Publisher:
Disney
Hyperion
Release
Date: 15th
April 2014
Edition:
US paperback,
purchased
Other
Titles in this Series: Nantucket Red (13/5)
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 the 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-coloured 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’ve wanted to read Nantucket Blue ever since I first got a
glimpse of the cover, but I waited for it to come into paperback with anxious
hand-wringing. I feel like I may have amped it up for myself a little too much.
The summary of Howland’s debut
promises sun, sand, kissing and coming-of-age, and while Cricket’s story
definitely delivers all of that, I still felt it was a little lacking. And a
little teeth-gritting in places if I’m honest. For me, there was a serious lack
of girl power in Nantucket Blue. I noticed
lots of niggling digs at overweight people and judging herself and other girls
on their bodies in a straightforward way, no connecting to herself how ridiculous
or damaging it is; that is the wrong message to send to teen girls reading this
book. I didn’t think Cricket was a particularly strong character either. I know
she’s not even eighteen, but she constantly cried and whined and never really
stood up for herself. Overall, I wasn’t Cricket’s biggest fan.
There were a few characters I did
love, however: Zack and George, Jules’ younger brother and the journalist
staying in the B&B Cricket was working in for the summer. It would
definitely be easy to fall in love with Zack and I just thought that Cricket
being George’s intern while he was writing his book was an interesting aspect
to the story and his character was vivid and interesting but not too
overpowering. Cricket’s mum also played a surprisingly prominent part in the
story through her diary written around the poems in an Emily Dickinson
collection. Her diary entries were suitably cringe-worthy and first love,
confess-all teen romance and they were brilliant. I wish the cringey aspect had
been made more of however, Howland could have got some golden moments out of
that. It was used as a plot device rather obviously instead of a teenage girl
discovering her mum’s diary and reading about her making out with boys in a
summer on Nantucket!
Speaking of Nantucket: someone
take me, please? It sounds like heaven. Pristine beaches, beautifully snobby
rich boys and boutiques full of clothes I could drool over but wouldn’t let one
leg in. I’d love to spend a week there. I actually stopped reading to Google it
a few times and I just...seriously, it’s my birthday in six weeks – a trip to Nantucket
would be an excellent present...
Nantucket
Blue is a
light, summery beach read that I don’t think should be expected too much of. There
is going to be a sequel published in a few weeks, Nantucket Red, but I really don’t see why it’s needed and I can’t
say I’ll be too worried about reading it.
Sophie
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