ON THE ISLAND BY TRACEY GARVIS - GRAVES

I have read countless books about people being stranded on a deserted island but this one? It goes above and beyond all of them. This is the perfect slow burn, beach romance and I highly recommend it. 

Rating: ★★★★
​Release Date: June 7, 2012
Genre: Contemporary Romance. 
Series: None. Standalone. 
Pages: 352 pages
​Format: eBook. Purchased. 

Two people stranded on an island struggle to survive—and slowly fall in love—in the runaway New York Times bestseller from the author of Covet.

Anna Emerson is a thirty-year-old English teacher desperately in need of adventure. Worn down by the cold Chicago winters and a relationship that’s going nowhere, she jumps at the chance to spend the summer on a tropical island tutoring sixteen-year-old T.J.

T.J. Callahan has no desire to go anywhere. His cancer is in remission and he wants to get back to his normal life. But his parents are insisting he spend the summer in the Maldives catching up on all the school he missed last year.

Anna and T.J. board a private plane headed to the Callahan’s summer home, and as they fly over the Maldives’ twelve hundred islands, the unthinkable happens. Their plane crashes in shark-infested waters. They make it to shore, but soon discover that they’re stranded on an uninhabited island.

At first, their only thought is survival. 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.

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Read my Book Review

Release Date: June 7, 2012
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars

I have read countless books about people being stranded on a deserted island. Some are funny, some are sad, and some are unrealistic and silly. On the Island, though? This book goes above and beyond any of those other novels. It's raw, the relationship between the two people who are stranded is original, and it's uplifting. There were moments where I didn't know how things would play out and I was hanging by the edge of my seat a few times, but the way it all ended? It made perfect sense and it made me cry happy tears. I truly enjoyed this book. Even though I wished it was a bit longer and a bit more in depth in terms of their first year or two on the island, everything about it felt right. I love how the author took a forbidden relationship and made it beautiful and I loved how this book stretched my emotions. It's just an overall beautiful story that fulfilled everything I needed in a romance. 

In One the Island, readers will meet Anna Emerson and T.J. Callahan. Anna is a school teacher who is taking the summer off to help tutor a boy who was living with cancer. Doing so in a tropical paradise makes her excited to do it, but also helping something in need is her number one reason for going. T.J on the other hand just wants to stay home and be the teenage boy he's supposed to be. He beat the cancer and wants to just have fun and LIVE. But his parents are making him go on this family vacation, and even worse, bringing along a tutor to help him catch up on all the schooling he had missed when he was sick. 

When Anna and T.J. get stuck in a storm, they can't believe how unlucky they are. Sitting at an airport for days is no fun and there is nothing to pass the time. Thankfully though, there is a private charter that is willing to take the two to their destination.With gusto, they climb on this jet in anticipation of meeting T.J.'s parents in paradise. But things don't go according to plan and the two find themselves in tragedy. The plane they chartered? It's crashed into the sea killing the pilot on impact. Anna and T.J. survive the crash and end up washing ashore an uninhabited island. For days and weeks they hope someone is searching for them but years go by with no sign of rescue. The two take it day by day trying to remember how to stay alive amid their horrible circumstances. No one predicted love could come from it though. Especially Anna and her student, T.J. 

What will happen with these two. Will love prevail and keep them sustained until they are rescued? Will cancer come back for T.J? Well, to find out what happens you would have to read the book. And I can promise that you won't regret it. 

Once again, On the Island is a remarkable novel about love and survival. It's a forbidden romance (ish) between a woman and a boy, although their romance develops quite slowly due to the age difference between them. Finally, it's a delicate and convincing read- one that will make you smile and fall in love. I hope people give this book a chance if they haven't already. I know there are many readers who have read, loved, and recommended this one but there are plenty more readers who haven't read it but need to.

★★★★