I love Beth Moran’s books generally, but I wonder if she ever gets tired of writing variations on a theme. The characters and scenarios are different, somewhat, but the basic tropes are always there. I think this is the first one of hers I wouldn’t give five stars, perhaps because I wasn’t listening super clearly to the setup at the beginning.
Most of her books take place in Sherwood Forest, but this one was on the remote Isle of Siskin (not sure if that exists or not). Blue Beddoes hosts a podcast called “Only on Siskin,” which has a wide enough international following that she’s a minor celebrity. She’s had her heart broken by multiple past fiances, and she’s basically sworn off men and lives with her mother, Goldie, who is the unofficial mayor of Siskin. Meanwhile, a podcast fan, Jonathan, who hunts for a particular kind of toad that apparently exists on Siskin shows up, and stays at an abandoned, derelict property owned by a recluse who passed away some time ago. Some developers from the mainland come to buy that property and to commercialize Siskin, and it turns into a big uproar among the townspeople, who don’t want their island modernized.
The other story takes place some 50 years earlier, and it’s a romance between the former owner of the property in question, and a woman named Sorrel Beddoes–so we’re set up to see a connection between her and Blue, though we don’t know what it is yet.
I found Blue and Jonathan almost as endearing as any of Moran’s characters. Sorrel and Calvin, not so much… there was something off-putting about their story, as well as depressing. Blue and Jonathan work to uncover the mystery of who the real owner is of Jack’s place, once owned by Calvin Griffin. The answer to the mystery actually did still surprise me, despite the connection between the two main female characters’ surnames.
Still a feel-good story (for Blue and Jonathan anyway) and a fun read.
My rating: ****
Language: none
Violence: none
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
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