🌞 Summer Read ~ River of Stars by Georgina Moore

HQ
3 July 2025

Thanks to the publisher for the invitation to read this book

Jo hasn’t seen Oliver since that magical, life-changing summer when their idyllic island paradise was shattered. Growing up on Walnut Tree Island, they were everything to each other, defying a feud that fractured their families decades before. If first love runs deep, Jo and Oliver’s ran like the river itself, fast and true.

On Walnut Tree Island, love affairs and secrets come and go like the tides. Once the pulse of a flourishing 1960s music scene, it’s where Mary Star fell in love with a young musician about to hit the big time, only to be left with a baby and a broken heart. Mary has made the island a haven for two generations of Star women, raising her daughter and her granddaughter, surrounded by the river, supported by a bohemian, artistic community.

But Oliver’s return to the island after years away throws everyone into a frenzy. The threat of change is coming to paradise. And for Jo, Oliver’s return opens the wounds of a love she thought she had lost for ever…

📖 My Review..

There’s a thriving group of artisans who live in houseboats on the River Thames side by side with Walnut Tree Island. Their living arrangements help to form a tight knit community who guard the place with fierce determination, reluctant for any change to spoil the ambiance of a place locked in time. 

Back in the 1960s Walnut Tree Island was home to a thriving music scene and sixteen year old Mary Star was very much part of this world however, when we meet her, in  the present day, she is old lady with her only her memories of times gone by and a fierce protective instinct towards her fiery granddaughter, Jo. Inevitably, with a new landlord, change must come to the island and for Mary and Jo Star old memories will be stirred and emotions, long buried, will have to be faced.

The novel is slow and steady, exploring the tangled relationships between the boat dwellers, the minutiae of their lives and their desire to keep Walnut Island safe from any changes which might destroy their bohemian way of life. The island, is beautifully described and is so much a character in its own right, that the whole place comes alive, from its heyday in the 1960s, to its rundown modern day appearance. However, as we move forwards and backwards in time so we come to realise the importance of this beautiful place not just to Mary, Jo and the boat dwellers but also to Oliver Greenwood, the new landlord, who has his own emotional connection to Walnut Tree Island. 

With its quirky characters and beautiful setting, River of Stars captured my imagination in a lovely story about love, loss and the value of friendship. 

About the Author

Georgina Moore grew up in London and lives on a houseboat on the River Thames with her partner, two children and Bomber, the Border Terrier.

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