Island in the Sea

January 11, 2016
Hughes (Rome in Love) writes in ad-copy prose and with bland plotting in this lackluster disappointment. Juliet Lyman is a record company executive with a mission: fly out to Majorca, meet star songwriter Lionel Harding, and get him to honor his contract for a new album. In the first of many clichés, Lionel agrees to write the contracted songs if, after hearing his story of betrayed love, Juliet still thinks he should. As Lionel shares a thin tale of love riddled with repetitive and uninspiring sex scenes, Juliet explores the island and forms friendships with the locals. Characters sound like guidebooks (“You and your gentleman friend will enjoy your private terrace, the tables are set with silver candelabras and bottles of Mallorcan olive oil”), Juliet declares herself tired of eating tapas (as though it were the name of a single dish rather than a way of serving food), and Hughes rehashes the same few descriptions to the point of frustration. The story is riddled with shallow literary references and devoid of real conflict, and it lacks characters vivid enough to care about. Even readers who persist to the end will likely pass on Hughes’s future offerings. Agent: Melissa Flashman, Trident Media Group.

March 1, 2016
In Hughes' (Rome in Love, 2015) latest overseas romance, record executive Juliet Lyman is sent to Majorca, Spain, to collect overdue work from a reclusive songwriter, Lionel Harding, who once wrote top-selling love songs but now spends more time drinking than composing. He makes a bargain with Juliet. He'll tell her the story of his lost love, and if she agrees that their boss treated him unfairly, she'll leave him in peace. If not, he'll pay back the advance. Each day, Juliet visits Lionel to hear another part of his story, told in smooth flashbacks. Her visits bring life and feeling back to Lionel and with it mutual attraction, but he fights the emotions. Meanwhile Juliet, who has never been in love, meets an Australian tennis player and begins to feel her heart open. The lush, colorful Majorcan setting is every bit as important as the plot in Hughes' sensuous romance. Readers will be seduced by the food, sun, residents, and magic of Majorca along with plucky Juliet as they enjoy her romantic adventure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)