On The Island was recommended to me by a good friend of mine, someone who loves to read just as much as I do. I started this book as soon as it arrived from Amazon and finished it in two days. Let me tell you all that this is pretty much how I read. I start a book and I absolutely must finish it and finish it as soon as possible. I just can’t take my mind off the story and how it is going to end. It takes all of my strength not to jump to the end and quickly skim one page or just one paragraph so I can have a small glimpse of what I expect, whether excitement, shock, or disappointment. Reading is thrilling for me. As a mom of three, I don’t have much time to read and I certainly can’t just plop down in the middle of the day to read as much as I would like to, instead I read after the kids are asleep, after my husband and I have had dinner, watched a show and he is rolling over to go to sleep. I turn the light on over my side of the bed and crack open my book….
Back to the book at hand. This is a story of survival, of adventure, of passion, of adaption and a little controversy. It is the story of a 30-year old tutor and her student being stranded after an unexpected plane crash on an uninhabited island in the Maldives. Anna is a teacher stuck in a relationship rut who jumps at the prospect of a summer adventure tutoring a young student as far from Chicago as possible. T.J. is a 16 year-old boy whose cancer is in remission who wants nothing more than for life to go back to normal, but his parents take him far away from the reminder of his cancer and where he can get caught up on his school work. Their plane crashes in the open water and what happens next will keep you on the edge of your seat. Anna and T.J. learn to lean on each other in ways that they never would have had their paths crossed in Chicago. You will feel everything that T.J. and Anna feel, the fear, the hope, the love, and the desperation. You will laugh and you will cry. Tracey Garvis Graves does an incredible job describing every obstacle and every triumph while these two are stranded on the island, you will feel like you are alone, right there beside them.
The book left a lasting impression on me. I finished and was still thinking about T.J. and Anna. I wanted more. I wanted to know more about their story!
I especially love that Tracey Garvis Graves self-published this book. She believed in her work and did what she could to publish her book on her own and get it out into the marketplace. It is “mostly a word of mouth book.” And look at it now, it is on the New York Times Bestseller list with a possible movie deal…
Have you read this book? What did you think? If you haven’t, you must purchase your copy now. I would love to hear from you!
Link to the book here.
XO,
Ashley
CAMELLIA AVE 