Nantucket Blue - Review

Nantucket Blue

By: Leila Howland

Expected Publication: May 7th 2013 by Disney Hyperion

304 pages

Genre: YA, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository )

Goodreads description--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.

I read the description of Nantucket Blue and I requested it from NetGalley, but ended up on the fence about it. I started it and got all of 5% into it when the main character, Cricket, was starting to get on my nerves. She just seemed pretty immature for a seventeen year old. Her cares and concerns were really on a lower level to me. But I guess going to an all-girls' school might have that affect on someone. It's hard to be mature when it comes to guys if you've never really spent much time around them.

However, I pressed on and I'm glad I did. Nantucket Blue ended up being better and deeper than I expected it to be. I suppose the purpose behind how annoying Cricket was in the very beginning was useful for showcasing how far she came and how much she grew throughout the book. And if there's one thing I love, it's character growth.

Cricket truly had a lot going on. Her parents divorce still affects her. Feelings that her father never fought for her family and simply replaced them with another. A mother devastated by the divorce to the point of not really having much of a life. It's understandable that Cricket would seek the sanctuary of her best friend's house who appears to have the perfect family. Mother, father--happily married--and brother and sister who love each other but do the sibling thing just like any other "normal" family. But then Cricket's best friend Jules is devastated when a certain event that I can't spoil happens. Cricket is devestated as well, but everyone grieves differently. And in the case of these two best friends, Jules shuts Cricket out.

As frustrating as it was for Cricket to have Jules shut her out like she did, it was completely necessary for Cricket to grow as a person. She needed to find herself--separate from Jules. And I think that's exactly what she did throughout the book.

Nantucket Blue exceeded my expectations, but still only falls in the 3 Star category for me. It was a quick and easy read and was enjoyable once I got passed the beginning. I read this coming off my cruise vacation, and I think it would be the perfect "beach read." Have you read Nantucket Blue? What did you think? Let me know!