Books That Take Place On an Island

Book Summary

London dating columnist Cleo hadn’t planned to spend her 30th birthday alone, but her boss has insisted that she take a brief sabbatical to explore the concept of self-coupling (or dating oneself) as a way to re-energize herself and bring something fresh to her column. She’s booked a luxury cabin on a remote Irish island.

Mac is also looking forward to some alone time. His marriage is falling apart – something he doesn’t want to admit – so he leaves Boston behind with the plan to soul search on the same Irish island.

Due to a mix-up with the bookings, it turns out that both Cleo and Mac have booked the same cabin. The two are instantly at odds, but since the ferry only comes weekly, they are stuck with one another. As the week goes on, they find that they don’t mind each other’s company as much as they thought.

Book Summary

In 1914 colonial Fiji, Indian police sergeant Akal Singh is not happy to be in the tropical paradise. He expected to launch his career at home in India or in Hong Kong, but an embarrassing mistake on the job gets him set to the island.

However, when an indentured Indian woman disappears from a sugarcane plantation, Akal is assigned the case. He’s told that the investigation is essentially only for perception and not to worry about locating the woman. But as Akal learns more and confronts the brutal realities of colonization, he becomes invested in this “more than meets the eye” case.

Book Summary

Seven-year-old Rachel will quickly capture your heart. She’s full of zest and big dreams, especially of traveling outside of her Hawaiian island. When a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, her family jumps into protective mode, knowing that she’ll be taken from them if anyone finds out she has leprosy. 

During a sibling argument, Rachel’s sister makes the mistake of calling her a leper in public. When the authorities confirm her diagnosis, she’s whisked away to Kalaupapa, a quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka’i. 

While members of the settlement are shunned by the outside, they’re welcoming to new arrivals. Young Rachel must learn to accept her new home and the varied cast of characters who will become her new family. 

While this historical fiction novel set in the 1890s is based on the tragic history of a real leper colony, which is incredibly sad, readers find that the book shows the power of positivity and human’s incredible ability to overcome tragedy.

Book Summary

This novel opens in present-day California shortly after Eleanor’s death. She has left behind a voice recording for her two adult children – Byron and Benny. She’s also left them a traditional Caribbean black cake that she tells them to share “when the time is right.”

Her children, it turns out, only know a small part of their mom’s life story. Posthumously, Eleanor is finally ready to share her truth so that Byron and Benny can truly know and understand their family history.

As the story unfolds, everything that her children thought they knew about their lineage and themselves will be rocked to the core, and by the time they finally share the black cake, another person will be joining them at the table.

Book Summary

What should a bride and groom do if they get food poisoning and are too sick to go on their non-refundable honeymoon to Hawaii?

Give it to the Best Man and Maid-of-Honor, of course.

That would have been perfect if the duo didn’t hate each other. Follow along as they try to avoid each other while still taking advantage of all the pre-paid activities on a vacation intended for a newlywed couple. 

Book Summary

This epic love story is set in 1967 in the Chargos archipelago – a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean. Independent Marie leads a peaceful life filled with hard work. Gabriel, a handsome Mauritian man from a neighboring island who serves as secretary to the archipelago’s administrator, falls in love with Marie at first sight. The two eventually welcome a son and their future seems bright.

But Gabriel has a secret. The Mauritian government is negotiating independence from Britain, which requires a deal with the devil that will require evacuating the Chagos. Inspired by true events, this betrayal will put their love to the test.

Book Summary

Four million people inhabit the US island territories spread from the Caribbean to the Pacific. While these lands don’t have the benefits of statehood, like representation in the US Senate, they do have everything from US Post Offices to Little League teams.

When the author of this book realized that he (and most other Americans) knew very little about these territories, he decided to visit each one. After covering 30,000 miles and spending time with locals on each island, he was uniquely equipped to write a book about how the territories are an interesting and important part of America’s story.

