The Invisible Husband of Long Frick Island

Welcome back, my friends! It has been another hectic month over in my real life, but I am here and ready. This month, I decided to review the novel that came second in my book poll a few months back. Plus, I’ve really been wanting to read this book, so this gave me an excuse to finally get to it. So, this month I am reviewing The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley. To accompany today’s review I made another classic cocktail, a Long Island Iced Tea.

Long Island Iced Tea Recipe

1/2oz Vodka

1/2oz White Rum

1/2oz Tequila

1/2oz Gin

1/2oz Triple Sec

1/2oz Simple Syrup

1/2oz Lemon Juice

2oz Coke

1oz Water*

Lemon Wedge

*This is an optional ingredient.

In a cocktail shaker with ice, add all liquor, simple syrup, and lemon juice, and shake for around 10 seconds. Transfer into a tall highball glass, then add coke and water. Garnish with a lemon wedge and enjoy!

For a classic cocktail, a long island is really just a shit mix (sorry for my language Grammie, but it’s true). I honestly don’t love long islands as I’m typically not looking to die, but alas it worked perfectly for this novel. This month’s special ingredient is not very exciting, just regular water. But, this is for two reasons. One being the obvious that the bulk of the story takes places on an island. And the second is because Tom, and many of the other people who live on the island, are watermen. I know it’s not my best work, but oh well. The water obviously doesn’t change the taste of the cocktail very much, but it does water down the alcohol a little bit, which is always nice!

The Invisible Husband of Frick Island Synopsis

(from book cover)

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.

Review

“May we all be loved and love each other so insanely. May we all be so human.”

This one is going to be short and sweet folks, so buckle up. I really enjoyed The Invisible Husband of Frick Island. I honestly don’t have many negative comments to say about this one. It wasn’t perfect, but it was exactly what I wanted it to be—lighthearted (mostly), cute, and Hallmark-y. Honestly, the worst part for me was that the dead husband’s name was Tom! And this Tom was just as kind and amazing as my Tom, so that hit a little too close to home, but that’s not a real complaint. Anyway, let’s move on to the real stuff.

I really liked the writing style of this novel. Was it groundbreaking writing? No. But it’s a romcom, so I didn’t expect that. However, I was actually pleasantly surprised with how well written this story was. It was smart, descriptive, and matched the tone of the novel well. I found that due largely to the writing style, this novel was much more than the romcom I anticipated. There was mystery, intrigue, drama, and, of course, a lot of heart. If anything, I think it could’ve had a bit more comedy and a bit less drama, but the balance worked pretty well for the themes of the story.

My biggest complaint with the novel is that it was pretty slow to start. It takes a really long time for the main character to even get to Frick Island. So, unfortunately, it takes awhile for the action to start. However, this complaint lessened when I actually didn’t predict the ending of the story! So even though it took awhile to get interesting the story propelled nicely after that and left me surprised, which is more than I can say for some books.

The biggest complaint I’ve seen from people online about The Invisible Husband of Frick Island is that the exploitative nature of the story bothered them, specifically the podcast element. And I can definitely see where people are coming from with this. But, I also felt that this issue was addressed extensively in the novel. So, while I can understand feeling uncomfy with the exploitation, I also think that the author didn’t pretend this wasn’t an issue and dealt with it appropriately.

I don’t have very much to say about the characters other than I thought they were almost all adorable, unique, and exactly like what you’d expect people who live on a secluded island in Maryland to be like. Piper is so relatable to me because of her love for Tom, but obviously I’m bias because that’s my husband’s name too. I did also think she and the story itself felt relatable in a more general sense, specifically the themes of grieving/loss, love, and hope. These ideas were also at the centre of the podcast within the novel, which explores how we’re all just humans doing our best with what we’ve been given. And I just think that’s exactly the sweet, heartwarming kind of story we need sometimes.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! If you go in with the expectation of a Hallmark romcom I think you’ll enjoy it too. But, if you go in expecting life-changing literary genius then you’re missing the whole point of these kinds of stories—to pretend that everything always works out how it’s supposed to and that there’s hope, happiness, and kindness still in the world. So for me, who’s been having a bit of a rough go the last couple months, The Invisible Husband of Frick Island was exactly what I needed to read to be reminded that even if everything is going downhill there’s always hope. So, if you want a quirky, largely lighthearted, hopeful read then I definitely recommend this one. And if you’re looking to get drunk fast then I also definitely recommend the long island iced tea.

Teghann

P.S. to my family members because I know my mom will start panicking… all is fine and my life is not going downhill it’s just been a stressful few months!

My Rating:

Thanks for reading! And, if you read the book or try the cocktail let me know in a comment or on Instagram. Also, if you haven’t yet read my previous reviews, I recommend reading The Seven and Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, The House in the Deep Cerulean Sea, and Acts of Violet Lady if you liked this one!

Teghann

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