Oh wow, what a fabulous and amazing read. Loved the dual time-line and I enjoyed the settings. I raced through this one and enjoyed the dynamic between the two sisters. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Story of two sisters Agnes wants better and something more, Ella is scared to leave what she knows.
Through the story you get to see things from both points of view and how they handle the choices they make.
They have to deal with prejudice, different languages, a different type of food and maybe the dream not being all they hoped.
Also the dream of freedom being pitched against expectations of others.
I really liked the descriptions of St Lucia and the historical background is interesting.
Pepsi has written warm believable characters and brought them to life.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher.

I very much enjoyed this work of historical fiction, set partially in St Lucia and partially in London, in the 1950s. I loved the characters, especially Agnes and also Margaret; the accounts of the racial attacks were hard to read. Beautifully written, although the ending felt a bit rushed to me which was a pity.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for this eCopy to review

I just finished 'Island Song,' and honestly, I'm still feeling the emotional weight of it. It's a book that really got under my skin, in the best way possible.

The story centres on Agnes and Ella, two sisters living in St. Lucia in the 1950s. Agnes is the dreamer, longing for a life beyond the island, while Ella is more grounded, rooted in her community. When Agnes gets the chance to move to London, she takes it, hoping for a better future. But that future turns out to be a lot harder than she imagined.

I went with Agnes on that journey, feeling the initial excitement of leaving the lush warmth of St. Lucia, and then the crushing disappointment of arriving in a cold, grey London where she's met with prejudice and isolation. The descriptions of the stark contrast between the two worlds were so vivid; I could practically feel the sun on my skin in St. Lucia and then the biting chill of a London winter.

Ella, meanwhile, stays behind and faces her own challenges, which are just as compelling. I was really drawn to the way Demacque-Crockett explored the different paths the sisters take and how their choices impact their lives and the lives of those around them. The story doesn't shy away from the harsh realities of the Windrush era. I felt Agnes's frustration and heartbreak as she encountered racism and struggled to find her place. And I really felt for the other people from the Caribbean that were also shown trying to make a life in England.

What really struck me was how the author wove in the themes of family, belonging, and the search for identity. It's a story about the sacrifices people make for a better life and the enduring power of love and resilience. I felt like I was right there with Agnes and Ella, experiencing their joys and sorrows.

The writing is beautiful and evocative, and the characters felt so real. I found myself completely invested in their lives. 'Island Song' is more than just a story; it's a window into a significant period in history, and it's a powerful reminder of the human cost of migration. I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a moving and thought-provoking read.

This is an evocative tale of two sisters - one who longs to escape her life on St Lucia and one who wants to stay. Agnes makes the journey to London, finding no streets paved with gold and prejudice against her and her Caribbean friends widespread. Meanwhile Ellen remains on the island, caring for Agnes's two children and despite her own lack of confidence survives her own battles of love and longing for hope in the future.
The parts in London were fully atmospheric and gave a feel for that time of just post war/Empire still evoked in the visit of the Queen Mother to the Lyons Corner Tea House where Agnes works.
The characters grew with our hopes for happiness despite the warnings regarding Raphael! Culture and family were major themes and linked both St Lucia and England on many occasions. I liked the overarching link of Lilian Chester from the island and as friend and supporter in genuine kindness to Agnes.
There are many tales to be told of immigration. This one sings of honesty.

This novel looks at the desire of the Windrush generation to come to Britain to build a new life. It is honest about the appalling lack of welcome from much of society. There are issues touched upon which could have been explored further (e.g. Raph’s lack of control around alcohol) it was a very readable book, but I feel that Andrea Levy did it better with Small Island.

Island Song is an evocative and heartfelt story about two sisters, Agnes and Ella, born on St Lucia. The sisters are close but different in personality and outlook, and whilst facing the same struggles and tragedy, they want different things in their lives. Agnes is part of the Windrush generation, whilst Ella stays within the St Lucian island community. Getting into this story took me a while, but the evocative characters and settings drew me in. The experiences of Agnes in England are poignant, but she is driven and determined to succeed in her new life despite missing her family and facing racism. I like the believable characters, the heartfelt emotion that defines the story, and the vivid historical details that bring St Lucia and England to vibrant life.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

I loved the warmth, heart and voices in this story.
Agnes and Ella are sisters with very different goals in their lives, Ella loves their island home while Agnes longs to escape.
The story highlights the difficulties faced by people when a decision is made to leave their familes, not just by the people leaving but by those who stay behind. Island Song does not shy away from the truth of the discrimination that Agnes and her friends encountered, but also shows that there were genuinely kind and friendly people as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Island Song.

