When thirty-year-old English teacher Anna Emerson is offered a job tutoring T.J. Callahan at his family's summer rental in the Maldives, she accepts without hesitation; a working vacation on a tropical island trumps the library any day.
T.J. Callahan has no desire to leave town, not that anyone asked him. He's almost seventeen and if having cancer wasn't bad enough, now he has to spend his first summer in remission with his family - and a stack of overdue assignments - instead of his friends.
Anna and T.J. are en route to join T.J.'s family in the Maldives when the pilot of their seaplane suffers a fatal heart attack and crash-lands in the Indian Ocean. Adrift in shark-infested waters, their life jackets keep them afloat until they make it to the shore of an uninhabited island. Now Anna and T.J. just want to survive and they must work together to obtain water, food, fire, and shelter. Their basic needs might be met but as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.'s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.
MY REVIEW
5 OF 5 DOLPHINS
First off I have to say that On The Island is THE BEST SUMMER ROMANCE READ! I give it a thousand stars! I read OTI in five hours because I could not put it down. It is full of suspense and adventure and survival skills. This is one of those books that will stay with you for years to come. It is a story that will be in reading groups and To Be Read piles all over the place. I could not write this review after I finished the book because I was so overcome with emotions that I could not stop crying. It was a good cry one where you don't want the story to end but you know it has to.
Anna is a teacher who is out of school for the summer and has decided to take a tutoring job for a boy who is in remission from cancer. She is excited to be able to tutor T.J. and get him back on track for school so he can graduate with his class. Anna is also excited because she is going to be tutoring TJ on the island of Maldives. She is looking forward to some time away from home so she can regroup and make some tough decisions when she returns home from this trip.
T.J. is 16 years old and he is in remission from his cancer. All he wants to do is hang out with his friends and get back to his normal life before he got the cancer. He wants to be tutored but he does not want to go to the Maldives Islands to receive tutoring. He is really not feeling the whole summer family vacation thing but he goes along with it for the sake of his mother. He doesn't want to upset her anymore than she already is and plus he is in remission and will be starting his Junior year in September.
Then the unthinkable happens the plane he and Anna are on crashes in the middle of no where and they have to learn how to survive. This my friends is why I do not fly EVER! I am so scared to death of the plane crashing that I start to hyperventilate before the plane has left the ground. Sorry but I just had to say that because the entire time I was reading that scene in the book where the crash took place my heart was racing and I felt so sick and scared for Anna and T.J. What was going on in their minds when the plane was crashing? How were they going to survive in shark infested waters? Where were they going to go? Would they be rescued? How long would they be stranded?
On The Island is a story of strength and survival. Strength to overcome the worst situation and survival that comes out when it is needed. Anna and T.J. endured a lot but in the end you will be shocked at what happens. This is a story I will re-read a lot because the story flows between Anna and T.J. and what they go through will either make them or break them.
Tracey Garvis-Graves is the author of On the Island and Covet. She lives in a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa with her husband, two children, and hyper dog Chloe. She blogs at www.traceygarvisgraves.com using colorful language and a snarky sense of humor to write about pop culture, silly television shows, and her suburban neighborhood. You can e-mail her at traceygarvisgraves@yahoo.com. She’d love to hear from you.
Links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/On-Island-Tracey-Garvis-Graves/dp/014219672X/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1342209222&sr=8-1
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/on-the-island-tracey-garvis-graves/1111454772
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15506110-on-the-island
Author’s website: http://www.traceygarvisgraves.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tgarvisgraves
Twitter: @tgarvisgraves, https://twitter.com/tgarvisgraves
WANT TO WIN A COPY OF ON THE ISLAND, Ten (10) signed print copies will be given away by Plume Books through this giveaway.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
SCAVENGER HUNT WORD: a lot, ~ This is TJ's quote, word #3
Check each stop each day to see who else is a Scavenger Hunt host! Good luck!
Also, next week July 23-27, there will be even more events and chances to win the book and swag!
Monday, July 23 at 8:00 pm CST - Chat with the author Tracey Garvis Graves! We will be chatting with the author on Savor Chat:http://www.savorchat.com/chat/on-the-island-chat Come join us! (You can sign in with twitter or facebook)
Each day look at #ontheisland on twitter for random shout outs to win books and swag! @Tale_of_Reviews
ON THE ISLAND released in bookstores Tuesday, July 10th! If you see the book in stores or 'in the wild' take a picture. Please tweet it and use hashtag #ontheisland. Or you can post it to facebook! Please submit twitter and facebook links of your post/tweet here! All entries need to be submitted by July 29th.
Also, next week July 23-27, there will be even more events and chances to win the book and swag!
Monday, July 23 at 8:00 pm CST - Chat with the author Tracey Garvis Graves! We will be chatting with the author on Savor Chat:http://www.savorchat.com/chat/on-the-island-chat Come join us! (You can sign in with twitter or facebook)
Each day look at #ontheisland on twitter for random shout outs to win books and swag! @Tale_of_Reviews
ON THE ISLAND released in bookstores Tuesday, July 10th! If you see the book in stores or 'in the wild' take a picture. Please tweet it and use hashtag #ontheisland. Or you can post it to facebook! Please submit twitter and facebook links of your post/tweet here! All entries need to be submitted by July 29th.
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1 comment:
I loved OTI also ... plenty of suspense and I am so glad that the ending was wrapped up in one chapter with everything perfect. I think the author did a good job working through the likely scenarios and finishing with a satisfying conclusion!
xx Lauren
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