Spotlight Review: AN ISLAND WEDDING by Jenny Colgan

Mure series, Book 5

From the publisher:

New York Times best-selling author Jenny Colgan brings us a delightful summer novel that will sweep you away to the remote Scottish island of Mure, where two very different weddings are about to take place….
On the little Scottish island of Mure – halfway between Scotland and Norway – Flora MacKenzie and her fiancé, Joel, are planning the smallest of “sweetheart weddings”, a high summer celebration surrounded only by those very dearest to them.
Not everyone on the island is happy about being excluded, though. The temperature rises even further when beautiful Olivia MacDonald – who left Mure 10 years ago for bigger and brighter things – returns with a wedding planner in tow. Her fiancé has oodles of family money, and Olivia is determined to throw the biggest, most extravagant, most Instagrammable wedding possible. And she wants to do it at Flora’s hotel, the same weekend as Flora’s carefully planned micro-wedding.
As the summer solstice approaches, can Flora handle everyone else’s happy-every-afters – and still get her own?
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This is the fifth novel in Colgan’s popular series set on the fictional island of Mure in northern Scotland. The story centers around Flora and Joel’s upcoming wedding, a secret romance between her best friend Lorna and Saif, a Syrian immigrant and father of two boys, and the recently engaged Olivia, a gorgeous islander who became a model and social media influencer. Olivia is planning her own Mure wedding extravaganza for the same day as Flora’s, while Flora is dismayed to learn that Joel wants a “sweetheart wedding” with only the immediate family present. Meanwhile, Saif finds out his wife, who was fighting in Syria, has moved on, and there are immigration legalities and racism at play here. The insanity of Olivia’s Instagrammable wedding and the teasing Flora and Joel get about their baby’s walking skills add humor and lighten the story. This is a slow paced, very descriptive sweet romance, but be forewarned, not all these characters get their happily ever after.

Verdict: Fans of the series will undoubtedly enjoy this latest addition, but other readers may want to start with the first book. Readalikes include books by Felicity Hayes-McCoy, Katie Fforde, and Sophie Kinsella.

The series in order (U.S. versions):

6/2022 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

AN ISLAND WEDDING by Jenny Colgan. Avon (June 21, 2022). ISBN: 978-0063141889. 400p.

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