Book Summary

Eleanor lives in a charming home on a cliffside in Nantucket. the house has been in her family for generations. She loves life on the island, but now that she’s in her 70s and widowed, she does feel a bit isolated and lonely at times. That’s why she looking so forward to the annual family reunion with her children and grandchildren.

Once they arrive, however, things don’t go as Eleanor envisioned. Her children want her to move to a retirement community and sell the house to a developer who’s been eager to acquire the property for years. Her children site concerns about her wintering on the island at her age, but they are clearly interested in getting a share of the money as well.

Eleanor’s lone ally is her 22-year-old granddaughter who moves in with her for the summer. Together, they enjoy an island summer beyond either of their wildest imaginations.

Book Summary

WWII-era Nassau was a hotbed of spies, traitors, and the most infamous couple of the age, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Five years after their love affair rocked the British monarchy, Lulu arrives in the Bahamas to investigate them for a New York society magazine. As she works her way into their social circle, Lulu uncovers evidence of an uglier reality.

Along the way, Lulu falls in love with a British scientist. When he suddenly goes missing, Lulu travels to London to search for him and winds up uncovering the family’s complicated past stretching from the early 20th century to the first World War.

Book Summary

This is the story of two teenage girls – Yahaira, a chess prodigy in NYC and Camino, an aspiring doctor in the Dominican Republic. 

Camino lives with her aunt and looks forward to her father visiting each summer. On the day he’s supposed to arrive, she goes to meet him at the airport but finds a crowd of mourners and learns that her father’s plane went down.

That same day, Yahaira is at school when she’s called down to the principal’s office, where her mom is waiting to tell her that her father has died in a plane crash.

This book will transport you from Queens, New York to the colorful homes of the Dominican Republic as these two girls discover the secret their father left behind – each other. 

Book Summary

Forty-seven-year-old teacher Margery is fed up with her hard life in the post-WW2 years. It’s 1950, and London is still dealing with rationing and shortages. Despite barely being able to afford basic life at home, Margery decides to take her future in a brave new direction. She posts an ad for a French-speaking assistant to join her on a trip halfway around the world. 

Margery is looking for the fabled golden beetle of New Caledonia that her father told her about when she was a young girl. No matter what obstacles she faces, Margery pushes forward in this cross-ocean historical adventure that takes an unlikely duo to the South Pacific.

Book Summary

Diana has her life all planned out – marriage, kids, and climbing the professional ladder in the art auction world. And it all starts with getting engaged to her surgical resident boyfriend, Finn. They are about to head out on a romantic getaway to the Galapagos for her 30th birthday, and she just knows he’ll propose on the trip.

On the eve of their departure, a virus that previously seemed a world away has made its way to NYC and Finn’s hospital needs everyone on-call. He doesn’t want their nonrefundable trip to go to waste, so he convinces Diana to go without him. 

After she arrives, the whole island is forced to quarantine and she finds herself stranded until the borders reopen. Isolated and alone, Diana begins to form a connection with a local family. Through the experience, she finds herself re-evaluating her priorities.

This is a thoroughly-researched novel that some say the book starts out a bit slowly, but soon you’ll find it going in unexpected directions. Readers say the story contains surprises that you won’t see coming!

Book Summary

Float Plan takes you to the sunny Caribbean with Anna as she sets off on the boat that she inherited after the loss of her fiancé. While Anna initially begins her adventure alone, she quickly realizes that she’s in over her head. She hires Keane, a professional sailor who is dealing with his own struggles as he faces a future that looks much different than what he had planned.

This book is both an enjoyable beach read and ultimately an uplifting story about grief and second chances. Anna originally intends to follow the exact sailing route that she and her fiancé had planned to take together, but along the way, she discovers that she’ll have to chart her own course – both aboard the boat and in her life. Likewise, Keane is navigating rough waters both aboard Anna’s boat and as he struggles to put his life back on the course he had mapped out for himself.

Book Summary

In the summer of 1942, at the height of WWII, 21-year-old Anne joins the Army Nurse Corps and is sent to serve in the South Pacific on the island of Bora-Bora. 

