I loved the Island - it’s up there with one of my favourites. One Night in August was a disappointment. No depth, nothing interesting - it just felt really flat and lifeless. I wish I had waited until the price had reduced.

The sequel to the Island was an okay read but felt it wasn't to the norm I expect of this author but felt could of expanded a bit more of a few more of the plot lines and felt in parts a bit flat.

Rather Disappointing. Having read all of Victoria's books and really enjoyed them, I was keen to read this sequel to The Island. However I felt that this book was a pale shadow and Victoria was just going through the motions of writing. The style is so laid back as to be almost boring, with very little action. So much so that I was completely caught out by the ending. It was as though Victoria had just got tired of writing and decided to stop. No closing of the story, so perhaps she's planning a...

One August Night is the Sequel to Victoria Hislop’s previous book The Island, about the Leper colony on the island of Spinalonga in Greece.This book follows the characters and the life of the families from the first book, their hopes and dreams, tragedies and the terrible consequences of their actions.Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

One August Night returns readers to the island of Crete and the small village of Plaka, near Elounda. It also reunites them with some of the characters from The Island, in particular Anna Vandoulakis and her husband Andreas, Anna’s sister Maria and her husband Dr Nikos Kyritsis, and Manolis, Andreas’s cousin. Those who haven’t read The Island need not worry because key events from the last section of the earlier book are repeated, although this time experienced first hand by the reader; this mea...

It was nice to delve into the 'Island' world again and Victoria Hislop does always paint beautiful pictures of Greece, but I didn't feel this book added much to the original text - it was more of a collection of side stories which were nice to delve into because the Island was so good more than anything. It also just jumped randomly from character to character without much cohesion.

I was hoping for a sequel of the beloved The Island. Though this mentions the closing of the leper colony on Spinalonga, the remainder of the story is unrelated. This had barely any plot, little character development and an unsatisfying ending. I also found the writing very simple and not all that engrossing. I wonder what I’d think if I reread The Island, will it hold up? I’ve read a lot of fiction in the past six years and my tastes have definitely changed. We shall see, for now I’m content wi...

As someone who has loved all of Hislop’s previous books, including ‘The Island’, I was so excited when I saw that she was releasing this sequel. Being in lockdown, I thought that this would be the perfect piece of escapism to all things Greek, that I needed...From the two star rating, you know there is going to be a big but...Synopsis: ‘...When time stops dead for Maria Petrakis and her sister, Anna, two families splinter apart and, for the people of Plaka, the closure of Spinalonga is forever c...

I must admit I thought this One August Night would carry on from one of my favourite books ever The Island. I imagined I would be transported back to the leprosy colony on Spinalonga but that wasn’t the case. This book is based on the weeks leading up to the evacuation of the island and beyond, but the book is set in Crete rather than the island. Fans of The Island will immediately recognise characters from the previous book Anna, Maria, Manolis and Andreas. Anna and Manolis have embarked on a c...

Setting: Crete & Greek mainland; Melbourne, Australia. The book is set in the lead-up to the closing of the leper colony of Spinalonga in 1957, when a cure has been found. Anna Petrakis has a good life with Andreas, who controls the family's large olive groves, but her marriage is unfulfilled - so she seeks solace with her husband's cousin, Manolis, with whom she is passionately in love. When news filters down that the Spinalonga lepers have been cured and will be returning home, including Anna'...

Victoria Hislop's first novel, 'The Island' has stayed with me since it was written in 2005 and inspired my own visit to Spinalonga. It has gone on to much critical acclaim since, so this sequel has an awful lot to live up to. I couldn't wait to find out what happened next to the characters I have become so familiar with, but there was also a sense of trepidation that perhaps my expectations would be too high. After all, how can you best a best seller?'One August Night' deals with the release fr...

I cannot fathom the fact that I even considered buying that book... I don't understand why Mrs Victoria wanted to write a sequel to the Island.. It was merely a waste of time and nothing more.. Although It was nice hearing from some characters such as Manolis and Andreas, the story did not provide any more closure than the Island did... These characters were already complete.. There was no need for her to drag the storyline any longer.. I was hoping that Manolis would find out eventually that he...

I was a huge fan of The Island and often credit it as the book that got me back into reading after a long reading slump. I was therefore very excited to learn there was a sequel to it and immediately started reading as soon as I got my copy!It was wonderful to be back with all the old characters and to see how they had changed, or not in the case of Anna, over the years. The author has created realistic stories for all of the characters which felt like a natural progression from their lives in T...

I enjoyed this but I have to wonder if it was really necessary to do a so called sequel. It works prefectly well as a stand-alone. But then it does function as a catalyst because of all the assumptions those at home make because of the closure of the colony. It just goes to show people in the raw I suppose, and does it with real aplomp. VH's writing is tender and powerful, the love for Greece and this place oozes through the pages. Her characters are vivid and almost human in their complexity, f...

I absolutely loved The Island but I was so disappointed with this book I hoped the book would continue the story of life on the island as a cure for leprosy was found and they made preparations to leave but there is very little reference to that. Just didn't feel the story was good at all Hard to finish it

The story was good although it’s a long time since I read The Island so couldn’t quite remember the story there. However it didn’t really matter and it was a very easy read and moved along swiftly. Just felt I wasn’t quite so invested in these characters - they didn’t really come alive for me somehow. And again at the end she did leave it hanging, perhaps to come back with a further story at some point in time.

I really like all Victoria Hislop's previous novels as they are set against interesting historical/ political/ cultural backdrops. Whilst I enjoyed this book I felt it was just a story as it lacked the depth of her other novels such as The Return & therefore for me wasn't as interesting.

Set in August 1957 and taking place on the island Crete and mainland Greece, the story begins as a cure for leprosy has been found. The leper colony on Spinalonga island, just off the coast of the village of Plake in Crete is closed and the inhabitants return to their homes.A huge celebration is planned in Plaka, and despite the stigma still attached to leprosy, many of the ex-patients are being welcomed home. One of these is Maria. Mara’s sister Anna has been worried about her return, she is co...