Nantucket
Red by Leila Howland
Expected
Publication: May 13, 2014
Publisher:
Disney-Hyperion
Format:
E-Arc via NetGalley
Rating:
3.5/5
Challenges:
2014 NetGalley/Edelweiss
Synopsis
Cricket
Thompson's lifetime of overachieving has paid off: she's headed to Brown
University in the fall, with a spot on the lacrosse team and a scholarship that
covers almost everything. Who knew living in the dorm cost money? An Ivy League
education seems to mean living at home for the next four years.
When Cricket
is offered the chance to earn enough cash to afford a real college experience,
she heads back to Nantucket for the summer. But the faraway island challenges Cricket
in ways she hadn't anticipated. It's hard to focus on earning money for next
year, when she finds her world opening up in entirely new ways-to art, to
travel, and, most unexpectedly, to a future completely different from the one
she has been working toward her whole life. A friendship blossoms with Ben, the
gorgeous surfer and bartender who encourages Cricket to be free, even as she
smarts at the pain of seeing Zack, her first love, falling for her worst enemy.
But one
night, when Cricket finally lets herself break all her own rules, she realizes
she may have ruined her carefully constructed future with one impulsive
decision. Cricket must dig deep to fight for her future, discovering that
success isn't just about reaching goals, but also about listening to what she's
been trying to ignore-her own heart.
My Thoughts
Nantucket
Red starts right off where Nantucket Blue left off. Cricket and her boyfriend Zach
have decided to break up and not do the whole long distance thing and she and
her best friend are still distant with each other. Cricket is dealing with
the struggles of growing up and having to make money for college plus deal with
her feelings of being back on Nantucket. She makes new friends and enemies on top
of everything else.
I was a little torn with this book. I mainly felt that way because I was so taken by Nantucket
Blue that I couldn’t wait to read this one. I loved the whole Cricket and Zach
romance and just wanted them to beat the odds and stay together. Yes I get that
life isn’t always perfect and that sometimes life gets in the way. Sometimes distance
and makes the heart grow fonder. However I just didn’t like how their romance
was played out. I didn’t really like Zach that much here, I felt at
times he wasn’t whom I thought he was. Maybe it was on account on how Cricket
treated him and their relationship, meaning she wasn’t always open and honest
with her emotions.
The things I
did enjoy were the returning characters. I especially loved Liz, she is a
crazy and fun chick and I loved that. Cricket definitely needs her in her life, she
totally balances her. My verdict is still out on Cricket’s best friend Jules.
I was giving her the benefit of the doubt seeing how she was going through
things but even when she was being semi nice to Cricket I always felt like she
had a motive. I just never trusted her and I don’t know exactly why.