She has a fiance back home that was chosen for her from birth, and whose father has paid to ensure that he won’t be drafted. After arriving in Bora-Bora, she finds herself drawn to a soldier named Westry. Together they spend many blissful hours under the thatched roof of an abandoned beach bungalow. But they are driven apart when they witness a crime and then Westry is redeployed to Europe.

Years later, back home in Seattle, Westry is never far from Anne’s mind. When a letter arrives, she hopes that maybe they’ll finally be reunited.

Book Summary

Andrew Jalbert is an award-winning photographer with 25 years of experience as an archaeologist and scuba guide. He was first drawn to the island of Bonaire in his twenties, and it was here that he transformed his passion for diving into a career as a writer and an underwater photographer. He has published works on prehistoric sites, shipwrecks, and marine conservation. 

Living in cold Wisconsin, he dreamed of retiring early to the island paradise, but his life trajectory shifted when he became a father at age 43. Hoping to share his love of Bonaire with his son, he took him on an annual trip to the island. These trips allowed him to rediscover the magic of paradise through a new lens.

In this short travel memoir, Andrew recounts his early days exploring the island as well as his experience of seeing it again through the eyes of a kindergartener. This humorous travelogue will truly transport you to the Caribbean with wonderfully vivid descriptions of the beauty of Bonaire.

Book Summary

Sixteen-year-old Marcia Garcia lives in a seaside village on the north side of the island of Trinidad. A gifted seamstress and smart-mouthed teen, Marcia raises two small boys while protecting a family secret. Her life is turned upside down when she meets Farouk, an ambitious young policeman.

Set against the historical events of the 1940s through the 60s, this novel follows Marcia and Farouk from courtship through raising children. Marcia’s secret will be threatened, entangling all of them in a scandal that puts their future on the line.

Book Summary

Becky’s father has always been a mystery to her – all she knows is that he died before she was born and that her mom, Laura, has never been willing to talk about it. When Laura books a trip to Santorini, Greece, Becky decides to join her. But what Becky thought was an impulsive vacation reveals itself to be more than that. She realizes that her mom has a history with the island, and that sunny Santorini might just help answer some of her long-held questions.

This book is written from both mother and daughter’s points of view – with Becky’s chapters set in present-day, and Laura’s chapters transporting us back to her early 20s.

Book Summary

This historical fiction epic will transport you back in time to the colonial West Indies of the late 1700s and the early 1800s. 

The story centers around Doll who was born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat and later bought her freedom (as well as that of her mother and sister) from her Irish planter father. She became an incredibly successful entrepreneur, merchant, and hotelier. 

Along the way, she leveraged the competing attentions of the men in her life as she built a legacy of wealth and power that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to the South American continent.

Book Summary

Marin has lived life as safely as possible, never even stepping foot outside Tennessee. Her concern started after her journalist mother was killed on assignment, but the tragedy had the opposite effect on her sister, Sadie, who travels the world as a photographer.

After returning from a tough assignment, Sadie convinces Marin to join her in a spa weekend on the island of Saba. She’s skeptical about leaving home, even for a girls’ weekend, but agrees. Her long-time fear of travel is confirmed when Sadie misses the flight, a stranger steals her sister’s seat on the plane, and Marin’s luggage is mixed up with another passenger.

Luckily, the seat stealer is handsome! Lucas ends up being the perfect travel mate around Saba, and Marin begins to discover more about herself through each adventure.

Book Summary

Although it’s listed as #3 in the Love & Gelato series, this YA book set on the island of Santorini is a stand-alone and has no overlapping characters with the first two books in the series. 

Liv’s dad left when she was just eight, but all of her memories of him involve their shared love of the lost city of Atlantis. When a postcard arrives from Santorini inviting teenage Liv to visit her dad, she doesn’t want anything to do with him, but her mom insists she take the trip. The island is beautiful, and she can’t help but be charmed by the people, but the real reason her father invited her remains as much a mystery as Atlantis itself. 

