4.5 stars

This was an absolutely adorable, charming story that left my heart warm and my eyes teary. Yes, I did cry a little at the end. It was so sweet!

This reads like a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory retelling, but in this story, we have an elderly author who is one of the most famous authors ever, who comes out of semi-retirement to write one last book in his Clock Island series. He invites four of his biggest fans to his home, which is Clock Island, off the coast of Maine, to compete in a competition. The winner receives the one and only copy of this final book, and they can do whatever they want with it. Everyone knows it’s worth millions, so they are looking to sell it to the highest bidder. 

I really enjoyed the idea of this story, but the execution was a bit lackluster. I thought the majority of the book would revolve around this game or competition, but it’s actually more like a sidenote. It took until about 40% into the book before anything really happened, and the game started. I wish we had gotten to the competition sooner. Then, it was just very low-risk, non-threatening puzzles, riddles, and games that they played. This definitely is no Hunger Games or Squid Games. Everything is very “G” rated in this book – no violence, no deaths, no gore, no spicy scenes, and very little language. It’s very wholesome, which I appreciated, but I wanted to see bigger, more dramatic, and interesting challenges and games that the contestants played. This was more of an emotional drama than a fantasy or high adventure story. 

The author, Jack, does play the role of Wonka (and I also got the wizard behind the curtain from The Wizard of Oz), and is pretty quirky and odd. He seems like a sweet old man, but there were times when it felt like boundaries were being blurred, and it got a bit old-man creepy. So I had mixed emotions about Jack, but he was harmless and seemed like his heart was in the right place. But some of his backstory is a little unsettling and questionable. 

This is a multiple-POV story, mainly from Lucy, the youngest of the contestants, and Hugo, the Illustrator of the book series, who also lives on the island with Jack. I really liked both characters. Lucy has a sad story, both in the current day and her past, so my heart empathized with her, but I didn’t pity her. She had a rough emotional past, but it seemed to shape her into the person she had become, which was a sweet, kind, and caring woman. Her only focus was on the son she wanted to adopt, Christopher. 

The relationship between Lucy and Christopher is really cute and sweet, but also a bit unsettling because she is a teacher’s aide, and some of their behavior feels like it would go against school rules. They are a little too comfortable with each other during school hours and absolutely crossed boundaries by hugging and kissing each other in public when she technically wasn’t his mother. 

There is also a budding romance between Lucy and Hugo, which is really sweet. I really enjoyed seeing them getting to know each other and then watching them get closer to each other. I wish this romance had been explored more, and there had been a longer time period for more to develop between them. There is also a big age gap, almost 10 years, but I didn’t mind it. I thought they were so cute together and kept rooting for them. 

Overall, this is a really cozy, emotional, warm hug of a book. It does have some problems, but I could overlook those issues and still enjoy this very sweet and whimsical read. It’s also pretty short. I read it just a couple of days ago, since it was such an easy read. 

If you like anything bookish in your stories, likable characters, a competition, and a creative and fun setting, then you’ll probably enjoy this one. Definitely recommend!!