On The Island by Tracey Garvis Graves-MUST READ!

On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves kept coming up on my recommendations from Amazon. For some reason, I kept avoiding it. I think it is because of the cover–a lone woman on the beach. Even the description wouldn’t have sold me (I like my men alpha, not boys) but when a few of my goodreads buddies said they loved it, and I was looking for a non-smutty book (to read on my lunch break when I teach), I got this. I am SO GLAD I did not judge a book by it’s cover (at least not for long) because this book will forever stay on my favorites list.

Anna is a 30 year old English teacher who takes a job tutoring an almost 17 year old boy (TJ) who is recovering from Lymphoma and missed a lot of school. The family is spending the summer in Maldives. TJ and Anna take a flight a few days after TJ’s family, and the seaplane they were in goes down in the Indian Ocean when the pilot has a heart attack. Anna and TJ find themselves stranded on a deserted Island for about 3 years. In those 3 years, TJ grows from a boy to a man.

So much happens in this book. They face dehydration, starvation, deadly illness, tropical storms, sharks, and just plain boredom. They rely on only each other, and gradually lose hope of ever being found. At first, you think, eeew, he is just a boy. Well for a couple of years, they are close friends relying on each other for survival, but after a few years of being reliant on only themselves, that boy turned to a man–a man who wanted more, and Anna stopped seeing him as a boy as well. Their relationship didn’t seem dirty or wrong at all. They were two people who had only each other and went through the same near death experiences for years.

“Without thinking, I held them out to her. She stopped laughing, and looked at me like she wasn’t quite sure what I meant. I waited, and she leaned toward me and opened her mouth. I slid my fingers inside, wondering if my eyes were as big as hers. When she sucked the breadfruit off, my breathing got all messed up.

“More?”

She nodded, just barely, and her breathing didn’t sound right either. I scooped up some breadfruit and this time, when I put my fingers in her mouth, she put her hand on my wrist.

I waited for her to swallow and then I lost my shit completely.

I grabbed her face with both hands, and I kissed her, hard. She opened her mouth and I slipped my tongue inside. I could have kissed her for days, and if she told me to stop I wasn’t sure I’d be able to.”

I started this book at about 1:30pm. I only stopped to drive my kids from school and music lessons. I ignored my family the rest of the day and finished at 9:30 pm. I couldn’t put it down. I was looking for a light read that was easily put-downable, and got the opposite, but I’m so glad I did!