A Greek Island Escape by Kate Frost

 Adventurous, Intriguing, Entertaining

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Romance

'A Greek Island Escape' by Kate Frost

Xanthe loved her life amongst the bright lights of the capital, and sharing a house with her friends, all of whom had the same mutual love of 'the stage'. She was very content with things as they were, not to say that she lacked ambition. She had always been aware of her mother's Grecian background, recalling holidays to visit her grandparents when she was young, days spent with their large and extended family, and also how those days had abruptly come to an end when she was still a child. She had never learnt the reason for this, her only connection to anyone in the small village where Elina had grown up, being her godmother Agatha over the last twenty years. Agatha had never been keen to discuss the unexplained fracture in the family, and now that the sad new of Agatha's passing had been received, and Xanthe had learnt of her inheritance, she felt she had to remind herself of what she had been missing all these years, and see what truths may unearth themselves in the process......

Elina had assumed that she had left her old life back in Kefalonia two decades ago, with no intention of revisiting it. However, the death of Agatha had brought with it complications. Xanthe had kept in touch with her since their last visit, they had formed a bond, with Agatha visiting London a couple of times. She had therefore, been thoughtful enough to remember Elina's daughter in her will, very generously in fact. Now Xanthe was talking about visiting her mother's birthplace, in which her god mother had also lived, to see what she had been bequeathed. Elina was all too aware of the can of worms that this could produce and felt nervous about what Xanthe might discover, as she hadn't divulged any of what happened to make her cut immediate and extended family out of her life. Now her past is catching up with her and she wonders what she should reveal, if anything, before her daughter finds out for herself.......and maybe, the thought that she had left that part of her life in the past, wasn't the only assumption that Elina had incorrectly and hastily made.....

I like a novel that literally takes you to another place, and that's what this one did. Giving me images of Agatha's beautiful villa and garden, and the beaches. Being a big character based reader, I like protaganists with something different about them, and accents are always fun to play in my head, although I can't actually speak any! My favourite was Jude, I adored him. When Xanthe is considering her best friends attributes and states that he isn't camp, I was rather disappointed, as this had been how I had been imagining him to be , so regardless, I continued with this narrative. The dialogue, I though leant itself perfectly to Jude being 'camp' and made him a really fun character. I was also very fond of Toula, imagining her as the mother in 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', who of course, has a daughter of the same name. Another couple of favourite scenes were Xanthe's dressing down of Austin in the restaurant, and her final text to him was pure gold!

The twist in the story was cleverly developed and written, hopefully giving the reader an outcome that is somewhat unexpected. I had also thought through much of the book, that maybe there may have been a much closer involvement with three of the main cast of characters. I wonder if this was a deliberate underlying tone to mislead the reader. This turned out not to be the case. However, I am glad, as I think I prefer Kate's version.

The descriptions of events, scenery and characters personalities, come across so vibrantly in the writing that I spent most of the time reading with a smile on my face, although, I have to say, I finished it with severe 'life envy' as the main character in this amusing and absorbing read, appears to build a perfect life for herself.

I very much enjoy Kate's writing and look forward to reading more from her.