On the Island: A Novel Kindle Edition

If you are like me and had this book on your Kindle, or you've been thinking about reading it for a while, don't wait! A beautiful romance and an engrossing tale of survival, this book was crisply written and completely satisfying.Written in alternate points of view, 'On the Island' is the story of the unlikely relationship between T.J., a student, and Anna, a teacher. She was hired by his parents to tutor him over the summer after his bout with cancer. While flying to their summer destination, their plane goes down and they are stranded on a remote island."I stared at the palm trees, their green fronds rippling in the breeze. Sweat trickled slowly down the side of my face, and the constant smell of coconut on my hands reminded me of suntan lotion. It would always be summer on the island."Life on the island can be very cruel and T.J. and Anna must figure out a way to survive with next to no supplies. They nearly die from dehydration and starvation and it is no surprise that they begin an intense relationship.“Don’t get too cocky. One of these days, I’ll figure out a way to take you down.” I laughed and said, “Oooh, I’m scared, Anna.” What I didn’t admit, though, was that she could have brought me to my knees with one touch of her hand, if she put it in the right place. I wondered if she knew that.I am not sure why I waited so long to read this but once I started, I could not put it down! Passion, love, emotion, survival, heartbreak - this book ticked all the boxes. The author's writing style is brisk and spare yet very descriptive. The age difference between Anna and T.J. was of no consequence to me but Anna knew that once they began their relationship, there would be no turning back."I often caught T.J. staring at me, but he’d never been so blatant about it. He was getting bolder, testing the waters. If he had been trying to hide his feelings before, he wasn’t as concerned with that now. I didn’t know of his intentions, or even if he had any, but living with him was about to get complicated. That much I knew."Anna and T.J. experienced so much together that I just knew they would be bonded together forever. But would their love be able to survive their return to the real world and their previous lives?I sighed, content in the release that came with a good cry. It had been so long since anyone held me I didn’t want to move. Finally, I raised my head. He cupped my face in his hands and wiped my tears with his thumbs. “Better?” “Yes.” He looked into my eyes and said, “I’ll never leave you alone, Anna. Not if I can help it.”Le sigh!! This book took some very unexpected turns and I loved the lack of cliches in this wonderful romance. The ending was swoon worthy and simply perfect. This book is on my list of all-time favorites!

On the Island by Tracey Garvis GravesAnna & TJ5 StarsI read this and recommendation from my friend Kat. She seems to always know exactly what I need! This book has it all, seriousness, sadness, happiness, and even a little sexy time!Anna is a school teacher from Chicago headed to the Maldive Islands to tutor a high school student for the summer. She is genuine, intelligent, and very kind-hearted. At the beginning of the trip she's dealing with a few things of her own that definitely puts those aside to focus on the task at hand.TJ is that 17 year old student who fell behind because of Hodgkin's lymphoma and all the treatment that goes with it. Somehow I felt he was very wise Beyond his years and fell in love with him after just a few chapters.The supporting character cast consist of each main characters family members mostly. Honestly I didn't dislike anybody in The Supporting Cast and the only person who seriously stood out for me was TJ's mother. She was also very genuine and only wanted what was best for her son.All in all the book kept me glue to its pages from cover to cover. I appreciated the highs and lows and how the dialogue and writing style flowed very efficiently. The characters our lovable and very relatable and at times I found myself living vicariously through them. Excellent book would recommend it to anyone!

I loved this book. It's only mildly taboo due to the age gap of 13.5 years. No lines were crossed though. TJ was almost 19 before they even kissed.I was captivated from the very beginning. There were several instances where things were too good to be true and pretty contrived for the sake of the story but it still made for a great read. Some examples are, the stuff that should have sank in the ocean but instead washed up to where they were, the specific items that washed up that helped with survival, the fact that all these things washed up yet the rescuers were unable to follow the debris field in the current to locate them.I highly recommend this book. Once I finished the kindle version with the whispersync narration, I ordered the paperback so I could add it to my home collection. I will definitely read and listen to this book again.Audible: I added the whispersync audible narration to this kindle book. I didn't listen to a lot of this book, maybe a combined total of a couple hours, but what I did listen to, I liked. The narrator did a good job. Her voices weren't great but they were good enough and she was easy to listen to.

