On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves

 I’ll be honest. This was my book club’s pick one month, and I was not thrilled at first.  I was hesitant to read this book because of the subject matter: a young teacher takes on a summer job of tutoring a high school boy with cancer, their airplane crashes, they are the sole survivors forced to live on a remote and deserted island for years and fall in love; however, I was hooked on the first page. It was completely believable, tasteful, and nothing inappropriate happened (until years had passed, and the boy was an adult).

I think my favorite thing about this book was the characterization of Anna and TJ. Anna was done so right, full of conscience and true compassion. Their relationship was handled so well too. The fact that they lived and survived together day in and day out for the first couple of years as only friends really helped. When the book started, I thought, “No way am I ever going to be okay with this relationship.” But before Anna even starts entertaining romantic feelings for TJ, I was already on board and wanting it to happen. Part of this acceptance was due to the fact that TJ is old beyond his years, and this is completely believable in light of his life experiences. Another reason was that Anna was completely ethical and appropriate with TJ and the relationship happened gradually as he grew up and became a man, and because they knew they were likely to never see another human soul in their lives. Also, the fact that she never actually was his teacher helped too. By the end of this novel, I was in love with the idea of TJ and Anna and wanted to see them overcome the very realistic obstacles they encountered. That’s all I can say without adding too many spoilers.

This book is beautiful and poignant, at times exciting, and at times heartbreaking. I loved every page of it. 5 out of 5 stars.—Christina Knowles