Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Island Counselor 
SERIES: Island Medics #2
AUTHOR: Sue Brown
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 200 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 20th, 2016
BLURB:
An Isle Novel
Counselor Logan Wilde has a successful therapy practice in London, but when a traumatic incident there leaves him suffering from PTSD, he takes refuge in his holiday cottage on the Isle of Wight, unable to face going back to work. Not that he’s allowed to relax. Logan’s time is taken up with helping Liam Owens, plus there’s Nick Brent, whom Logan discovers collapsed on the beach. Nick and Logan spend their time bickering with each other, but that doesn’t alter the attraction they feel.
Logan is forced to make some hard decisions about his future, which entails facing up to recent events. Only he’s not alone—Nick is with him. Unfortunately someone else makes a decision too, and now trouble is on its way to the Isle of Wight.
REVIEW:
Back to the Isle of Wight! I so want to go there….
This is book two in a series that was spawned from another series that started with the wonderful book, The Isle of…Where?. In the original series we followed several couples as they found love on the Isle of Wight, mostly centered around the Owens family. Each book was a complete story, but they all intertwined. I’m quite fond of that, and loved the series. Now we have two books set in the same “world” but with new characters, although the guys from the first series have been in both of these books very prominently.
This one features Logan, a therapist who has come to his county home on the island to recover from some trauma. He meets Nick, a local man, who has been injured on a fishing boat. Logan rescues him on the beach one day and the two make a connection… The story goes from there as they get to know one another, and get involved with the group of gay men established on the island. There is some drama with the situation Logan is avoiding, but basically it’s a pretty mellow story.
I liked Logan and Nick, although we don’t really get to know Nick as well as I would have liked. We do see his mother and her gnome obsession, which I thought was wonderful! She was a great side character. I loved seeing all of the other men, especially Liam and Sam. Liam has some issues that we saw in his book, and he’s finally getting some counseling from Logan. There were some good sex scenes between Logan and Nick, and I loved the caring relationship that developed between them.
What bothered me about this one was the same thing that bothered me about the first book in this series. Insta-love. These two didn’t have to work at this at all. There was no drama between them. At no point was I concerned for them as a couple. It was just way too easy. There was some talk about a serious issue in Logan’s past, but there wasn’t much resolution for that. A mention in the epilogue, but again, it was really easy. There was something that happened with Logan in relation to his recent trauma (trying to avoid spoilers here!) that was so obvious I was just waiting for it to happen. But I wasn’t worried about it when it did happen, and it wasn’t very realistic.
I liked this book just fine, I liked Logan and Nick, and I loved seeing the other guys from past books. I liked the basic story line, the two meeting on the beach, the issues with Logan, the thing that happens that I can’t mention, and the resolution. There was nothing wrong with any of that, other than it was all so easy and there wasn’t really much emotion or passion. Or something. I wasn’t emotionally drawn in to the story, I never questioned Logan and Nick as a couple, literally from the moment they met. I enjoyed it, but I guess I didn’t connect enough with it to love it.
Overall reading it was an enjoyable way to spend an evening. I read Island Doctor first, then went straight in to this one. I liked them both, I’m glad I read them, and I hope we get more! If you have read the other books in this world, you’ll probably like this one. I like these ensemble cast series, where we get stories about specific couple but they all work together. Sue does that well, she has a couple of series like this. These books are a good example of that. And I love that they are set in such a great place. I love the bits of British language and culture she gives us too. I love reading books set in England written by English authors. So much more authentic!
This is a sequel and you’ll need to have read Island Doctor first, and probably the Island of Wight series, that way you’ll know who these guys are.
RATING: 
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