The Love Island Bookshop

by Kate Frost

  ~

  The Baobab Beach Retreat

  An ex-husband, two potential lovers, one reckless decision. Will Connie ever be happy in love?

  ~

  A Starlit Summer

  A Hollywood star, a handsome surfer, a taste of fame. Will Jenna’s Cornish summer be one to remember?

  ~

  The Greek Heart

  A broken heart, an island escape, a boy from the past. Will Lottie’s search lead to love?

  ~

  The Amsterdam Affair

  A new start, a chance encounter, a Christmas to remember. Will Iris’s new year be happy ever after?

  ~

  Other Books by Kate Frost

  ~

  The Butterfly Storm

  Set in sunny Greece and on the wild beauty of the north Norfolk coast, The Butterfly Storm is an uplifting story about family, forgiveness, expectations, moving on, and love.

  ~

  Beneath the Apple Blossom

  Four women. One affair. Four lives entwined.

  A moving and emotional story of infertility, pregnancy, love, loss and hope.

  ~

  Time Shifters: Into the Past

  The first award-winning book in the Time Shifters trilogy, an exciting time travel adventure story for 9-12 year olds.

  ~

  Visit www.kate-frost.co.uk to find out more about me and my novels or to download your free book.

  Acknowledgements

  I started writing The Love Island Bookshop in the middle of the pandemic, during a year where no one could travel or see anyone. On top of that, and before I’d finished writing it, my lovely dad passed away at the very end of 2020 after living so bravely with Motor Neurone Disease for four and a half years. A year that was so incredibly difficult for everyone proved to be a heart-breaking one for my family. The themes of loneliness and loss weave their way through The Love Island Bookshop and were no doubt fed in because of everything that happened during 2020. However, it’s a book filled with hope, adventure, new starts and friendships, finding love and a place to call home. I hope you found it to be an uplifting read that provided a virtual escape to the beautiful Maldives. It certainly provided escapism for me while writing it.

  Loabi Fushi – the love island – is fictional yet it’s not unlike many of the luxury resort islands that can be found throughout the Maldives. I had a huge amount of fun imagining a dream island for the story and found inspiration through trawling jaw-dropping websites of idyllic islands. There really is a barefoot bookseller too on Soneva Fushi with a second pop-up bookshop recently opened on Soneva Jani. The love island bookshop in my novel is fictional and so are the characters and what they get up to, but inspiration was taken from the magical idea of a real-life tropical bookshop.

  Makumathi, the island where Freya first meets Zander is also fictional, although it is based on Makunudu, a small but beautiful island a short speedboat ride from Malé that I was lucky enough to stay on for a week a few years ago.

  I couldn’t have published the book without a team of brilliant people helping to make it shine – my wonderful friend and beta reader Judith van Dijkhuizen who does an amazing job copy editing and helping to make the novel so much better with her suggestions. Huge thanks to my editor Helen Baggott for giving the book its final polish and for always catching the things I’d missed. I love the cover Jessica Bell designed, it captures the feel of the story and the location brilliantly – a true romantic escape.

  As always, my biggest thanks go to my family for their incredible love and support. And finally, thank you to you, my readers, for embracing this series of Romantic Escape novels and for making it such a success. There will be more.