storm is not yet here. That our island will not be wiped out. That we will see the sunrise the next morning. That life is worth living. Otherwise, we wouldn‘t bother getting out of bed."

This book is so cute! Idk if it's considered a 'cozy' but I absolutely loved it! Anders goes to Frick Island to do a story on the annual Cake Walk & walks away with the story of a lifetime. Piper is the darling of Frick Island. Her husband, Tom, died in a boating accident. Didn't he? So why is everyone pretending Tom is still alive? What else is going on?
Heartwarming, sweet, funny. I adored this book and recommend it! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This story was heartwarming, cute and a page turner . First physical book I‘ve read in over 7 months . For a few reasons one work has been crazy. I never knew working at a library could be so busy and so stressful at times. I love my work but working with the public is hard especially now . Two I‘ve been busy with my relationship. I‘m engaged . Never thought I would say that. It‘s been a different but beautiful adventure.

A little more ‘romcom and tied up in a bow‘ than I would have liked.. this is a nice easy beach read, but still felt like it glossed over and made shiny a little too much on the hard parts.

A good friend told me five years after my husband passed, ‘Oh you‘re still married, he just happens to be no longer living.‘ She wasn‘t rude - or wrong. ~So, I was particularly intrigued by the premise of this book. This has some good Fannie Flagg feels but fell apart for me with too many characters having ulterior motives which bothered me in a story about moving through grief. …But I‘d love a piece of Frick Island cake!

This was an intriguing premise, about a widow who acts as though her husband is still alive and a small island town full of people who play along with her fantasy. It has great themes of community, found family, grief, loneliness, and hope. It was quirky, mysterious, and funny. I enjoyed reading it.

꧁ 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 ꧂⁣
⁣
You'll be transported to an unusual place, & immersed in the lives of its residents by 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗢𝗮𝗸𝗹𝗲𝘆's enchanting 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗛𝘂𝘀𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗜𝘀𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱. The inhabitants of a tiny island town indulge a young widow's charade, acting as though her husband is still alive in this clever, endearing tale. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⁣⭐⁣

𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸: https://tinyurl.com/ndfyz2sy

This is my kind of romance, although I‘m only just beginning to learn what my kind of romance is. I do know, beyond anything else, that I like real relationship building (no insta love!), which Colleen Oakley did quite successfully here. The premise is very unique, there were some genuine laugh-out-loud moments, and it even had a bit of mystery. Plus, it made me cry. Multiple times.

Anders is a local journalist sent to Frick Island to cover a cake contest and gets pulled into two big stories - the future demise of the island thanks to climate change, and the woman who believes her husband is still alive.

He decides to pull these stories into his podcast and keeps returning to the island to try to get to the truth. ↘️

If I could only use one word to sum up this story, charming would be the word that I would use. This story, its setting, the people, were all very charming. Anders and Piper were both unconventional characters and their initial interactions were not what one would expect. I enjoyed how Piper easily thwarted Anders wants and she did it in such a way that, even as a reader, I was just as surprised as he was when she played her hand.