Book Review: Lovestruck by Bronwyn Sell
The blurb likens this book to [the tv series] Offspring and I think that’s probably an accurate description (but maybe with less babies involved).
Lovestruck centres upon the family who own and run a resort on Curiosity Island, an island which is fictional itself but supposedly part of the Whitsundays, a real island group in Queensland. Everyone comes together on the island for a wedding which gives Nan, the matriarch of the family, time to search for potential partners for her [currently all single] daughters, granddaughters and grandsons amongst the resort staff and guests, as well as the wedding party’s friends and relatives.
The book is a true romantic comedy and I really appreciated that. It’s pretty rare that writers are able to manage this style without things becoming either corny or coarse. There are two main romantic couples featured and they each share some great chemistry and I was really cheering them on throughout.
I also appreciated that the main two love stories had really good believable conflicts. I cannot tell you how many times I read romances and the conflict is so weak it could be sorted out with a five minute conversation. And, often, in the end the conflict is resolved just as quickly. Instead, Lovestruck had conflicts that I could imagine someone having (hell, I’ve had one myself in my younger years) and needing some time to sort out.
Sell also manages to keep everything contemporary with ease. Mentions of social media and slang used by today’s 20-somethings were included with a nice balance to please both younger and older readers.
As I only live up the coast a little from the Whitsundays, I loved the setting. All the wildlife, post cyclone money woes and island activities were pretty spot on. Nothing really stuck out as over the top or inaccurate. Sell even managed to include a lot of environmental messages without becoming preachy or patronising. My only real whinge was that I think Sell could have been a little more eloquent with her descriptive passages. This is only a minor gripe – there was still enough to ensure it had a uniquely Australian feel about it.
This is a long book and yet I still read it rather fast. I guess it could have been edited a bit towards the end though. To be contrary, I’m on board with Sell continuing to write more of these characters and make this into a series. (I live in hope that the older characters’ romances aren’t glossed over to make way for the younger ones in the sequels. It was rather annoying that all the older characters’ romances happened ‘off screen’. As I said, this was a long book and yet *this* is what they decide to gloss over? Grrr.)
Overall though, this was a funny sweet read with likeable characters that I would readily recommend.
4 out of 5
PS I’ve got to also give a special shout out to the ‘reviews’ of the island between chapters. They were hilarious.
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