Improbably Yours and friends -- a (very partial) list of atmospheric novels set on fictional Islands
Confession: Vinland Island isn’t real.
Yep. The island where most of Improbably Yours takes place only exists in my imagination — and in the pages of the book, of course! Mind you, the Viking and I took a very serious research trip to explore the San Juan Islands, (where I just sort of plunked Vinland down into an available space) so we could get the atmospheric details right.
And by “very serious research trip” I mean we rented a VRBO on Lummi Island, took ferry rides, ate amazing seafood, walked by the water, and drank wine while watching a small island ferry come and go. It was a grueling and exhausting experience, as I’m sure you can tell, but one of the sacrifices I am willing to make to write a book!
You can read about some other atmospheric novels set on fictional islands here. And you totally should, because I suspect that you, too, might want to read some of them.
I also recommend that you check out The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley, a wonderful book about a community all pretending to interact with a man who has died, for the sake of the grieving widow who carries on as if he is still with her.
Colleen Oakley also very kindly read Improbably Yours and had this to say:
“This book has it all—a quirky island, a hot Viking, even ghosts!—but most of all, it has soul. I was charmed and moved by this lovely story that reminds us sometimes we have to dig up the past to remember who we are in the present. A real gem. ”