3,5/5 for the audiobook version. Which is why I rounded up to 4.
I enjoyed it, but it didn't blow me away. I found myself frustrated with the pacing in some parts, which I know I sometimes have with books written in this "classic" style.

If I hadn't listened to the beautiful narration of Katie McGrath I don't think I would have finished the book, even though I liked it. I never really felt compelled to pick it up after putting it down for the day.

boring

Written in a classical romance novel style of the 19th century but with exciting queer twists. Original and unexpected. Audiobook was narrated by Katie McGrath and was really engaging to listen to. Very gripping.

Only a master story teller and writer of exceptional ability could hold and juggle so many different types of characters, somehow making it all come together in a satisfactory and meaningful way. Every character is carefully crafted and developed - none are the same at the end as they were in the opening chapters. They are all integral to the story as individuals, and in their interactions with each other. And the setting - the world in 1865 - the gentrified town of Bath, the glamour, luxury and hedonism of Paris, the extreme poverty and despair of Dublin, the tropical lushness, lurking dangers, humidity and heat of Borneo. Through it all weaves the manners, mores and expectations of the times, dictating how men and women behave to each other, where their place is in society and the pecking order. But all the characters are fighting against the expectations of the times, in many different ways..

Clorinda Morrissey has escaped the life set down for her in Ireland. She has come to Bath to make a better life for herself, using a ruby necklace bequeathed by her mother to set her on her way. She opens a tea shop which quickly becomes a popular place for ladies and gents to partake of tea and cake. One day Jane Adearne is having tea with Valentine Ross, when the latter asks Jane to marry him. She promptly declines his proposal and leaves. Marriage, it would seem, is not for Jane. Even if, in her early 20s, this is what she should be well and truly thinking about. But not Jane. Jane is a nurse, nicknamed the Angel of Bath, for the wondrous ways she helps the sick and infirm who come to the town to take the waters. Her father, Sir William Adearne is the local doctor, and whom Valentine, also a doctor, works with. Valentine has a brother, Edmund. Edmund is a botanist and makes the alarming decision to go to Borneo to discover new plants to bring back to England, and thus make his own fortune. He makes the long journey to Borneo, in search of Sir Ralph Savage, a self styled rajah who has created his own little empire in the jungle. And then there is Julietta and her long suffering husband. Julietta is a most beguiling temptress, with whom Jane falls hopelessly in love. Is she merely a distraction, or will Jane be able to follow her heart?

So much going on! And it is a very big and intricate book. The style of writing is very much of the nineteenth century - think sentences with many words, very descriptive of place, movement, how people are, how they think and do. It is certainly not sparse writing, but as the story went on I stopped noticing the old fashioned and at times laboured writing. The whole thing is so wonderfully held together, balanced and worthy of complete attention, the style just became part of the whole. A marvellous story celebrating the need to follow one's own heart, not to be defined by the expectations of society, or your supposed place in it.

I was initially hopeful given the cast of queer characters and diverse settings. Unfortunately it was riddled with awkward stereotypes, largely one-note characters, and what felt like an uncomfortable fetishisation of both queer (specifically sapphic) intimacy as well as Southeast Asia in particular.

For me the (sour) cherry on top was Valentine Ross' little Nice Guy arc. It got to a point where his internal unending lamentations about being rejected, desires to keep Jane captive, and then literally beating her at the end (and causing her miscarriage) all felt like such unnecessary, gratuitous violence against this specifically queer woman.

One of the only saving graces this has is that the audiobook version is narrated by Katie McGrath, who gave a superb performance.

I did not like this book. I skimmed three quarters of it.

4 stars.*

Islands of Mercy is a book chosen by the book club I am joining here in Hong Kong (huzzah!), and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

I have never heard of Rose Tremain, nor have I listened to an audible book narrated by Katie McGrath, but I adored both.

Islands of Mercy is traditional historical fiction story weaving the tales of multiple characters whose story lines interconnect, cross and break apart. It is primarily the tale of Jane Adeane in Bath, England in 1865. She is the daughter of the town surgeon, Dr. William Adeane, and she works as a nurse in his surgery. She is astoundingly tall and gentle and is renowned in the area as the "Angel of the baths" for her healing powers. She is torn between marrying a young doctor and her beautiful female lover that she meets while visiting her aunt in London. Additionally, we meet Clarinda Morrisey, a middle aged Irish woman who sells her family heirloom to start a tea room in Bath. It is in her tearoom that Jane Adeane receives her proposal of marriage by the esteemed Dr. Valentine Ross. Meanwhile, we follow Dr. Ross' brother, Edmund Ross a naturalist who travels to Borneo in the hopes of cataloguing unknown species of insect in the jungles. There he meets Sir Ralph Savage, a self-designated Rajah.

Each storyline is captivating and all of the characters are intriguing, if not all doomed or seeking the unattainable. I truly enjoyed this story and will definitely seek out more by Ms. Tremain.