Nantucket Red (Nantucket #2) by Leila Howland

* * * 3/4

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.

I’ll just lay this out there – I simply adore Leila Howland’s Nantucket series. It’s cute, sweet and has enough of those awkward moments that anyone can relate to. It helps too that this is set on one of the most scenic spots around. Nantucket Red was like revisiting a favourite vacation spot.

At the end of Nantucket Blue, Cricket and Jake were just beginning to go public with their relationship while her friendship with Jules was still in tatters. Now she’s back at school trying to come to a truce with Jules so that they can lead their lacrosse team during their senior year. Jules is slowly coming around and while their friendship isn’t quite what it was, it’s better than how the summer went. In the meantime, Cricket and Jake have decided that rather than doing the long distance thing, they’ll go on a break instead. Hello? Have they not seen how that one Friends episode turned out?  You can see where this is going right?

The book continues to give us quick glimpses of Cricket through the school year until graduation when an unexpected opportunity comes her way to be able to live out one of her dreams. This causes her to switch her summer plans to find a job on Nantucket. Jules is happy to have her there whereas things have become extremely uncomfortable with Jake. Add to that, Cricket’s growing attraction to the surfer/musician-by-day-bartender-by-night at her job only confuses her about what she really wants.

Before I go further, I’d like to clarify that Nantucket Red isn’t just about Cricket and Jake. It’s about Cricket and what she still needs to figure out about her future. When she discovers a wish list that Nina (Jules’ mother) had written ages ago, Cricket feels it’s divine intervention telling her that she should explore the world and break out from her strict timeline. Even though she’s on Nantucket, she finds a way to fulfill that wish list, giving it her own twist. It has given her inspiration to look at her once solid plans through new lenses and she even starts to deviate slightly from her path which causes a potentially disastrous consequence. But it does force her to ultimately decide what’s in her best interest and that of her future.

Cricket’s growing up and it was a pleasure to see how she came to her decisions and how she managed to pluck the courage to do so. Graduating from high school is exciting and scary. Overwhelming expectations, especially your own that come from dreams and ideas mapped out for years can be unsettling. Cricket is a genuine sweetheart and she finds her strength with some very supportive friends and family in her corner.

Nantucket Red is just the perfect read for you if you just want something that’s delightful and easygoing. Like I said earlier, it’s adorable and sometimes that’s just what you need.

~ Bel

Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland

* * * 1/2

Available May 7th, 2013

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.

It's the cover that sold me on this book. I mean, look at the gorgeous blue ocean! And hey, rolling around on the sand with a hottie can be fun too. Who wouldn't want a getaway like that?

Cricket's dream summer isn't exactly getting off right when she arrives on the island and her best friend Jules is less than enthusiastic about her being there followed by her crush rejecting her. The adversity she faces here and learns to overcome are relevant to this particular time in a teenager’s life. Your friends are everything. Your longstanding crush is your constant obsession. So what does she do? She decides to stay low, give them space and come up with Plan B. This is what I like about Cricket. She may be hurt, confused and at a loss about why her friend has become a major pain but she hangs in there without giving up hope. Knowing that Jules is going through a rough time and that no matter what, she wants to be there for her, Cricket makes the most of the uncomfortable situation to open herself up to new experiences.

Since the invitation  to stay with Jules is off the table, she ends up working at a bed and breakfast where she befriends a fellow “chambermaid”, Liz and becomes an intern for a writer who’s working on the biography of a local celebrity politician. I have to give her kudos for making the most out of things and not just throwing in the towel to run back home because things turned upside down. She uses this time away from her divorced parents to figure herself out. And it’s during this time that an unlikely bond develops between her and someone else that changes her outlook on things but that could also complicate the friendship she's trying to repair.

I won’t go into any more details because to be honest, I simply enjoyed how this story unfolded and I hope that you do too once you read it. It’s not a story with a mind-blowing ending but it has plenty of merits. While most teenagers would be utterly devastated that their best friend isn’t speaking to them or is purposefully shunning them, Cricket puts on a brave face and goes about her business. Though I realize that would be rather difficult to accomplish in the real world, her attitude is something to aspire to. Which is why I stayed up late to finish this book in one sitting – sleep be damned!

Nantucket Blue is simply delightful and it's a nice reminder that sometimes when things don’t exactly go your way, may be it’s because something better is going to happen.

~ Bel