Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Only One Island
AUTHOR: R. Cayden
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 277 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 17, 2025
BLURB:
Castaway with his boss’s son.
Hank
I’ve attended some dreadful company parties, but getting lost at sea marks a new low for a work event.
My only companion on this life raft is Elliot. He’s ten years younger than me, wildly chaotic, and mostly responsible for getting us in this mess.
The fact that he’s also my new boss’s son is just a cherry on top of this terrifying, near-death sundae.
We crash on a small island, stranded somewhere off the coast of Seattle.
Elliot and I are exhausted, battered, and hungry. We lost half our clothes in the desperate swim to shore, and there are more storms on the horizon.
But we made it, and surely, we’ll be rescued soon.
If only we can agree on a survival strategy.
I’m an amateur naturalist and detail-oriented person, while Elliot is… creative.
Maybe it’s a survival instinct, but as the nights pass, Elliot and I find comfort in each other’s arms.
He becomes everything to me, my other half.
Until we get rescued, that is, and the real world comes to pull us apart.
Only One Island is a 70K M/M romance, loaded with heat and geeky fun. Our opposites-attract heroes danger-bang their way to survival and a well-earned HEA, with plentiful nature facts and constant disasters along the way. Enjoy!
REVIEW:
Hank and Elliot don’t know each other. Hank is at a Casino night cruise business outing on Puget Sound with his firm. Elliot’s dad is Hank’s boss. Hank has just gotten a big promotion. When his boss finds him in a restricted area on the ship, he asks Hank to look for his son who has gone missing. He finds Elliot in a life raft and it seems he can’t get back up on the deck. Hank attempts to help him and they both end up in the lift raft in the sea with the ship sailing away.
The sea is choppy and thy are barely staying afloat. No one can hear or see them. There are no flares and no supplies. Then the storm comes. Neither one of them is sure they will survive. But in the morning, the sea has calmed and they are floating towards an island. Maybe they will survive after all. The manage to make it to the island, but they’ve lost their shoes and socks and phones etc. But luckily for them, Hank is an amateur naturalist. He hikes and camps and knows a LOT about what’s edible, what’s not edible how to start fires, etc. That’s good because Elliot hasn’t a clue. They need to let someone know they are there and so they begin to work on a signal fire. But the weather is terrible. Every time they are about to light the signal fires, the rain starts again.
After several near misses with potentially fatal encounters, they are working together pretty well. They have found some food, are eating seaweed and clams and fiddlehead ferns, etc. But they haven’t been rescued. And then they are found.
When they get back to civilization all is not well. Elliot’s father is furious. He’s barely happy his son has survived and he’s way more concerned about his firm’s PR. UGH! He tells Hank and Elliot to stay out of the press and away from each other. Easier said than done when now they have come to rely on each other. And maybe have fallen for each other too 😉 How good are they at hiding their relationship? We’ll have to find out.
I really enjoyed this story. I found both characters endearing. They were certainly polar opposites. But when Hank needed cheering up, Elliot was there to provide either comic relief or some bright side. Yes, he did manage to screw things up several times. Hank is the only one though that seemed to see beneath his sort of wild first impression of someone who clearly didn’t think things through. Even though that was true to some degree, it wasn’t because he was trying to make trouble or screw things up. He has never had any support except for his found family of friends which is something Hank does NOT appreciate. Having Elliot’s father as his boss is certainly no joy for him and he tires of hearing and then seeing how Elliot’s family treats him. He has no frame of reference, because he and his parents and his twin are all so close. When he eventually feels like he has to defend Elliot, well his boss isn’t thrilled, but he needs Hank – so he doesn’t immediately fire him. It’s clear that Hank and Elliot need to make a clean break with Elliot’s family’s control and start living their own lives.
I really enjoyed the secondary characters – particularly Hank’s twin sister and Elliot’s friends. They were so supportive and also fun! Hank’s parents were also very much in favor of their son’s relationship and more importantly his happiness. Elliot’s family sort of redeemed themselves a bit at the end, but I’m skeptical that they would ever be super close. I also liked that Hank made decisions around his happiness and persona fulfillment rather than follow the “ladder” that wasn’t making him happy. In the end, the HEA was sweet and a little bit unexpected!
RATING: 
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