Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland
Young Adult Contemporary
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Published May 7, 2013
My Rating: 8/10
My Rating: 8/10
For Cricket Thompson, a summer like this one will change everything. A summer spent on Nantucket with her best friend, Jules Clayton, and the indomitable Clayton family. A summer when she’ll make the almost unattainable Jay Logan hers. A summer to surpass all dreams. Some of this turns out to be true. Some of it doesn’t. When Jules and her family suffer a devastating tragedy that forces the girls apart, Jules becomes a stranger whom Cricket wonders whether she ever really knew. And instead of lying on the beach working on her caramel-colored tan, Cricket is making beds and cleaning bathrooms to support herself in paradise for the summer. But it’s the things Cricket hadn’t counted on--most of all, falling hard for someone who should be completely off-limits--that turn her dreams into an exhilarating, bittersweet reality. A beautiful future is within her grasp, and Cricket must find the grace to embrace it. If she does, her life could be the perfect shade of Nantucket blue. |
At last. I was supposed to write this review days ago, but my overwhelming laziness possessed me to hold off until today. Pity.
I'm actually kind of excited to write this. I'm into this new YA kick. I'm a little more than sick of Young Adult books, to say the least. But anyway.
Normally I start reviews of talking about the characters, but today I want to begin with the setting. Prior to this, I've never have heard of Nantucket before. Blame it on the fact I have no life. The way Nantucket is described in the book is actually the reason I'm Wikipedia-ing it now: it sounds exotic, yet homely at the same time. The pictures I've seen of it are so gorgeous, that I feel an ache in my chest to go there. That, and the way the author makes Nantucket feel like a place where you can belong.
In the beginning of the book, Cricket suffers the death of a person she considers somewhat close to her. The sense of death inside those moments is a feeling very hard to portray to the reader. I had tears in my eyes. Unfortunately, I was reading that part in a public place, so it looked quite odd for me to be sniffling to myself. But I managed to keep it together. The death part is kind of what steers the course of the story. Although its not her family member who has died, eventually that death brings it's grief to Nantucket, making it a place a lot less amazing as Cricket would like.
Cricket is such a sweet fragile person, loyal to those she loves. Like many, she makes mistakes, but she learned from them, some others can't say for themselves. Though she was pushed around and didn't really have the world on her side, she overcame it. I loved that about her.
There are romantic aspects in the book, but it is not the main figment of the story. There are other elements added to it. But the romance, and the forbidden part of it, had me like, "Oh crap." I feel bad for poor Cricket because of all the curveballs thrown her way, but all the more fun for me.
Nantucket Blue was a great book, maybe even better than the credit I'm giving it. All my YA fans will love it, like I did, and islanders like myself will praise it's name. I'm keeping it on my bookshelves.
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