Charlotte Walker, qualified vet and reptile researcher has taken a posting on a remote island for 12 months. Inaccessible for much of the year she realises Tuga is a mishmash of nationalities and a tight knit community.  
 
A light beachy summer read! The author says she was trying to create a place of lightness in the author info and she's definitely done that! I quite liked the fictional Tuga! Her descriptions of remote community life ring true.  I am a scientist so I did initially pick up this book based on the description and I therefore could not completely suspend disbelief about how Charlotte was conducting her research (poorly and in a very ad hoc manner). Any information about the tortoises was completely glossed over and the ending felt very rushed. I assume there will be a book 2 based on the ending since nothing really felt resolved. 

I also feel that though the book tried to talk about colonialism and issues related with development (which it did do fairly well for health). It was less successful for the ecology side. Several characters point out to Charlotte things wrong with her initial view (and she does take them on board)

I highly doubt that the local Tugans (living there for 300 years) would have missed an ecological link between the tortoise and the palm tree.

Overall an easy read that I did enjoy! This book really shines in painting a vivid description of the environment and in the characters (Taxi and the kids are done particularly well)! 

A final bug bear was

sending a 10 year old to London for an indeterminate amount of time/ boarding school with his seriously ill/opioid addicted mother. He can't make any decisions about her medical care?! And pretty much being alone 1000's of miles away from home trying to deal with someone in withdrawal would be highly difficult for an adult let alone a child??