Emily Edwards didn’t see it coming. She’d been hiking with her boyfriend, which was not her favorite activity, wearing her new bucket hat, when he stopped to talk to her. He wanted to break up and start seeing a dogwalker. Emily didn’t have anything against dogwalkers, except when they steal her boyfriend. But that wasn’t the worst, nor was the fact that he had told her this in the middle of the hike, leaving them the awkward hike back to the car and then the car ride home to deal with.

The worst part was that he was supposed to go with Emily in a few weeks to Isle Royale, a remote National Park where she was going to spread some of her father’s ashes. Her father had always wanted to go there, and then he had dropped dead in a bookstore before he could make a dent on his bucket list. Emily’s (now ex) boyfriend handed her a list of potential tour guides who could keep her safe on her trip, since she’d already gotten time off from the hospital where she worked and stubbornly refused to postpone it.

Ryder Fleet is going through a difficult time. His older brother Caleb had been outdoorsy, and Ryder tagged along. He did okay, usually, but it was Caleb who had paid attention to the rules. Caleb set up the company, Fleet Outdoor Adventures. Ryder just did the marketing for it. Caleb was the one who actually worked in the field, leading tours, keeping hikers safe, making customers happy. But now Caleb is gone, killed in a freak accident, and the company is shut down. Or, all but the website, where a desperate note from Emily shows up, asking for a guide for her trip to Isle Royale. Ryder needs the money, since his father has decided to sell Caleb’s boar, and he can’t bear the thought of it going to a stranger. So Ryder is heading for Isle Royale with only a couple of weeks notice.

On the ferry to the island, Emily looks around for a man in the green Fleet Outdoor Adventures shirt and doesn’t find one. She asks them to go back to the shore, as she is sure she’s made a horrible mistake, but then a handsome man in the green shirt comes running up to the pier. The boat won’t return to pick him up, so he starts running and makes a giant leap to get on board. Everyone is impressed with his skill, except for one Dr. Emily Edwards, emergency room doctor, who understands just how many ways he could have hurt himself with that move. She’s still wondering if she’s made a mistake, when she meets Dr. Killian Sinclair.

Dr. Sinclair is a Harvard professor and an archeologist, heading to Isle Royale to look over a shipwreck with his mentor. He is wearing a tweed jacket in that hot professor way, and Emily is smitten. She enjoys talking with him about his work, until they make it to the island and Emily’s trip starts in earnest. She heads out with Ryder and quickly finds out that he doesn’t know all that much about reading maps. Hours of hiking doesn’t get them close to the spot they were supposed to stop for the night, but they manage to survive. And going off course means that they witness the argument that Dr. Sinclair has with his mentor, ending with Dr. Sinclair being shoved off a cliff.

Emily runs to help him, and that puts her and Ryder in the sights of a killer who will do anything to leave the island with a valuable diamond that had been discovered in the shipwreck. Suddenly, all that matters is staying alive until they can find help, but since the killer came prepared and Ryder and Emily did not, it will take all their combined intelligence and strength to get off the island alive.

The Jewel of the Isle is an adventure rom com with lots of clever dialogue and genuine danger. Emily and Ryder are both strong characters, well developed and just fun to spend time with. This compelling read from Kerry Rea, the author of Lucy on the Wild Side, offers up lots of fun and good humor as these characters fight with each other, then fight with the elements, then fight with a killer to find their way back home.

I adored this book. While the characters are imperfect and a bit lost to grief, they find compassion and strength in each other to overcome all the odds that seem to be stacked against them. There are lots of clever twists and smart action, and I found myself laughing out loud as I got completely lost in this book. It’s the perfect escape for a winter weekend, just grab some snacks and a pine scented candle, and you’re ready to go.

Egalleys for The Jewel of the Isle were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks.