Summer Island

By Natalie Normann

What it’s about?

He never meant to stay.
He certainly never meant to fall in love…

Summer Island off the coast of Norway was the place London chef Jack Greene should have been from. He’s an outsider in the community that should have been his family, and now he’s setting foot on the strange land he has inherited for the first time.

Ninni Toft, his nearest neighbour, has come to the island to mend her broken heart. With her wild spirit and irrepressible enthusiasm, she shows city-boy Jack the simple pleasures of island life – and what it means to belong. To a place. To a people. To one person in particular…

Home is where the heart is but is Jack’s heart with the career he left behind in London, or on the wind-swept shores of Summer Island, with Ninni?

What I think:

This is a big-hearted romance about finding your family and following your passions.

Jack inherits a farm house on a remote island in Norway. He’s never so much as visited it before and never met the man who left it to him, but a crisis sees him leaving the restaurant he works in and his quest for a Michelin star and packing his bags. Intending to settle his affairs and sell the farm, he quickly finds himself drawn to the island and its inhabitants, particualrly local girl Ninni.

Ninni has problems of her own and is nursing a broken heart having been betrayed by the man she thought she would spend her life with.

There is great chemistry between Ninni and Jack and it is clear that that their newly formed friendship has the potential to be something much more lasting if only they can overcome some of the obstacles in their way.

The island community is at the heart of this book. People care about each other and protecting traditional ways of life while allowing the island and its inhabitants to thrive. The supporting cast of characters are wonderful and all have stories of their own that make them real.

This is also a book a bout the power of food. Some of the descriptions of food will make your mouth water! Food brings people together and is central to the celebrations and commisiorations of the islanders. Jack’s passion for cooking and his discoveries about his past come together to help him make some big but exciting decisions about his future.

This is such an enjoyable read with great characters you will be rooting for from page one.

About the author:

Natalie Normann is a Norwegian writer and writes historical romance series in her native language. She has also written crime novels and children’s books before turning to romance full-time.

In October 2017 she moved to Cardiff and joined the RNA a week later, wishing she had heard about the association twenty years earlier.

She grew up in a shipping town on the west-coast of Norway and always wanted to be a writer. Actually, she wanted to smoke cigars and drink whiskey like Hemingway but settled for chocolate and the occasional glass of Baileys.

Her writing journey started with short stories in women’s magazines until her first book was published in 1995.

Summer Island is her first romance written in English.

Thank you to Harper Collins for my gifted copy of the novel and to Love Books Tours for inviting me to be a part of this heart warming blog tour.