Island Fiction

H.G. Wells (1866 -1946) - the master of the genre - created his "scientific romances" and set the standard for futuristic literature that also teemed with both social commentary and a prescient view of the world to come. Enjoy these two classics by the "father of science fiction".

June 1940. While her little sister, Rosie, is sent to the UK to keep her safe from the invading German army, Estelle Le Maistre is left behind on Jersey to help her grandmother run the family farm. When the Germans occupy the island, everything changes and Estelle and the islanders must face the reality of life under Nazi rule.

When her younger sister reveals she’s getting married in a few months, Cherisse hopes that will distract her mother enough to quit harassing her about finding a guy, settling down, and having kids. But her mother’s matchmaking keeps intensifying. Cherisse tries to humor her mother, hoping if she feigns interest in the eligible bachelors she keeps tossing her way, she’ll be off the hook, but things don’t quite go as planned. It turns out that, for the first time in ages, she and Keiran King, the most annoying man ever, are on the island at the same time.

On a winding cliff edge on the wild Irish coast, two cars collide. In one is Maura Claffey’s niece, Finn, and her baby daughter. In the other, Kathryn with her own newborn—and her own secrets. Both women survive, but one of the girls does not. In the aftermath, bruised and heavily medicated, both women struggle to come to terms with what happened that day.

Jesse McDermitt has returned to the Florida Keys. But things in the islands are different now. The locals are worried, but nobody can explain why. A sense of foreboding hangs in the humid July air. One of the locals, an investment banker, is waiting tables at the Rusty Anchor Bar and Grill. He seems a shell of the man he used to be—a hollow man whose fortune and wife are gone. Something very sinister is going on—Jesse smells it. He’s usually very good at rooting out the source of a problem, but is stumped this time.

Zara Reddy comes from a very traditional Indian family, but she's chosen a different path than the generational restaurant. She performs in some of Getaway Bay's biggest shows as an acrobat and synchronized swimmer and takes other odd jobs - anything to stay off her mother's "where's your boyfriend?" radar. When she lands a lucrative house-sitting job in the biggest mansion hideaway on the bluffs above the beach, Zara thinks she'll get some rest, plenty of sun, and time to make her life plan. But when she walks in, she comes face-to-face with Noah Wales, a man who makes her blood boil.

When former FBI agent Cate Wilde moves back to Widow’s Island, she envisions a simpler life than the one she had in law enforcement. But Cate’s past has a habit of catching up with her. When she receives a mysterious package containing a child’s mandible, she finds herself thrust back into action. The mandible leads Cate to an unsolved case she worked seven years ago - the kidnapping of a three-year-old girl. At the time, Cate suspected the girl was kidnapped by her overprotective father. But after they both vanished, the case went cold.

It's been 12 years since Jenny Wilks lost her fiancé in the 9/11 attacks in New York City. Since then she's been floundering, trying to find her way. Taking the job as lighthouse keeper on Gansett Island was the best thing she could've done for herself. On the island she's found amazing friends and a wonderful new life. There's only one thing missing and that's romance. She's recently asked her new friends to fix her up with some of the island's more eligible men. While her friends are busy arranging dates for her, Alex Martinez comes to cut the grass at the lighthouse.

On a weekend vacation, Beth Anderson is unnerved when a stroll on the beach reveals what appears to be a skull. When a stranger approaches, Beth panics and covers the evidence. But when she later returns to the beach, the skull is gone. Beth digs deeper into the mystery of the skull, and everywhere she goes, Keith Henson, the stranger from the beach, seems to appear. A body washes ashore, and Beth begins to think she needs more help than she bargained for.

What happens at the cabin stays at the cabin. Right? Andrew Harrison “Harry” Leonard is destined for politics. Getting his start on the Rochester City Council, he quickly rose to become the youngest representative in Congress. Now the up-and-comer from Minnesota is on the brink of something big. If all goes well, he’ll be in perfect position to aim for the presidency.

Travel magazine writer Celeste Bell is in a terrible mood. Not only was her flight to the Caribbean diverted to a Massachusetts island, now it looks like she'll have to spend Christmas there. Single and still mourning the loss of her mother a year earlier, Celeste is desperate to avoid any emotional entanglements and all holiday festivities. She just doesn't feel like celebrating. But that's exactly what community center director Nathan White and his young daughter, Abigail, want to do. Nathan is entirely focused on making sure that his daughter has a happy Christmas.