A wonderful book based on stories of friends and family who came from St Lucia to England in 1950’s and 60’s. Heartbreaking at times but a true fully told story. Thanks to Pepsi and her publisher.

I expected a historical romance when I chose this book, but it wasn't really what I got. Ostensibly, the book is about two sisters growing up on St Lucia. They don;t have very much and seem to work hard to just about make ends meet; it is clear that they have suffered some tragedy in their lives. Their two characters are quite different and Agnes is the bolder sister who is impulsive and a dreamer. This leads her to long for a different life and eventually she saves hard and leaves St Lucia behind as she moves to England to prosper as part of the Windrush generation.

I found Agnes to be quite self-centered. She leaves behind two children for her sister to raise while she searches for a better future. Her arrival in England is harder than she thought and I found the treatment of these invited immigrants quite shocking at times. I was aware that not everyone in the UK had welcomed those from the Caribbean with open arms, but this book is brutal in places at how discriminatory the behaviour was at times. I am saddened to thing that some 60 years on from this book being set, we have not really moved too far away from some of the thuggish behaviour that is described.

Agnes continues to be a hard worker and strives for a better life - and not everyone treats her harshly because of the colour of her skin,, so she manages to find a way to thrive and grow. Her questionable choice in men leaves her pregnant again and in a relationship which seems ill-fated, but I liked the character development which showed flaws and lessons being learned to allow Agnes some security in her new life.

The book mainly felt like a story about Agnes, but the final section flicks back to long-suffering Ella, who has been raising the children in St Lucia. Just as Agnes starts to find contentment and security in her new life and is ready to welcome her two children to join her in England, Ella begins to realise that her own fortunes must change and she returns to college to retrain as a teacher.

I enjoyed the contrast between two vastly different lifestyles and I thought the character development was compelling, but I was left feeling cheated at the end. This is a novel which ends with hope and the promise of a better future. Might there be a sequel to update the story?

Such a beautifully written book. I love how we had two sisters as our characters. And how different the two were. We got a very different life story and wishes from both sides.
I've never read anything from the Islands so it was a real great insight.
I felt for both these sisters at each step. And they still have the love and bonds which make it sometimes easier and sometimes not!

Ella and Agnes have mapped out very different dreams. Agnes wants to go see the world. She works her days for it. Ella just loves where she is. And she wants to just be here.home.
When her housekeeping job lands her the opportunity to go to England Agnes jumps at it. To do sonshe must leave what and those she loves. Particularly her sister and two children.
Arriv9ng in London is sadly not dream comes true. We all no the state of our society right now. I cannot imagine being face with that everyday. How it must threaten to break you soul. So to read about it for poor Agnes felt really awful.
Back home Ella has her own difficult time. But is determined as ever to kook after.the children.
This was a great read. I enjoyed it throughout.

Agnes Deterville and her older sister Ella lived a peaceful life on the small Caribbean island of St Lucia, along with Agnes' two children. Agnes had itchy feet, determined to one day leave the island, once she had saved enough money, and head to London. While Ella never wanted to leave her home. They were like chalk and cheese, and when Agnes got a housekeeping job with a white couple from England, she was ecstatic, being able to put more and more pennies away. When she'd saved enough, Agnes departed on a ship to England - an eight week journey to 1950s London. But things weren't as easy as she had thought they would be. Finding somewhere to live was paramount; living in an apartment with many others, as she did for a short time, saw Agnes eventually residing with new friends who she would cook for. It was a start.

Agnes missed her children and her sister desperately. But what she was doing was for their benefit. Sending money and gifts home when she could was good, but she still missed them. The island song was still in her heart, as it was in Ella's. But was it enough for the sisters?

Island Song is the debut novel by Pepsi Demacque-Crockett and unfortunately I had trouble getting into it. I didn't feel any connection to the characters and although I enjoyed the storyline, I think for me it was the way it was written that disagreed with me. Sad and disappointing, as I was looking forward to it, but there you have it.

With thanks to NetGalley & HarperCollins UK for my digital ARC to read and review.

