Today, I bring you my review of On the Island, my favorite book of 2012. I read On the Island and participated in the blog tour, the FIRST blog tour that is and today, I'm also a part of the book's second blog tour. Why a second tour you ask? Well, On the Island was previously a self published book but it has been picked up by Penguin Publishing!! Follow the rest of the blog tour HERE.
So without further ado, here is my review of the best book I read so far of 2012, it COMPLETELY BLEW MY MIND!!
Author: Tracey Garvis-Graves
Published July 10th 2012 by Plume
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Goodreads summary:
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.Racquel's thoughts:
This book went above and beyond what I ever expected!! While I loved the summary of the book and it definitely intrigued me, I was a little worried about how Tracey Garvis-Graves would handle the island issue and survival of the characters. I'm complete realist fan so I wanted to see both characters suffer but adapt at the same time because let's face it, getting stuck on an island is not cookies and cupcakes, it's hard and devastating and I wanted to experience that and I sure did! Also, one thing I was SO excited about is seeing how Garvis-Graves would deal with the age gap between Anna, our 30 year old heroine and T.J, our near 17 years old hero. Now I'm a not one of those people that think an age gap of more then a few months is scandalous. No, ABSOLUTELY NOT. Frankly, I lose some respect for the people who do! If I could, I would RIGHT NOW tattoo AGE IS JUST A NUMBER on my forehead. I cannot even begin to tell you how annoyed I get when a 16 year old girl dates a 18 year old and it's the worst thing in the history of the world. Umm, when Hugh Hefner was going to marry a girl SIXTY (YES! 60 years!) years his JUNIOR (yes! 60 years YOUNGER than him!!) no body screamed: pedophile! felony! illegal! molester! wrong! Did any cops get involved? that would be a negative.
So frankly, if this man can marry someone younger than his grand children then there is absolutely nothing wrong with the age difference in this book (13 years) or any age difference for that matter (unless it's a child...) what matters is maturity, and since maturity is such an important word I'm going to repeat it for you: MATURITY. Which differs from every single human being to another. Furthermore, age is not a factor for how mature a person is *deep breath* as you can tell, this is a subject I feel very strongly about.
Now that I proved my point about age, I proudly type that Tracey Garvis-Graves handled the age difference "issue" to perfection like a Jedi master. It was just done so well that even idiots who are brainwashed be society and the government to judge people's relationship upon age (I just said this statement and I will repeat it until my death) will not find a problem with the 13 year difference between Anna and T.J because it was done realistically, full-heartedly and one of the great things about this book is how we get to see both Anna and especially T.J. grow up and mature so the romance is literally born and blossoms in front of our eyes and no reader will help but fall in love with Anna and T.J. as a couple too.
I suggest you start reading this book during a weekend when you have no plans because when you crack open the first page, you will not be able to put it down until you close the book at the end. There is always the questions of "Will they get rescued? Will they find food? Will they heal? Will they survive?" to push you through the wee hours of the morning to finish this spectacular book.
I loved how despite the seriousness and tragedy of what Anna and T.J. are going though- which is portrayed 100% realistically by the way, the book still had a few laughs that had me LOL'in and plus that, Garvis-Graves didn't shy away from describing the nasty, ugly sides of their isolation on the island or just anything in general whether it related to language, sexuality, or situations that most authors might just skip over.I further want to discuss what goes on in the book but I will keep away from doing so as not to spoil what happens in the book for anyone but just so you know, every part of this book is top quality story telling. From the alternating POV's (which if you know me, you will already know I ADORE this!) T.J. male POV (another favorite thing of mine) and over all book, it's all just terrific. I mean as soon as I finished this book, I wanted it to re-read it and even now that I'm writing this review, I have an urge to read this book, I think I might just answer it;D
Also, feel free to chat with me about the book of you read it, I would love to see how you felt!
Rating: 5 hearts~ Believe me, On the Island is a book you want to purchase right now and read ASAP.
First:
I was thirty years old when the seaplane T.J. Callahan and I were traveling on crash-landed in the Indian Ocean. T.J. was sixteen, and three months into remission from Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Quote that broke my heart:
“What’s nine-eleven?”“I don’t know."
Teaser:
______________________________________________________________...he might have seen my fist coming before it connected with his left eye.
Buy the book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads |
Find the author: Author’s website | Facebook | Twitter
Thank you for participating in the ON THE ISLAND Event! This week in addition to reviews and posts, select blogs are hosting a word from the author's favorite quotes in the book as a Scavenger Hunt! There is one quote from Anna and one from T.J. Visit each stop this week to find the hidden words (they will be numbered for order) and after July 22nd, submit your answer to the quotes here! Random winners for books and swag will be chosen and notified 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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Thank you for stopping by and don't forget to follow the rest of the tour HERE!
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