A schoolteacher and a businessman are thrown together by circumstances, and with the help of a magically beautiful island and a precocious boy, learn to fall in love. When Polly decides to quit her job as a history teacher at St. Jude's College, an expensive boys-only private school in Yorkshire, to her dismay her favorite young student Henry loses his father in the line of duty. Henry is only thirteen and a great kid, so Polly feels protective and maternal towards him. The school is informed that Henry's new legal guardian, his uncle Gregory, wants the boy pulled out of school for the rest of term and brought to the family home on a remote island in Scotland. Polly takes Henry to his uncle, resolving to try and change her career afterwards and do something else.
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When they get there, however, Polly is surprised at how handsome, energetic, masculine and compelling Gregory is, and that he's only ten years older than her. The family are landed gentry but were impoverished until Gregory started his own company and became extremely successful.
However, storms in the North Sea render any travel off the island impossible, unless Polly wants to die, so she stays on the island reluctantly until it is safe again, only after Gregory insists. For the majority of the time their interactions revolve around caring for Henry and handling his emotions about his father's death and his new life. Polly is touched by what a conscientious guardian Gregory is, but he's also clueless about many aspects of parenting, so Polly takes it upon herself to teach him. They clash over this. They are also attracted to each other, and Gregory finds excuses to get Polly away from Henry and take her on nature walks with him, partly to spend time with her and partly to share his interests with her. However Polly begins to fall in love with him, but is unsure of his feelings regarding her even though he flirts with her a lot and they've share passionate moments. Polly now wants Gregory to ask her to stay for his sake, not Henry's sake. Gregory also seems to only want Polly on the island to look after Henry until the storms pass - but when the weather is clear again, he orders her to stay on and help him, even suggesting that she can be Henry's governess. This isn't good enough for Polly, she wants him to love her, so she packs up to leave. When she gets to the tiny airport on the island though, she finds Henry and Gregory there waiting for her. Henry convinced Gregory to speak his heart because he saw what was going on and he knows they are in love, and he also wants to have a family again. Polly agrees to marry Gregory, and in the last pages of the book they consummate their romance and talk about the future.
Best part of story, including ending:
I liked that both of them were pretty nice people, not too much artificial bickering.
Best scene in story:
very witty, funny exchanges all throughout the book, but one scene that stood out to me was when Gregory is inspecting an ant hill and Polly says that there are so many more exciting things she could be doing instead, like watching paint dry. There are lots of light-hearted moments in this book.
Opinion about the main character:
I liked that he was a nerdy wildlife enthusiast.
