Pro: Fun being in Nantucket again...
Con: Semi-weak love conflict
The Bottom Line: A good read, but in the end I'll always love Nantucket Blue best...
Yes. I've owned this book since it came out in 2014. But I bought it late in the year and wanted to read it during summer, as I had Nantucket Blue. So I waited. Then 2015 never afforded me a good beach-side, pool-side, chill vacation-sort-of-time the way I'd had when I soaked in Leila Howland's first book. So I never got to read it then, either. But now it's 2016 and the time has finally come for me to read the rest of Cricket Thompson's story.
Cricket's life is changing. Back in the real world, away from the seemingly endless summer world that is Nantucket, she is faced with getting into college, being apart from Zack, and still trying to repair her damaged friendship with Jules. But things seem to finally start falling into place - and then almost as suddenly they start to fall spectacularly apart. Zack is gone. Her Ivy League future may never happen. The only hope she has left is the world of Nantucket, the help of her friends, and a list left behind by Jules's mother, Nina...
I love the premise of this book. And I love that Leila Howland figured out another way to get Cricket back to Nantucket (which, because of her, I now really want to visit...I daresay it's kind of on my bucket list now...). It works out rather nicely. And of course, Nantucket is just as magical as it is the first time - when Cricket isn't stuck waitressing, anyway. She encounters new people and old friends, finds herself in new situations that she handles with aplomb, and I like that this time around, when stuff gets real, the connection happens with Cricket's dad rather than her mom. The only real, serious bump in the road is her relationship with Zack.
That was the one thing I wasn't sure if it would work itself out or not. Everything else you pretty much already know will be okay. How it becomes okay is a different matter, but you know it's going to happen. I think really, my biggest issue was how well Cricket took Zack's abandonment. I wanted her to be angrier at him. Especially when he finally, finally provides his reasons. They weren't that great, and even the biggest stopper he was stuck with should have been challenged by Cricket. If their love is so strong, then he fails at it. Rather, he's still a teenager and does what a teen does so in some ways I can understand. Still, Cricket's love felt far more powerful than anything he had to offer. Their relationship issues were solved at the very end in three pages - almost two, really. I wanted far more conflict. I wanted Cricket to tell him how much she loved him and how much hurt he put on her. I just wanted more. The fix came too fast, too easily, and I wasn't satisfied.
Other than that, it's a great book. Nantucket Blue will forever be my favorite, though. It's Cricket's first foray out into the wild, and I love her for everything she does. In this book, too. She's a great character that I think a lot of girls could admire. But I liked the little threads that Howland weaves throughout this story, the way she puts Nina in it and makes a cheeky mystery, gives things for Cricket to think about, and I liked the final ending bit as well with Cricket's ultimate decision.
Sadly, I think Cricket's story is over and there won't be another Nantucket book, but that's okay. Sometimes you just know when a character's tale is finished. Unless Leila Howland crafts an adult book with Cricket as the central character once she's out of college. Or Cricket's daughter. I could see that.
I'd read it, too.
NT
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