Following the loss of his brother to the war in Europe, Canadian writer John Easley feels duty-bound to report the story that seems to have fallen into his lap: the 1943 Japanese occupation of the U.S. Aleutian Islands and the Allied attempts to drive the Japanese forces back into the sea. But when his plane is shot down over the island of Attu, he is exposed to the full fury of a wilderness known as "the Birthplace of Winds." He soon discovers that the island’s indigenous residents (U.S. citizens) have all disappeared and that he has one choice: surrender or face starvation and madness alone.

It was the blood I noticed first. Running down the neck of the man on the ferry. Then his bruised knuckles, dark eyes, and arrogant smirk. The handcuffs came last. No one else paid him attention, but I couldn't look away. Or deny my instant lust. I had no idea he was being imprisoned on the remote, dark Scottish island I knew well. Or that he'd been kidnapped, not arrested. I went from that naïve girl on the boat, dreaming of stolen kisses, to the one who held the key to his prison cell. When heat turns to hate, all that's left is ruin.

Paradise has a price. For Jesse McDermitt, that price is his moral compass and a bullet. The retired Marine and charter skipper takes on a passenger in Nassau, a young woman who is a breath of fresh air. She introduces him to the laid-back cruising crowd on an idyllic small cay in the Berry Islands. Jesse takes to the relaxing lifestyle like a fish to water. Living each day on its own terms is a new experience for Jesse, but it doesn't last long. Trouble always seems to find him.

"You'll never make it!" With encouragement like that, author Mickey Thomas, in a fit of youthful testosterone, and with meticulous inattention to detail, decided to embark on a once-in-a lifetime 3,400-mile bicycle trek from Montana to Alaska. While riding through knee problems, illness, homesickness, infatuation, bad weather, and meeting a host of quirky and hilarious characters, Mickey, and his group rides over some of the roughest roads and most desolate scenery in North America. Along the way, he discovers an inner strength as well as a new physical stamina he never had.

Anne of the Island was published in 1915 covering her from the ages of 18 to 22. This is the third story of Anne Shirley where she earns her BA at Redmond College. In this book, she enjoys new and old friends at Redmond, living together at Patty's Place chaperoned by Aunt Jamesina. Gilbert proposes to Anne and she rejects him - but you must listen to the story to know the rest!

The last of John Buchan’s thrillers and the final appearance of Richard Hannay now in retirement reverie deep in the comfortable Cotswolds.However, he and Sandy [Lord Clanroyden] are roused to action once more to help the son of a recently deceased treasure hunter, called Haraldsen. The heir is receiving threats from Lancelot Troth, a man who believes himself ill treated financially by Haraldsen’s father and seeks revenge and reparation.

Police Chief Aggie Malone is facing her first Christmas as a married woman, and hoping for a relatively uneventful holiday in the quiet Gulf Coast community of Dogleg Island where she, along with her perspicacious border collie Flash, is in charge of keeping the peace. She is still trying to find her place in the big, boisterous Grady family, but unlike Flash - and her own husband, Deputy Sheriff Ryan Grady - Aggie does not see the appeal of the holiday, and the magic of the season is completely lost on her. The old-fashioned Christmas Grady has planned for his bride begins to unravel when Aggie's investigation into a homicide hit-and-run leads to the arrest of her own brother-in-law and exposes a crime syndicate that's responsible for spreading millions in counterfeit bills throughout the southeast.

Pirates, buried treasure, and action aplenty - that's what's served up in this fine story, mates, and kids will eat it up. After Jim Hawkins finds the map to a mysterious treasure, he sets sail in search of the fortune. Little does he realize, he's boarded a pirate ship, and that surprises and danger await him...including a meeting with the unforgettable Long John Silver.

They’re beloved members of the Gansett Island family… But they’ve never had their own book until now! Dan Torrington and Kara Ballard take center stage for the first time ever in this prequel novel. Revisit their story from when they first appeared in FALLING FOR LOVE through HURRICANE AFTER DARK, with many new scenes, characters and backstories as we prepare to follow Dan and Kara to Bar Harbor, Maine, to deal with the most intense Ballard family drama yet.