Island Song by Pepsi Demacque-Crockett is a realistic and emotional historical drama that shows the struggles of people who do not fit in the mainstream English bracket of 1950ties.
There was so much happening at the same time felt like nothing was happening. I think my problem was that I was constantly expecting something, don't know what. I think I was expecting more emotions.
As a person who came to England to build a life from scratch, I could relate to Agnes so much. Fortunately for me, I was treated much better as we live in a more developed society. At the same time, I still get comments about me being foreign here (actually it happened today, a person refused to talk to me saying "Is there anyone who speaks English") but nothing in the level Agnes went through.

Agnes comes from Saint Lucia, an island country in the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. She comes to England for better life leaving her children and sister Ella behind. She sends them money and hopes this support is enough but sometimes so much more is happening...

Ella is so different. She as the eldest sister is happy to stay on the island and happy to dedicate her life to Agnes's children. She has her own heartbreaks but she feels so down to the Earth!

This is a really good book, well written, researched and easy to read. If you are a fan of historical novels, this will easily be your next 5-star book!

Agnes Deterville and her sister Ella live on St Lucia with Agnes's two children. Agnes is desperate to travel to England and starts working for an English couple. The lady tells her all about England and when the couple return they give Agnes a lot of money which with her savings allows her to go, leaving her children with her sister but assuring them she will return.
However life in London is difficult and she struggles to be accepted. She starts work in a Lyons Corner House and then meets a man from her village. Soon he is living with her and a baby is on the way and life in St Lucia seems far away. Can she bring her other children to her? Will she ever see her sister again?

This is the story of sisters Ella and Agnes from St Lucia. Agnes is the more confident and adventurous of the two, while Ella is a home-body. Agnes longs to escape from the confines of island life and plans to travel to England as soon as she can afford the ticket, even though this will mean leaving her 2 children behind in the care of Ella.

However, when Ella achieves this first milestone it is to discover, like many other immigrants at the time, that England is not a land of milk and honey. This is the story of her struggle to survive and to support her family back in St Lucia.

This is a beautifully written tale which can be enjoyed by anyone. Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A story of two sisters living in St Lucia, work is not easy to find, but Agnes find work with English family and learns more and more about England,
it seems as if the streets are lined in gold. She feels she has to go make some money then return to her family to help them. But London is not what
she thought, racism is rife. She finds work and is able yo send money home. But then she meets another immigrant and falls in love, where will her home be now?

Pepsi Demacque-Crockett has had a successful career in music as a backing singer for Wham! and then as a member of the duo Pepsi and Shirlie. Although she was born in London, her parents came to England from St Lucia in the Caribbean, and this forms the inspiration for Island Song, her debut novel.

Island Song is set in the 1950s. Agnes Deterville and her sister, Ella, who live in the village of Canaries on the island of St Lucia, are two very different people. As the quiet, cautious older sister, Ella can’t imagine leaving her island home and knows that she’ll never want to live anywhere else. Agnes is bolder and more adventurous, ready to follow her dreams and seize new opportunities. Working as a housekeeper for an English family, the Chesters, Agnes is captivated by Mrs Chester’s descriptions of her home country and longs to see it for herself. Hearing that people from the Caribbean have been invited to help rebuild post-war Britain, she decides to use her savings to travel to London.

Agnes has two young children from a failed relationship, whom she leaves behind with Ella, and her intention is to return to St Lucia as soon as she’s made enough money to improve the lives of the whole family. However, everything changes when, soon after arriving in England, she falls in love with another new immigrant, Raphael. Agnes and Raphael come from the same village and she knows him by his bad reputation, but meeting him again in London he seems to be a different person and assures her that he has changed. Agnes wants to believe him, but how can she know he’s telling the truth?

Island Song is a fascinating exploration of the experiences of immigrants and the way in which people often build up an image of something in their mind that isn’t matched by reality. Having listened to Mrs Chester’s idyllic tales of her life in Dorset, Agnes expects something similar when she arrives in London and is shocked to find that this isn’t the case. Rather than sipping tea in elegant drawing rooms, she’s working in a kitchen making tea for other people, while being bullied by a racist colleague. Similarly, Raphael comes to London hoping to make a fortune, but instead spends several months unemployed before eventually finding a lowly job painting walls for a construction company. They – like the rest of the Caribbean community – face prejudice, discrimination and even violence, but also make new friends amongst both immigrants and white British people who give them the confidence that not everyone in their new country wants them to leave.

