On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves

Recently, I've stopped reading the synopses for books. I also try to avoid reviews that give away the whole plot - especially when I still haven’t read the book yet. So you are probably wondering how I pick up a book? I go to the store, look at all the books, and then put them in my basket. There are some I seek out because I notice the author on reading lists.

I was so glad I stuck to my new rule when it came to this book. Had I read it, I would have thought “Blue Lagoon” and ceased to pick it up. A part of me also thought “Castaway” during the first several of pages, and I honestly thought that this was going nowhere good fast. That was a VERY long movie and how would one cram so much of a timeline into a 329-page book?

I was honestly surprised by how easily all of it flowed from one narrative to the next. On the Island covers a significant time period, but it has the perfect amount of detail in each chapter to make it believable. It didn’t go into every minutia of Anna and T.J.’s lives, and I was really grateful for that. It gave the reader the perfect amount of insight to these characters and their internal trepidations both before and after. As a reader, I feel absolutely horrible if I finish a book and my first thought was that the author tried too hard. And this was definitely not the case with this book.

There was a significant event that caught me completely by surprise. From that moment on, I honestly went from just liking the book to considering it amazing. I don’t think it’s an easy feat for authors to build suspense and catch the reader off guard. There are so many books with similar plot lines, and it’s very unfortunate when you get to the end and you realize you saw it coming a mile away.

This is a book that I will read again and again.