Review: The Invisible Husband of Frick Island

The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Coleen Oakley

on May 2021
Genres: Adult Fiction, Romance
Pages: 368
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
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Sometimes all you need is one person to really see you.

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.

There is something very charming about this story, a story about love and grief and starting again. Let me start off by saying how much I love all the islanders of Frick Island. They really stole the show for me. I love the setting, this small dwindling island of people who know and love each other, so much so that they’re willing to play along with a young widow’s grief that her husband is still alive, and right next to her.

I think the setting and the islanders really set this book above a typical love story. So much was added from the setting and it was really cozy to slip into this story and read about the town and the weather and their very very strong feelings towards journalists (Gasp!) and global warming.

Anders is a journalist who is an outsider, having found the story of Piper and her strange circumstance where she thinks her dead husband is still alive. And what happens when he starts falling for Piper?

The love story was okay, predictable but that wasn’t a bad thing. I guess I didn’t really feel much chemistry between Piper and Anders and I wish Anders had more depth to him. I wanted him to have more of a life outside the island, more backstory. The islanders and Piper were full of life and I felt Anders was a little dull. Piper is an interesting character too. I couldn’t really connect with her or her actions so that took me out of the story a bit.

But I did love the overall tone and message of the book. Don’t judge anyone too harshly without knowing them, take the time to meet people and talk to them, slow down. The writing is good and even though the plot slowed for me a bit in the middle, I was happy to continue on and enjoy the townspeople and Anders trying to muddle his way into belonging.