The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley

BoOK 55 OF 2021

RATING: 3/5

I was eager to read Colleen Oakley's latest after I read her book You Were There Too last year. While this book didn't have as much magical realism charm as YWTT, I enjoyed it!

Here's what it's about (from Netgalley): Piper Parrish's life on Frick Island—a tiny, remote town smack in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay—is nearly perfect. Well, aside from one pesky detail: Her darling husband, Tom, is dead. When Tom's crab boat capsized and his body wasn't recovered, Piper, rocked to the core, did a most peculiar thing: carried on as if her husband was not only still alive, but right there beside her, cooking him breakfast, walking him to the docks each morning, meeting him for their standard Friday night dinner date at the One-Eyed Crab. And what were the townspeople to do but go along with their beloved widowed Piper?

Anders Caldwell’s career is not going well. A young ambitious journalist, he’d rather hoped he’d be a national award-winning podcaster by now, rather than writing fluff pieces for a small town newspaper. But when he gets an assignment to travel to the remote Frick Island and cover their boring annual Cake Walk fundraiser, he stumbles upon a much more fascinating tale: an entire town pretending to see and interact with a man who does not actually exist. Determined it’s the career-making story he’s been needing for his podcast, Anders returns to the island to begin covert research and spend more time with the enigmatic Piper—but he has no idea out of all the lives he’s about to upend, it’s his that will change the most.

I liked how we got to learn more about Frick Island and it's quirks through Anders, an outsider like us, someone who is also really quizzical about the happenings of this place. I also love when books have a podcast element, just wished that this one was fleshed out more.

It's hard to pinpoint what I didn't really love about it, while the characters were quirky and enjoyable I just didn't love them. I almost wish there was more mystery and magical realism in the book.

I sound like a broken record, but work has been really busy lately so the fact that this book held my attention says something. I just wanted to know what happened!

It's a really cute, long weekend kind of book.

This book published on May 25, 2021. Thanks so much Berkley and Netgalley for my early copy!