Jamaica Is The Star! - Rated 
I really enjoyed this book, after a series of disappointing reads this book restored my faith in modern literature. The plot was well-balanced and kept me hooked. The two protagonists; Ida and May, are not even particularly likeable characters at first, they're selfish and I found it hard to understand their motives, however throughout the book they grow and change, as does their country, and this synergy makes the book really engaging and real. More minor characters like Oni, Ida's grandmother, who believes in herbal remedies and bush teas, is a constant, reassuring presence throughout the book, as is the loveable Derek.
I defy anyone to finish this book totally devoid of the desire to jump on the next plane to Jamaica and go looking for Navy Island and Treasure Cove.
A fantastic holiday read!
Rambling and long winded - Rated 
I struggled to get through this novel. It took so long to get going and it never grabbed me. It's the story of Ida, a Jamaican girl who meets the actor Errol Flynn as a young girl and ends up having a daughter with him. Although the daughter May is the title character, she doesn't really come into the story until the second half of the book. The first part is all about how Ida meets Errol and eventually becomes his lover at the age of 16. The relationship doesn't last and Ida is left to raise her daughter on her own, although she does later marry.
The book is very slow - oddly so, because a lot happens, but the action parts are rushed and the parts between dragged out. The synopsis makes it sound so exciting: pirates' tales, hunting for lost treasure and appearances by stars like Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe. All I can say is while these things are mentioned, they are hardly major elements of the story. It's a book that is more character driven than plot driven: unfortunately the characters are not particularly likeable or even interesting.
Cezair-Thompson seems intimidated by the idea of incorporating Errol Flynn as a fictional character: he never feels real in the way that the other characters do. The idea of using a real person in a piece of fiction is far from new - for example, William Boyd does it very skillfully in "Any Human Heart". But here it feels clumsy and contrived.
Some of the dialogue is written in the Jamaican dialect. Reading other reviews, I guess I'm the minority here, but I found that distracting. It irritates me when I need to slow down my reading to decipher what is being said by sentences like: "Wha'fe you cyan be unfe you".
The one thing that I really loved about this book is the descriptions of Jamaica, which are gorgeous. You can almost smell the rain-scented forests, feel the tropical breezes, see the white bougainvillea fringing the colorfully painted houses. But overall, this book was a disappointment to me.
Very enjoyable romance/adventure - Rated
Not usually my kind of book, but this is so well-written that I devoured it in a few evenings. It is the story of two women, mother and daughter, whose lives were changed, directly and indirectly, by the trail of havoc and broken hearts left by Errol Flynn's love affair with Jamaica and its women. The lives of the characters are set against a Jamaica moving from comparative innocence to drug fuelled violence and corruption.
The two women are brilliantly drawn, particularly in childhood and adolescence, and the addition of Flynn, intriguingly attractive despite the chaos left by his selfish romp through life, kept me turning the pages.
Possibly a bit too long, causing the story to flag occasionally, but otherwise a perceptive, clever, entertaining and undemanding read.
Brilliant Read! - Rated
This book takes the reader on a wonderful journey spanning three generations of characters. You are drawn into the highs and lows of their lives along with the political changes going on over the years. The book is very well researched and the storyline so realistic. A very moving read that I couldn't put down.
Palm trees, sandy beaches and a rip roaring yarn - Rated 
I took this book with me to read on holiday and the opening chapters describing the white sandy beaches, palm trees and fragrant bourgenvilla had me melting into my sun bed.
This book is a wonderful story about a teenage girl, Ida, on the island of Jamaica and her crush on film star Errol Flynn who befriends her Father and sets up residence on the island. Flynn takes a shine to Ida and seduces her and she then finds herself pregnant by him at the age of 16. The story then follows both Ida and her daughter, May, through the next 30 years including civil unrest and shocking violence on their beloved sushine island.
Cezair-Thompson has a wonderfully fresh voice which made me really warm to the fantastic array of characters. I have rated 4 stars as I felt that it slightly dragged in the middle (it seemed to lack direction at one point) before picking up again and drawing me back in.
All in all a highly recommended book - I thoroughly enjoyed and look forward to reading more from this author.
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