On the Island (On the Island #1) by Tracey Garvis-Graves

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.

• Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Survival, Drama
• Age: New adult
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read from July 09 to 10, 2013
• Buddy read with my darlings Nab & Basuhi & Pavlina, Jerry aka 9 3/4 and Monisha (click on names to see their reviews)

FINAL RATING: ★★★★/★★★★★

"I don't fit in your world."
"Neither do I," he said, his expression tender yet resolute. "So let's make our own. We've done it before.”

 

This was interesting and nice book, with a different setting from usual and refreshing love story. I liked it and enjoyed it and i am glad that i have read it!

This is a story of two people, Anna and T.J. who are trapped on the lone island when their plane crashed. Their families believe they are dead, but they never stopped hoping that eventually they would be found.

 It was slow, but it was also a slow building romance, which was realistic. The only thing that was really different was the age difference between the characters (between 13 and 14 years), but i didn't mind it. Love comes in all forms, in all ages. My grandparents had a big age difference between them, and i never minded it. Because they truly loved each other.

"I'm thankful we have each other T.J."
"So am I. 

This book is told from both Anna's and T.J.'s perspective, and i loved reading about them both. i liked being in their heads,and in the end, i just liked them. Anna and T.J. belonged to two different worlds, two different lives. But now, they have only one - together on one  tiny, god forsaken island, which soon becomes their new home. They only have each other now, and they start a long term friendship which later grows into love. Anna was nice, reasonable woman, she did everything she could; while T.J. is a student who just won against cancer and tries to return to his normal life. I was thankful that he wasn't a "bad boy" type since i was growing tired of those in literature, but sweet and interesting hero. Despite their age difference, i supported them, because you can't chose who you love - and they had only each other. It was inevitable that they will fall in love.

“I never wanted anyone else, T.J. I just wanted what was best for you."

"You are what's best for me," he said, cradling my head in his arms, his legs intertwined with mine. "I'm not going anywhere, Anna. This is right where I want to be.”

What bothered me the most about this novel was the fact that it was sometimes dragging - too slow. It also felt like author wanted to make their lives as much as miserable she could. She just threw everything she could have on them (almost everything). And yet, there were no sings of wild animals on the island (except in the ocean, of course).  And i also had problem to believe that they had enough supplies for all that time they spent on the island. It was just to lucky for them... And let's not forget this: the time span between the beginning and the end of the book - for a long period of time, this book was too short, i wish it was longer.

OVERALL :

But anyway, i enjoyed it, and for a debut novel, this book was quite good. Not spectacular, fabulous or masterpiece, but quite well done romance. Different, not usual, but slow and romantic story of two people who made a tiny world of their own. 

There is also a novella called Uncharted set in the same world as On the Island :D

 Tracey Garvis Graves - and Anna and T.J. - return in this companion novella to the New York Times bestseller On the Island

When twenty-three-year-old dot-com millionaire Owen Sparks walked away from his charmed life, he had one goal in mind: get as far away as possible from the people who resented his success, or had their hand out for a piece of it. A remote uncharted island halfway around the world seemed like a perfectly logical place to get away from it all.

Calia Reed wasn't part of Owen's plans. The beautiful British girl - on holiday in the Maldives with her brother, James - made Owen wonder if getting away from it all might be a lot more enjoyable with a carefree girl who didn't know anything about the life he left behind.

But Owen had no idea how much his carefully detailed plans would go awry. Nor did he realize that a decision he made would have such a catastrophic effect on two passengers who boarded a plane in Chicago.

And when Owen shows up at Anna and T.J.'s door with an incredible story to tell, everyone involved will learn just how much their lives are intertwined.

 

MY REVIEW ON GOODREADS