Agnes is a strong character and I did like her, but I found Raphael more interesting because he goes through more growth and development throughout the novel. He has a drinking problem and is easily influenced by his friends, but he also has a kind heart and does genuinely seem to want to change and be a good partner to Agnes. I really wanted them to find happiness, both in their relationship and in their working lives. Ella is another character who grows as a person as the book progresses. Although most of the focus is on the characters who have left the island, we do catch up with Ella now and then and see how she’s gradually able to move on from some bad experiences in her past and gain the confidence to take control of her own life.

Demacque-Crockett writes beautifully about St Lucia – I don’t think I’ve ever read a book set there before – and her love for her own heritage shines through in the London sections of the novel as well. The English spoken by her St Lucian characters is peppered with Kwéyòl, a French-based Creole language, and we see the immigrants trying to adapt to British culture while at the same time trying to retain parts of their own culture, such as their favourite foods and music. I really enjoyed this book and I hope Demacque-Crockett will write another one!

Island Song is the story of two sisters, Ella and Agnes, living on the island of St Lucia. Agnes is desperate to lave and move to England to provide for her family. Ella is the opposite, comfortable with her life in St Lucia. Agnes finally raises money to board the ship, leaving her children with Ella. The story portrays the reality of the immigration programme - racism, poverty and the harsh difference in the weather.

The story is based on the author's family history, and is well researched and moving. It is well written and easy to read, and I loved the difference between the two sisters, who both had their own issues to face. I look forward to reading more by the author.

Knowing a little about St Lucia, I found that the writer has mastered both local island life and the movement of persons to England, the drastic change of weather and how black persons were received in England in the late 1950s, both the good and the bad. I found the relationship between the housekeeper and the rich UK persons quite odd, as it wasn’t all lord and master and low paid workers and this helped add to the story with a few tumbles and redirections along the way. This is an excellent read, but I wonder if there can be any more as a series; I hope so. This is a real life story around several individuals and their issues during those times. They are so well told, the writer must have some close insight into the island and it’s people. It must have been awful leaving your children on one island while moving to another to earn enough money to bring them over later. While I guess that many of us know something about the Windrush era, this novel brings home the reality of life then, in both the Caribbean and England. I recommend this as a very good family story read.

Pepsi Demacque-Crockett’s Island Song is a beautifully crafted debut that transports readers from the vibrant, sunlit shores of St. Lucia to the cold, bustling streets of post-war London. Inspired by the experiences of the author’s own family, this historical novel offers a poignant exploration of identity, resilience, and the enduring power of dreams amidst the challenges of immigration.

The story centers on two sisters, Ella and Agnes, whose diverging paths embody the complexities of love, family, and sacrifice. Ella, the cautious and nurturing older sister, remains in St. Lucia, tethered to the land and her family’s legacy. In contrast, Agnes, bold and determined, dreams of a better future in England. Her journey is a deeply personal one, yet emblematic of the broader Windrush generation’s trials as they sought new opportunities while confronting racism, isolation, and the harsh realities of life in a foreign land.

Demacque-Crockett’s vivid descriptions bring both settings to life, capturing the warmth and vibrancy of Caribbean life alongside the starkness and hostility of 1950s England. The contrast between these worlds is striking, serving to highlight the sacrifices and fortitude of those who left everything behind in search of a better life. The strength of community, whether in the shared struggles of London immigrants or the enduring ties of family back home, is a central theme that resonates throughout the novel.

The characters are richly developed and deeply human. Agnes’s determination to overcome adversity is inspiring, while Ella’s quiet courage and devotion offer a touching counterpoint. Supporting characters like Raphael, Margaret, and Vitalis add depth and nuance, showing the complexity of relationships forged under pressure and the weight of shared struggles.

While the pacing occasionally falters and the ending feels somewhat abrupt, these minor flaws do little to detract from the emotional impact and historical significance of the story. Island Song is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and a heartfelt tribute to the Windrush generation’s enduring legacy.

This is more than a historical novel; it’s a deeply personal and evocative story that lingers long after the final page. For readers who appreciate character-driven narratives, rich cultural landscapes, and thought-provoking explorations of identity and belonging, Island Song is a must-read.

Thanks to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this remarkable debut.