Nantucket Red

April 1, 2014
A coming-of-age story with a Nantucket backdrop serves up entertainment flavored with a dose of reality. This sequel to Nantucket Blue (2013) picks up after Cricket's first summer on the island, which was filled with best-friend drama, first loves and heartbreak, and fast-forwards through her senior year, which concludes with a hard-won acceptance to Brown and return ticket to Nantucket. For graduation, Cricket's best friend, Jules, presents her a framed photo of Jules' mother, Nina, who died the year before. In life, Cricket had idolized Nina. Hidden in the frame is Nina's bucket list of adventures, which ranges from learning how to drive and then going to Big Sur to drinking Campari on the Amalfi Coast. Without the funds to globe-trot, Cricket spends her summer creatively living her way through the list on Nantucket, but along the way, she hits significant snags, including one that throws her entire future and hard work into jeopardy. This second installment hinges on relationships of all kinds--romantic, friend-based and familial--and the ups and downs that they bring with them that push Cricket to accept her new role as an adult. Cricket is a realistically rendered just-graduated senior, with life concerns and encounters befitting an actual young adult. Enjoyable and introspective, this is more than just a summer beach read. (Fiction. 13-18)

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April 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-Senior year has been a rollercoaster for Cricket Thompson. After a summer full of love found and friendship lost, Cricket has navigated her way through her last year of high school and is on her way to an Ivy League college, with one catch-she'll have to live at home. When the teen is offered the chance to earn enough money and have the true college experience living on campus, she boards a ferry back to Nantucket. A year older and with more life experience, the girl readers first met in Howland's Nantucket Blue (Hyperion, 2013) sets out on a path that offers adventure, romance, and the chance to find herself. Nantucket Red is an engaging continuation of Cricket's story, and its pace is perfect for a long weekend or beach read. The protagonist is fully developed as a character, but secondary figures are not as fleshed out. Sure to circulate this summer and throughout the year, libraries will want to purchase this along with the first in the series. Even readers who avoid "chick lit" will find this story multidimensional and enjoyable. For fans of YA romance.-Betsy Davison, Cortland Free Library, NY

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