Welcome to Mistletoe Island, where dreams can come true...
The snow is falling and Fliss's friends have arrived to celebrate her wedding for a week at Holly Cottage. It's the perfect way to kick off her brand-new life, isn't it?
Except Ruth wishes she was anywhere other than a remote Scottish island, Caitlin is keeping a secret from her friends, Lara is suddenly facing her ex a decade after turning down his proposal and even the bride has something to hide...
But as the friends prepare for a week to remember, will Fliss's dream wedding go off without a hitch, or will the secrets they've been hiding change everything?
Many thanks to Orion publishing via NetGalley for my copy of The Wedding on Mistletoe Island to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Wedding on Mistletoe Island certainly has a lovely Christmas cover to get you in the mood for the festive season. But between the covers of Sophie Pembroke's new book there is a lot more going on than just fun in the snow and enjoying all the festivities that go along with this magical time of the year. A group of friends have gathered off the Scottish coast on Mistletoe Island to celebrate the wedding of Fliss and her fiancée Ewan. It has been ten years since they have all gathered together on the island when they spent some time celebrating their graduation from university. Some major things happened during that stay and the affects of these still reverberate down through the group to this day.
The group as individuals or in pairs may all have met in the interim at various points but never before have the same people all been together in one place. In the week leading up to the big day will secrets and tensions long held beneath the surface come rushing to the fore? Will already strained relationships and friendships began to fracture even more or will it all be a bed of roses and fun and laughter uniting to celebrate a marriage? I thought the latter but a few chapters in to this story it soon became apparent that this wasn't going to be the fun and light read the cover suggests it to be and that the undercurrents running through the group will form the dominant themes throughout the book.
There are lots of characters to familiarise yourself with, and honestly it took me awhile to settle into the rhythm of the book, and to be able to easily identify who was who, how they were connected to other characters and what were their back stories. The story itself at various points moves between the present day and ten years previous in order to give us an insight into what exactly happened to make characters feel and act the way they do now. Each chapter is told from alternative characters viewpoints yet Fliss is a dominant focus given her wedding is the reason for everyone gathering together.
Fliss is a very complex character who is pretending to be someone she is not and has been for as long as she can remember. The mothers as they soon become known are taking over her wedding and already her hopes and dreams for her big day have been taken away from her. To my mind, Fliss needed to make some major decisions. She was too biddable and needed to find her voice and express really how she was feeling instead of letting others coral her into their way of thinking and acting. She was well able to express to the reader that she felt trapped and caged and that she put on this act for the group and her family. She was expected to be a certain way and always lived up to this performance whereas deep down there was a rebel Fliss waiting to break out. But had she the guts and determination to do this? Was she leaving things too late especially when it came to matters of the heart?
If the friends knew the real Fliss, she was worried would she be accepted given her supposed solid, steady nature. She wants to be a new person, a new woman and to have a new life starting over with Ewan. I felt there was an awful lot of repetition informing us of Fliss's state of mind and whether she was worrying over what others supposedly thought of her. Time and time again we were told the same things with regards to her emotional stance and whether she was going to act on any of the thoughts or feelings she was experiencing but once it had been mentioned for the fourth or fifth time I felt I had been told enough and would she just ever get on with it and make a decision as to what to do one way or the other. At times it made me turn against her and then at others I was surprised as to some of the revelations about her that came spilling forth and it made me think twice about her as a character. Was what she was engaging in now and also had various junctures in the past the right thing to do? Or if it truly became known amongst the friends would it create a permanent fracture in an already volatile and shaky group?
The other members of the group are Harry, Lara, Jon, Alec, married to Ruth, and Neal, married to Caitlin. Each are dealing with their own issues and given the small proximity of the island there is no place to run and hide when they are forced to confront their fears and secrets. Lara was once in a long term relationship with Jon whilst at university but that all changed the last time they were on the island. Lara has been running ever since but now maybe it is time to stop and take stock and finally admit what drove her to refuse a question so many would love to say yes to. Lara really needed to relax and stop worrying about a past she couldn't change. Yes she has a history with the island but many years have passed and she needs to look to the future and find some sort of happiness instead of always living with regret and at times fear. She is eaten up by the past and I hoped her reasons for decisions made over ten years ago were valid and worthwhile given they seemed to be shrouded in secrecy almost cloak and dagger like. When it emerged things made sense but in a way I thought it would have been something even more earth shattering. Lara clearly needed to figure will herself and Jon be friends again and move forward or is there something more that can be done about their situation?
Caitlin featured more on the periphery as Neal had a more major role to play but to say any more would give things away. Caitlin having married into the group assumed the role she had adopted and maintained and that was one of being the organiser, the one who thought of every little touch and never left anyone out. She thought of things none of the others would dream of. She was solid and reliable but maybe underneath it all she was far wiser than any of the others gave her credit for and she could see what was going on when others did not. The question was would she act immediately on her instincts and her observations or would she keep them close to her chest until the time was right?
As for poor Ruth she feels neglected by Alec. She has experienced trauma and suffering in recent months and cannot come to terms with it. It is eating her up inside and she feels no way of letting out or expressing how she feels. She thinks Alec doesn't understand her or will not comprehend how she is feeling but maybe she should give him more credit than she is at the moment? Ruth was just awash with pain and she hopes that given the island is renowned for its healing nature that maybe some small little miracle will work its magic on her and allow her to release everything so tightly bottled up inside her in order to move forward and come to some form of acceptance.
All of the characters featured in the story are multi-layered and complicated and its not easy to read into them. You really have to sit back and just let the story unfold and not make snap judgements about anyone given they are all hiding so much. It's almost like they are all playing parodies of themselves and are reluctant to let go of that summer ten years ago. But we can't cling to the past we can only keep pushing and moving forward to see what each new day will bring us. Of course we can determine that to some extent and the decisions we make to do this needed to be carefully selected.
The Wedding on Mistletoe Island was a good read but it didn't blow me away. I felt it could have been slightly shorter given the repetition surrounding one character especially. I did love all the mentions of Christmas and the days leading up to the wedding and showcasing all the activities and delights that were on offer. The mothers did provide humour but I felt there needed to be more to counter balance the serious tones of the book and the various issues the many characters were grappling with. Overall a good book, intense at times but with plenty of romance and some fun too.
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