Review of The Mourning Islands

[Mbrooks2518]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Mourning Islands" by Douglas Wells.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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In The Mourning Islands by Douglas Wells, Talmon Bonnett is a down on his luck army veteran who is hired by Dallas and Conrad Barbour to spy on Rusty Wing. Rusty is building a resort on Hurricane Island, which is across the channel from the Mourning Islands, and the Barbours tell Talmon that they have invested in it. However, Talmon soon realizes that may not be the real reason they hired him.

After helping Rusty, his fiancé Claire, and Rusty’s sister during a storm, Talmon becomes friends with them. Later, he becomes romantically involved with Rusty’s sister, Marlene, and he worries about her reaction when he tells her the truth about why he is in the Mourning Islands. Further complicating matters is the murder of Claire's mother and Rusty’s involvement with the Cuban Mafia, and many times the group find themselves in danger. Will Talmon be able to complete the job for the Barbours and live his life with Marlene?

Overall, this is a very well-written book. It has a nice, steady pace, and I liked that the book got right to the plot by starting with Talmon arriving to meet the Barbours and learn about the job they want him to do. Having multiple plot lines definitely helped to keep my interest in the story high. And the part of the plot that dealt with the Cuban Mafia had a lot of great action. The author also did a great job of surprising me with the ending. It really wasn’t how I expected the story to end, and I thought about it for a while afterwards.

The characters were interesting, diverse, and well written. Learning about each of them was my favorite thing about this book. Besides Talmon, who we learn about right away since the story is from his perspective, the characters all have intriguing undercurrents to their personalities that are not revealed immediately and affect how they interact with each other. Talmon is an army veteran who spent a year in the hospital because of his PTSD. Claire had a difficult childhood. Marlene and Rusty are former musicians, and Marlene has three ex-husbands. The more I got to know the characters, the more invested I became in them and hoped things would turn out well for all of them.

The story also has some wonderful descriptions of the scenery of Florida, the ocean, and storms. There were also very detailed descriptions of all the characters that appeared, which was useful as I could easily visualize them. However, there were sometimes minute details included, like all the groceries and supplies Talmon bought, which were unnecessary and was the thing I liked the least in this book. But this was a minor issue that had little impact on my enjoyment of the story.

This was a very entertaining book with an equal mix of crime, mystery, action, and romance. There is one sex scene, but it isn’t very detailed. There is some profanity. I recommend it to adult readers who like the genres I mentioned and like getting to know interesting characters. Anyone who likes the ocean and boats will also like this book as the characters spend the majority of their time on either Talmon’s boat or Rusty’s yacht. Unfortunately, I did find ten editing mistakes, which forces me to take away a star. Therefore, I am rating this book 3 out of 4 stars.

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The Mourning Islands
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[Amy Luman]

I like books that don’t turn out like you think they should. Also, this sounds like more of a thriller than horror and I can do without the gore.

[Ay Obaj]

This was indeed an interesting read. I am getting a copy of this book

[Mbrooks2518]

I like books that don’t turn out like you think they should. Also, this sounds like more of a thriller than horror and I can do without the gore.

It's definitely a thriller and not gory. Thanks for reading and commenting!

[Mbrooks2518]

This was indeed an interesting read. I am getting a copy of this book

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Thanks for reading and commenting!

[Aisha Yakub]

Great to see the diversity and uniqueness of the characters. Thank you for the review.

[Chesko]

This sounds like one entertaining read, the errors are unfortunate. Thanks for this detailed review.

[Mbrooks2518]

Great to see the diversity and uniqueness of the characters. Thank you for the review.

This sounds like one entertaining read, the errors are unfortunate. Thanks for this detailed review.

Thanks for reading and commenting!