Skip to main content

Featured

See the Stars by Eleanor Ray #Review

  See the Stars by Eleanor Ray will be  published on February 5th 2026 by Piatkus .  Do you ever feel that life isn't going to plan?   When Alice Thorington collapses in the street after a particularly hellish day at work, she must finally admit to herself that her outwardly happy life - steady relationship, well-paid job, beautiful flat in the city - isn't everything she'd hoped it would be. Burnt out by long hours and living a life that doesn't fulfil her dreams, Alice returns home to Yorkshire.  Her childhood home brings complicated family dynamics, a rediscovery of her passion for stargazing and two new friends: Berti, a boy who finds it easier to count the stars than interact with people, and Matt, her brother's best friend and Alice's teenage crush. With each of them facing their own struggles, can the stars that meant so much to Alice in her past help them to find their way in the present?  Filled with heart and warmth, this uplifting novel...

One August Night by Victoria Hislop #Review #PaperbackPublication

 


Beloved author Victoria Hislop returns to Crete in this long-anticipated sequel to her multi-million-copy Number One bestseller, The Island. 

25th August 1957. The island of Spinalonga closes its leper colony. And a moment of violence has devastating consequences.

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 coloured with tragedy.

In the aftermath, the question of how to resume life looms large. Stigma and scandal need to be confronted and somehow, for those impacted, a future built from the ruins of the past.

Victoria Hislop returns to the world and characters she created in The Island - the award-winning novel that remains one of the biggest selling reading group novels of the century. It is finally time to be reunited with Anna, Maria, Manolis and Andreas in the weeks leading up to the evacuation of the island... and beyond...



 

Victoria  Hislop  said, ‘Travelling  back  in  my  imagination  to  revisit  Spinalonga,  a  place  where people  lived in isolation with an incurable disease, seemed a very natural thing to do during lockdown – not least because the cure for the disease was found!  But what has really kept my mind focussed during these past months has been to re-imagine some of the characters in that period after the closure of the leper colony.  These are the characters who are profoundly affected by the events that unfold as The Island draws to its  conclusion  and,  for  all  of  them,  it  brings  the  need  for  renewal,  catharsis  and  the  beginning  of  very  different lives.

 

My Thoughts

 Set on the island of Crete, the environment shimmers away and you feel that the traditions and customs of the islanders form an integral part of the story. I haven't read The Island, I must admit, but nevertheless was able to pick up on the relationships and become invested in the story. There are some strong characters in the story and events from the past are slowly uncovered.

    Maria turned out to be the most fascinating character for me. Her actions were unexpected and selfless and she gave the story a feeling of renewal and hope after her experiences on the leper colony of Spinalonga. With a narrative which moves on at a good pace and the action which moved from character to character, I was carried along. Full of atmosphere, I found this to be an absorbing read, just right for a holiday read. I also appreciated that not all ends were tightly fastened off and there could, if necessary, be more to come.

In short: Secrets from the past appear

    

About the Author


Inspired by a visit to Spinalonga, the abandoned Greek leprosy colony, Victoria Hislop wrote The Island in 2005. It became an international bestseller, has sold more than six million copies and was turned into a 26-part Greek TV series. She was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards and is now an ambassador for Lepra. Her affection for the Mediterranean then took her to Spain, and in the number one bestseller The Return she wrote about the painful secrets of its civil war. In The Thread, Victoria returned to Greece to tell the turbulent tale of Thessaloniki and its people across the twentieth century. Shortlisted for a British Book Award, it confirmed her reputation as an inspirational storyteller.

 Her  fourth  novel,  The  Sunrise,  about  the Turkish  invasion  of  Cyprus  and  the  enduring  ghost  town  of  Famagusta, was a Sunday Times number one bestseller.  Cartes Postales from Greece, fiction illustrated with  photographs,  followed  and  was  one  of  the  biggest  selling  books  of  2016.  The  poignant  and  powerful Those Who Are Loved  was a Sunday Times number one hardback bestseller in 2019 and explores a tempestuous period of modern Greek history through the eyes of a complex and compelling heroine. Victoria’s  most  recent  novel,  One August  Night,  returns  to  Crete  in  the  long-anticipated  sequel  to  The Island. The novel spent twelve weeks in the Top 10 hardback fiction charts.

Her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. 

Victoria  divides  her  time  between  England  and  Greece  and  in  2020, Victoria  was granted honorary citizenship by the President of Greece.  She was recently appointed  patron  of  Knossos  2025,  which  is  raising  funds  for  a  new  research  centre at one of Greece’s most significant archaeological sites.  She is also on the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

You can follow Victoria here: Twitter  |  Website 

Book link: Amazon UK

Thanks to Victoria Hislop, Headline Review and Anne Cater of  Random Things Tours  for a copy of the book and a place on the tour. 

Check out these great bloggers!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts