Book Review: An Island Christmas (Mure Book 4) by Jenny Colgan

Summary: An Island Christmas (Mure Book 4) by Jenny Colgan

Christmas on the remote Scottish island of Mure is bleak, stark - and incredibly beautiful.

It's a time for hunkering down, getting cosy in front of whisky barrel wood fires, and enjoying a dram with the people you love - unless, of course, you're accidentally pregnant to your ex-boss, and don't know how to tell him. In what should be the season of peace and goodwill on earth, will Joel think Flora is a bearer of glad tidings?

Meanwhile Saif, the doctor and refugee from war-torn Syria is trying to enjoy his first western Christmas with his sons - but without his missing wife. Can the little family possibly find comfort and joy?

Book Review: An Island Christmas (Mure Book 4) by Jenny Colgan

Reading this book feels like sitting under a warm blanket in front of the fire with a cup of cocoa right before Christmas. I get drawn into the feeling of life and relationships in a close knit community on the island. Feels like I am right there, in the dark, the winds from the Arctic and the snow. I get the vivid nature descriptions of Northern Scotland in December, the remoteness and the close community feel.

This story is set around the Seaside Café where owner Flora tries to run a business. She has support of her big family which she is going to need as she accidentally becomes pregnant to her Joel, boyfriend. He has a troubled past as a foster child, no family connections to speak of and is unable to support Flora in the beginning of the story. As the story progresses, Flora and Joel go through a rough patch but their characters develop and mature together.

What sets this story apart is that it has the perspective of a Middle Eastern doctor and his family trying to settle into island life where everybody knows everybody else. It describes how the doctor and his 2 sons deal with war traumas each in their own way. The doctor himself, suffering insecurities and a sense of loss not knowing what has happened to his wife.

An Island Christmas is highly recommended for readers of Jenny Colgan’s other work and for fans of the chick-lit genre in general.

My rating: 4 stars /5

(All opinions in this review are my own).

About The Author

Jenny Colgan (born 1972 in Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland) is a writer of romantic comedy fiction, sci-fi and has written for the Dr Who line of stories. She writes under her own name and using the pseudonyms Jane Beaton and J. T. Colgan. (From Amazon)
To learn more about the author, visit https://www.jennycolgan.com/