As a novel, The Island has come in for a fair amount of criticism, that I for one strongly disagree with. I loved it! The author captured the warmth, charm and passion of the Cretans and of the Island of Crete, and poignantly described the heartbreaking situation of a time and place that still haunts to this day.You simply must read this heartrending, brilliantly descriptive and meticulously researched piece of work, whether you are able to visit the island or not. If you do read the book, then

I always wanted to go to Greece in literature and now I have. Let me tell you, it was worth the trip in this story too. This book is like getting postcards from all the places you have never been to and now don't want to. For Home is gone and it is now in every one of those places you will never visit.Highly recommended.

I read this book when it first came out and loved it. When I knew that Victoria was bringing out a sequel I immediately re-bought another copy of this book and got the sequel as a Christmas Present. So, having read this for a second time after such a long time, I’d forgotten some of the story as in fact it was more like a completely new read. This book still makes me sad and happy all at once, I just hope that the sequel is just as good.

Leprosy. You think of is as a biblical or medieval disease but I had not realised that even a control/cure wasn't found until the mid 20th century. This involving story is set on the island Spinalonga off the coast of Crete, between the two world wars, where there was a leper colony until leprosy was eradicated by medical intervention.The author weaves the fictional story of Cretan family personally affected by leprosy, into the island's leper colony history. It is absorbing and moving and I was...

The story line of this book is pretty good... but it is the most poorly written book I've read in awhile. She explains things - emotions, plot lines - to a level where she's beating you over the head with it and every sentence has about three adjectives too many. You'll want to finish it to find out what happens, but her writing style will drive you nuts while you do.

I had great hopes that this would be a good book.But life can be disappointing at times. This was one of the worst written books I have read in a long time. Chunks of unnecessarty exposition, character motivations eplained to the nth degree, dialogue avoided like...well, like it was leprosy.If you like your characters spoon fed to you, and every meaningful scene ducked (I mean, why didn't we get to see the last evening she and her husband had together? What exactly did they say?), well, this is

"You must pay the rent!" the evil villain roared, twirling his diabolical mustache. He was her landlord, and he was an impatient man."But I can't pay the rent!" swooned the beautiful, hapless heroine. She was his tenant. Her breathtaking beauty was matched only by her saintliness. She was always being taken advantage of by the wicked people around her, yet she was committed to remaining good."You must pay the rent!""But I can't pay the rent!""I'll pay the rent!" shouted the mysterious stranger.

Surprise of the year!!

I have mixed feelings about this book. The primary subject matter of the book was well researched and very interesting and original - that of the fate of Leprosy sufferers in pre-war and wartime Greece. I found this aspect of the book very interesting, the experimental treatments, the descriptions of how they organised their lives on the island and set up a democracy, the emotions surrounding being forcibly taken away from your families and made to live in isolation. I didn't know a lot about le...

This book was awesome. I read it on my honeymoon, while I was laying on the beach, and I couldn't put it down. I read the whole thing in two days. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in European history. I learned a ton about leprosy and the stigma associated with the disease. I think we all know a bit about leprosy, but it was really enlightening about the overall topic, especially since it is still an epidemic in many third world countries. The female characters were also very int...

I enjoyed the book - partly because the island that the story centers on was the view from our terrace during our honeymoon but also because of the unique topic of the story. It was a quick and enjoyable read though I think was weak in a few ways. As with many novels that combine the past and the present with the past being the focus, the scenes in the present were not as well written and lacked depth and development. I thought Alexis' struggle over her relationship with Ed was totally irrelevan...

A really enjoyable read, albeit out of my usual genres. That said being a real Hellenophile and having a number of Cretan friends, I was always going to enjoy it. I do not know the area described in the book at all well, my friends live nearer Rethymno, but I have flown in over Spinalonga many times and was aware of its history. The story was woven well into the history of both Crete and the Isle of Spinalonga. Would recommend to anyone with a love of Greece or Crete, or just looking for a genui...

'A beach read with a heart' was one of the promo lines on the book's cover. It's true that the author writes about emotions of love and loss, but my emotions certainly weren't engaged by the downs and ups of the story, and it does seems to be more downs than ups. None of her characters truly comes alive, characters are bluntly and repetitively described rather than revealed or heard through their own voices in dialogue.Her writing style is uninspired. And, as others have noted, we didn't need th...

Alexis Fielding is on the brink of making the biggest decision of her life and almost as a distraction fixates on the mystery of her mother’s life, her childhood that she refused to talk about. All through her childhood Sofia had received letters with Greek stamps on intermittently though Alexis’s childhood but when she is visiting Greece with her long-standing boyfriend she tells her mother that she would visit the place where Sofia had grown up, Plaka and Sofia relented and gave her a letter t...