3.5
Famous influencer Sara Vance has come to Key West on a family vacation. The relationship Sara has with her family has pretty much always been on rocky ground, and has been a contributing factor in Sara's battle with an eating disorder. But ultimately she loves them, and since her mother has gotten a good bill of health after being treated for cancer, it's important that this vacation go off without a hitch. So when Sara's boyfriend suddenly decides he's not coming, she doesn't need another reason for her family to look at her like she's floundering. When she runs into local firefighter Luis Navarro an idea quickly forms in her mind: have Luis pose as her boyfriend for the week and show her family she's got things in her life under control. Easy.
Luis doesn't know what to make of the woman who asks him to pose as her boyfriend. In his line of work he's used to helping people out, but this is taking things a bit too far. But Luis has recently been put on mandatory leave after a call went bad. Since he's got nothing else to do, he agrees. Plus, it'll keep his mind off things that he'd rather not think about...or deal with.
The charade they concoct will end up shattering through the walls they've built around themselves to keep them from dealing with the issues that they both face. Will cause them to take a good look at their lives, at their relationships with their families and see that keeping themselves closed off has also kept them from experiencing true happiness and contentment.
I went into Island Affair like I typically do with romances. Figuring I knew where the fake boyfriend trope would take us, but really I didn't even suspect that, for me, the romance would simply be a secondary element.
I like Luis and Sara together just fine, but I was more invested in their individual journeys, mainly those involving their families. These journeys for me were much more rewarding than seeing whether or not Sara and Luis would give up the charade and get together in the end.
I loved seeing Sara reconnect with her family. A family that treated her like the younger sibling. The one who doesn't go into the family business and instead is an influencer which is typically met with disdain in any type of fictionalized world I read about where someone has that profession. I think Priscilla Oliveras writes the issues with Sara's family so well. It's not that Sara imagined the mistreatment by her parents or the resentment by her siblings. These things definitely occurred, and they definitely precipitated the eating disorder that Sara will probably be dealing with for years to come if not the rest of her life. It's showing that people change, people grow, through their experiences they can change their views and atonement is possible. I wish we could have delved a little deeper into these aspects. We touch on them for sure, but I felt like we only scratched the surface especially for issues that have been ongoing for a long time.
The same goes for Luis. He and his brother have been on the outs for years - for matters which I won't divulge here. The resulting strain on this relationship with his brother has been felt throughout the rest of the family. You start to see that the things Luis has held close has impacted the rest of his life, this just isn't apparent right away. But I loved seeing this realization of how much this has been influencing his decisions. I just wish we could, like Sara, have seen more of the resolution. I felt like it's pretty quickly thrown on at the end.
While I understand that this is a romance first, therefore that aspect of the story is given precedence, for me, this time around, I wish it was everything else over the romance.
I think that Priscilla Oliveras does a great job of making the Navarros a family that I want to get to know more about. She certainly teased us pretty good with a little of Anamaria's (Luis's younger sister) backstory. I would be lying if I said I didn't want to pick up that story next right away.
Famous influencer Sara Vance has come to Key West on a family vacation. The relationship Sara has with her family has pretty much always been on rocky ground, and has been a contributing factor in Sara's battle with an eating disorder. But ultimately she loves them, and since her mother has gotten a good bill of health after being treated for cancer, it's important that this vacation go off without a hitch. So when Sara's boyfriend suddenly decides he's not coming, she doesn't need another reason for her family to look at her like she's floundering. When she runs into local firefighter Luis Navarro an idea quickly forms in her mind: have Luis pose as her boyfriend for the week and show her family she's got things in her life under control. Easy.
Luis doesn't know what to make of the woman who asks him to pose as her boyfriend. In his line of work he's used to helping people out, but this is taking things a bit too far. But Luis has recently been put on mandatory leave after a call went bad. Since he's got nothing else to do, he agrees. Plus, it'll keep his mind off things that he'd rather not think about...or deal with.
The charade they concoct will end up shattering through the walls they've built around themselves to keep them from dealing with the issues that they both face. Will cause them to take a good look at their lives, at their relationships with their families and see that keeping themselves closed off has also kept them from experiencing true happiness and contentment.
I went into Island Affair like I typically do with romances. Figuring I knew where the fake boyfriend trope would take us, but really I didn't even suspect that, for me, the romance would simply be a secondary element.
I like Luis and Sara together just fine, but I was more invested in their individual journeys, mainly those involving their families. These journeys for me were much more rewarding than seeing whether or not Sara and Luis would give up the charade and get together in the end.
I loved seeing Sara reconnect with her family. A family that treated her like the younger sibling. The one who doesn't go into the family business and instead is an influencer which is typically met with disdain in any type of fictionalized world I read about where someone has that profession. I think Priscilla Oliveras writes the issues with Sara's family so well. It's not that Sara imagined the mistreatment by her parents or the resentment by her siblings. These things definitely occurred, and they definitely precipitated the eating disorder that Sara will probably be dealing with for years to come if not the rest of her life. It's showing that people change, people grow, through their experiences they can change their views and atonement is possible. I wish we could have delved a little deeper into these aspects. We touch on them for sure, but I felt like we only scratched the surface especially for issues that have been ongoing for a long time.
The same goes for Luis. He and his brother have been on the outs for years - for matters which I won't divulge here. The resulting strain on this relationship with his brother has been felt throughout the rest of the family. You start to see that the things Luis has held close has impacted the rest of his life, this just isn't apparent right away. But I loved seeing this realization of how much this has been influencing his decisions. I just wish we could, like Sara, have seen more of the resolution. I felt like it's pretty quickly thrown on at the end.
While I understand that this is a romance first, therefore that aspect of the story is given precedence, for me, this time around, I wish it was everything else over the romance.
I think that Priscilla Oliveras does a great job of making the Navarros a family that I want to get to know more about. She certainly teased us pretty good with a little of Anamaria's (Luis's younger sister) backstory. I would be lying if I said I didn't want to pick up that story next right away.