Book Details:
Author: Lila Naimark
Release Date: 2 October 2025
Series: Book 1 of 10: Gem of the Golden Isles
Genre: Women’s Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Suspense
Format: E-book
Pages: 294 pages
Publisher: Beach House Publishing
Blurb:
SOMETIMES THE ROAD HOME IS THE BEGINNING OF YOUR GREATEST ADVENTURE.
After heartbreak shatters the life she thought she wanted, wedding planner Tally Davis returns to beautiful Jekyll Island determined to start over.
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Launching a destination wedding business on one of Georgia’s most picturesque barrier islands should be the opportunity of a lifetime. Instead, every wedding brings new surprises, every celebration uncovers another secret, and every day draws Tally deeper into the lives of the island’s unforgettable residents.
As friendships grow, romance blossoms, and mysteries begin to surface, Tally discovers that paradise has its own complications—and that healing often begins where you least expect it.
Set against the stunning backdrop of Georgia’s Golden Isles, Escape to Jekyll Island combines destination weddings, Southern charm, heartfelt relationships, and page- turning mystery in the unforgettable first installment of the Gem of the Golden Isles series.
If you love immersive coastal settings, memorable characters, and stories that balance romance with intrigue, you’ll want to Escape to Jekyll Island.
“Delightful summer read!”
– Iona Whishaw, best-selling author of the Lane Winslow mystery series.
Review
Escape to Jekyll Island by Sandy Malone is a contemporary women’s fiction novel with romantic and small-town elements that follows wedding planner Tallulah “Tally” Davis as she attempts to rebuild her life after Hurricane Maria destroys her home and career on Vieques. Returning to the Jekyll Island beach house where she was raised by her formidable great-aunt Etah, Tally arrives with few possessions, no job and a relationship that has effectively ended. What begins as a necessary retreat gradually becomes an opportunity to create something of her own: a destination-wedding company rooted in the Georgia island she has always considered home.
The novel’s greatest strength is Malone’s intimate knowledge of the wedding industry. The negotiations, vendor relationships, schedules, temperamental clients, flower emergencies and relentless contingency planning possess the specificity of experience. Tally’s first major Jekyll wedding becomes one of the book’s most entertaining sections because its tension emerges from practical details: a seemingly minor failure can unravel months of work, while the planner must remain composed enough that the bride never realises how close disaster came. This professional dimension gives Tally genuine competence and makes her recovery satisfying; she is rebuilding more than a business, restoring the confidence and independence that the hurricane temporarily stripped away.
Jekyll Island itself is rendered with considerable affection. Its marshes, beaches, historic buildings, golf carts, close-knit residents and extraordinarily efficient “coconut grapevine” create the warmth of a community where privacy is scarce but assistance is rarely far away. Tally’s relationships with Aunt Etah and her former mentor, Isabelle, are particularly enjoyable, offering two different models of capable, independent womanhood. Her renewed connection with childhood friend Mitch Durham develops with an appealing sense of familiarity, and the contrast between his steadiness and Tally’s exuberant energy makes them easy to support. The novel also understands that returning home does not have to represent failure; for Tally, it allows experience gathered elsewhere to become the foundation of a more self-directed future.
The narrative occasionally becomes more expansive than its central arc requires. Lengthy explanations of island infrastructure, local history and wedding logistics sometimes repeat information or interrupt scenes whose emotional momentum is already working well. A more selective use of these details would sharpen the pacing and give Tally and Mitch’s relationship greater room to develop on the page. The later conflict also moves towards a heightened, almost farcical form of sabotage that feels somewhat different from the professional and emotional challenges preceding it. Additionally, a few broad observations about Puerto Rican people and working culture risk sounding reductive; allowing more varied local perspectives would add nuance to the otherwise compelling contrast between Vieques and Jekyll.
Despite these reservations, Escape to Jekyll Island is an engaging story about professional reinvention, female mentorship, friendship and discovering that an escape can also be a homecoming. Malone writes wedding chaos with humour and authority, while Tally’s optimism keeps the novel buoyant even when she is confronting considerable loss. Readers who enjoy resilient heroines, island settings, behind-the-scenes glimpses of unusual professions and romances built upon longstanding friendship should find this an enjoyable beginning to the Gem of the Golden Isles series.
The Reading Bud 
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