Book Summary

This collection of short stories blends fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Not all of the stories take place in Haiti, but they all revolve around a common theme of the experience of being Haitian. At just 121 pages, this book is short in length but big in impact.

If you have a hard time reading stories without fully fleshed-out climaxes or conclusions, or prefer stories that don’t revolve around sexual relationships, this might not be the right pick for you. But Roxane Gay does deliver intimate insights into Haiti’s culture and practices.

Book Summary

Old Havana comes to life in this historical fiction novel. In 1947, Patricio flees Spain with nothing more than the clothes on his back and his dreams. Once in Havana, he lands a job at El Encanto – one of the most luxurious department stores in the world that caters to Hollywood stars and other rich and famous clientele. 

It is here that Patricio meets and falls in love with Gloria, the young wife of notorious mobster Cesar Valdes. Within the walls of El Encanto, it’s easy for them to believe that anything is possible. 

Patricio and Gloria’s love affair spans over half a century, as the stories of their lives are intertwined time and time again. Each time Patricio knows that loving her could be suicide. Still, he can’t help but be drawn to this beautiful woman who has a penchant for both Christian Dior clothes and Einstein’s theories.

Book Summary

When Jerry, a reporter from Boston, is assigned to cover a Bermuda yacht race. While he’s traveling for work, he’s saying with a former classmate from Boston College who now has a luxurious home. Plus, he runs into a childhood friend, who works on the US Army Base. 

The trio of young veterans are enjoying the island’s nightlife as everyone tries to resume normal life after the war. However, everything isn’t as easygoing as it looks on the surface. While people have flocked to Bermuda to forget the past, the war and its consequences can’t be ignored for long.

Book Summary

Sometimes 40th birthdays trigger major life reflections, and that was definitely the case for successful CEO Catherine. Instead of attending her own birthday party, she impulsively flies to the luxury resort in Barbados that she visited on her honeymoon ten years earlier. She never expected she’d be divorced, childless, and alone the next time she saw the island. 

Anders also landed at the resort after breaking free from a high-pressure, successful stint on Wall Street. When he invites Catherine to one of his spin classes, it sets off a whirlwind two weeks of exploring the island together and helping Catherine discover that she’s worth so much more than her career.

Book Summary

Irene gets a shocking late-night phone call that her husband has been found dead on the island of St. John, far from their suburban life. When she travels to St. John to figure out what happened to her husband, Irene discovers much more than she expected – including his entire double life. 

This is book #1 in a 3 book series, which means it ends without a fully satisfying ending and you’ll want to keep reading. All three have been released, so you won’t have to wait for publishing, but we wanted to make sure you knew what you were in for!

Book Summary

Esther is nearing her 40th birthday and is looking to take a break from her divorce and motherhood in Britain, so she books a solo trip to a beach resort on the Malaysian island of Pulau Perhentian Kecil.

She and a group of fellow tourists – each with their own secrets – plan a day trip to a deserted island for some snorkeling. When the local fisherman who transported them out to the island doesn’t return to pick them up as promised, their relaxing beach day takes a sinister turn and Esther soon realizes that someone doesn’t want her to return from her travels.

The story also includes flashbacks to a teenager trying to escape in another time and place. This storyline won’t seem to fit with the book until it does, so be patient and stick with it!

Book Summary

Described as magical and haunting, this novel is set in Augustown, one of the poorest sections of the suburban sprawl of Kingston, Jamaica. This is where we meet Ma Taffy, a blind grandmother, and her grandson, Kaia.

Throughout this novel, the author (who is also a poet) delves into matters known little outside Jamaica and provides a historical portrait of the country in the 20th century through conversations, events, and the retelling of folk stories.

Book Summary

As WW2 began, Jewish families in Poland were trying to flee to safer countries outside of Hilter’s reach. In this story, Esther’s father has gone ahead of the family to Cuba, and Esther is the first family member to join him. She’s devastated to be separated from her sister, so she documents her new life in Cuba to share her experiences in writing until her sister can join her. 

Her writings include both the kindness of the Cuban people and the unfortunate reality that Nazism has reached Cuba.