Somehow, for some tragic reason, this book has more stars on Good Reads than The Great Gatsby. That's a travesty. Having said that, so is this book. This book should be taught in literature classes on what NOT to do because it's so formulaic. I was amazed at how (spoiler alert) conveniently everything they needed to survive washed up on shore just a few days after they crashed On the Island (hey, look at that!). This book is great for when you're depressed and want to escape. Graves does do a good job of telling the story and the writing is simple so you can cruise right through it. Sex, drama, beaches, aqua water, and both raging hormones and storms. This is one book you CAN judge by it's cover. Middle class white lady has big scary problem but toughs it out and...well, guess. You'll probly get it right. I say go for it, on vacation.

Full of saccharine, reads like a movie script with very little narration and tons of dialogues, so I never managed to fully connect with the characters. I didn't care whether they lived or died: the author focused more on the storyline than on her characters, and unfortunately, I prefer protagonists who are well rounded, complex and deep, rather than superficial ones. Some moments sounded so implausible and/or fluffy sweet (hero dolphins...I won't say more) that I wondered if the author was a teenager. I admit the beginning of the story is quite interesting, things move on, and then it drags and drags and drags: On the Island reads like a short story with unnecessary added chapters too beef it up. Definitely a beach read only.

I grew up reading Island of the Blue Dolphins about a woman stranded on an island by herself for twenty years, so was excited to read On the Island which tells of survival and love between an older woman and a younger man. At the start of the story, Anna is thirty and engaged for the summer as a private tutor to T.J. who is seventeen and in remission from cancer. They're meant to be on the family's idyllic island in the Maldives, but when their pilot suffers a fatal heart attack en route, Anna and T.J. wash up on a deserted island and don't get rescued.The story follows their incredibly gruelling story of survival and what happens when Anna realises T.J. is no longer a child and they begin to fall in love. I adore books that take traditional tropes and turn them on their head. The first part of the story takes place on the island, and the second part concerns what happens when they get home, with all the inevitable BS from the media directed at Anna. Rest assured the story does have a happy ending and I loved it.

Ever seen the movie Snakes on a Plane? It was so bad it was good. The outrageous and contrived plotline was ultimately amusing. On The Island is my literary Snakes on a Plane. There was no sense of pace, the characters were stereotypes, threads of the story were either pointless or trailed off to nowhere. There was little sense of realism or detail, and I only counted one female character who didn't cry (a doctor who performed a brief vaginal examination).But! All this aside you couldn't help but root for these two crazy love sick fools, and enjoy the comedy ('she screamed TJ as she climaxed' and those helpful pet dolphins of theirs were particular comic highlights for me).

Thirty year old teacher, Anna Emerson, accepts a summer job tutoring T J Callahan, a sixteen year-old boy. En route to join T J's family at their holiday home in the Maldives, the pilot of their seaplane suffers a fatal heart attack, and they crash-land on a desert island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The beautifully-written story of the years they spend on the island, the terrifying moments when they think one or both of them they won't survive, and the description of their relationship and how it changes as T J grows up and begins to look at Anna with the eyes of a man, is both convincingly realistic, and romantic. I highly recommended this novel as the ideal holiday read.

Going from a school teacher to a home tutor Annie decided a change is better than stagnation in a relationshi p that's going no where this story has it all heartache upsets loss,to a seaplane crash that only two people survived. Annual and TJ her student find themselves bon an island. Soon they descover the body of the pilot who they bury. Life is hard not much water little food they struggle to make it. Then a tsunami hits the island they end up fighting to stay alive . I loved reading this book ended up in tears at times but throughout it kept me reading I won't spoil ending but a strongly recommend this book.