I don't remember anyone on this board mentioning On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves. Several people on Shelfari recommended this book, so I finally picked it up this weekend. I just finished it because I couldn't put it down.

English Teacher Anna Emerson takes a job tutoring 16-year-old T.J. Callahan for the summer. T.J.'s is a cancer survivor who is in remission and needs to catch up on his studies or repeat the 10th grade. The Callahan's fly to their summer home in the Maldives, agreeing to let T.J. fly to the island with Anna a few days later. But the plane crashes and Anna and T.J. find themselves stranded on an uninhabited island. There they live through tropical storms, shark-infested waters, sickness and malnutrition, wondering if they'll ever get off the island and back to their lives.

I was certainly not disappointed with this book. The story grabbed me from the first page and I couldn't put it down. Anna and T.J. are both well-drawn characters. We get to know what both of them are thinking since the author alternated point-of-views with each chapter. The story is great and the romance is believable. I'm giving this one 5 stars.

Has anyone else read it?

I loved the sound of this book so I went to Amazon and read an excerpt. I was disappointed to find that it is written in the first person so I will be skipping it.

I am glad that you enjoyed it, though. Five star books are few and far between it seems.

HR

I wish you read first-person POV. I think you'd like it.

I heard about this book on Amazon. The teacher/student romance was offensive to me so I never bothered reading the excerpt

Teacher/Student romance does kind of skeeve me out as well.

The hero is 16 I think. I heard this book was optioned for a movie. Are they going to change the age thing?

Yes, he's 16 when the story begins. The heroine is 30 and definitely keeps their relationship teacher/student for several years on the island. He is nearly 19 before anything sexual happens.

Thanks for that info.

This book is still a no for me. Still don't like the teacher/student thing and the age thing.

I'm a picky reader if you hadn't noticed, lol.

As a teacher the teacher/student as lovers usually gives me the creeps. I read the description and a few reviews and decided to give it a try. I liked both characters and the author switching POV often. He is a mature 16.

I agree Ameliad. The hero's age and the fact that he was her student made me pause before reading it. But, some friends told me they loved it so I gave it a try. You're right. He was mature at 16...probably from living with cancer. By the time he was 19, I didn't think anything about his age or the fact that she had once been his teacher.

I loved the epilogue! I had to read it again!

I have tried to read first person POV books, but they just do not engage me at all. I do not care for books written in the present tense, either, i.e. 'She says, ...' instead of 'She said, ...'.

HR

I used to be anti-first person pov but changed after reading the Twilight saga. Now I'm only annoyed by alternating hero/heroine chapter pov!