Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Blog Tour: On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves (Review & Give-away)

Today WinterHaven Books has the opportunity to review On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves as part of A Tale of Many Reviews blog tour. Thank you AToMR for allowing us to participate!



On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves
Publisher: Plume Publishing
Publication Date: July 10, 2012
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Anna and T.J. are en route to join T.J.'s family in the Maldives when the pilot of their seaplane suffers a fatal heart attack and crash-lands in the Indian Ocean. Adrift in shark-infested waters, their life jackets keep them afloat until they make it to the shore of an uninhabited island.

Now Anna and T.J. just want to survive and they must work together to obtain water, food, fire, and shelter. Their basic needs might be met but as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.'s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.
My Thoughts
Love love loved this book!!

I did not expect to feel this passionate about On the Island going into this read. I was planning to just breeze through a summer-y type book with mild interest. Well, that surely didn’t happen here! On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves was amazing! It’s one of those books that render you useless the entire time you’re lost in the pages. I wanted to give it all of my attention because it definitely captured all of my heart.

In this novel, Anna takes a tutoring job for the summer where she’ll be helping sixteen year old T.J. catch up with his school work after falling behind due to an illness. They’re slated to catch up with his family at a vacation spot and board a charter plane toward Maldives, but an unexpected accident leaves them stranded on one of the twelve hundred small islands in a vast area. Their struggle to survive and obtain food, water and shelter is not the only challenge they face. After what seems like an endless and hopeless wait for a rescue, which spans from months into years, these two people begin to battle the feelings they develop for one another despite the thirteen year age difference.

This was such a powerful story that was told in multiple perspectives between Anna and T.J. I’ve seen many authors struggle in making alternating POVs work for their story, but Tracey executed this narrative style with perfection. I could vividly imagine what Anna and T.J. had to overcome physically, emotionally and psychologically throughout this ordeal. My heart went through a wide range of emotions for these two including hope, despair, happiness and oh so much angst.

Graves did a masterful job of pacing this story and it never felt rushed in any way considering it took into account a multiple year ordeal. I’m always on the fence about epilogues, and I’ve even gone so far as removing a star or two for epilogue misuse. Not in this case. I wanted to add a few stars because Tracey’s ability to catapult us into these characters’ futures provided the perfect closure to this journey.

What I love most about this book is that it started off as a self-published novel and worked its way up from there solely based on great storytelling. Hats off to Tracy Garvis Graves for writing such a spectacular book about survival and hope that gained traction by word of mouth and exploded into the success it is today. Beautiful book that I hear is now being optioned for a movie… I’ll be buying a ticket to that show and that’s for sure! Once again… Loved it!

4.5 Snowflakes

On the Island Book Give-away
Ten (10) signed print copies will be given away by Plume Books. The give-away ends July 28, 2012 and the terms and conditions are listed in Rafflecopter. Please note, it is the publisher’s responsibility to ensure that the winners get their books, not WinterHaven Books. Thank you and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Hold on! I’ve got more to tell you!

Be sure to check out the rest of the blogs taking part in this awesome tour here.

This week in addition to reviews and posts, select blogs are hosting a word from the author's favorite quotes in the book as a Scavenger Hunt! There is one quote from Anna and one from T.J. Visit each stop this week to find the hidden words (they will be numbered for order) and after July 22nd, submit your answer to the quotes here! Random winners for books and swag will be chosen and notified by July 29th.
WinterHaven’s Scavenger Hunt Word: don't ~ This is Anna's quote, word #3

Check each stop daily to see who else is a Scavenger Hunt host! Good luck!

Also, next week July 23-27, there will be even more events and chances to win the book and swag!

Monday, July 23 at 8:00 pm CST - Chat with the author Tracey Garvis Graves! We will be chatting with the author on Savor Chat: http://www.savorchat.com/chat/on-the-island-chat Come join us! (You can sign in with twitter or facebook) Each day look at #ontheisland on twitter for random shout outs to win books and swag! @Tale_of_Reviews

ON THE ISLAND released in bookstores Tuesday, July 10th! If you see the book in stores or 'in the wild' take a picture. Please tweet it and use hashtag #ontheisland. Or you can post it to facebook! Please submit twitter and facebook links of your post/tweet here! All entries need to be submitted by July 29th.

About the Author: Tracey Garvis Graves

Tracey Garvis-Graves is the author of On the Island and Covet. She lives in a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa with her husband, two children, and hyper dog Chloe. She blogs at www.traceygarvisgraves.com using colorful language and a snarky sense of humor to write about pop culture, silly television shows, and her suburban neighborhood. You can e-mail her at traceygarvisgraves@yahoo.com. She’d love to hear from you.
Follow this author:
Goodreads / Website / Twitter / Facebook

40 comments:

  1. Great review and giveaway! On the Island is a book that I've been wanting to read for awhile now!

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    1. Thank you!! Teri Beth it's so worth it!! Good luck on the give-away. I hope you read it soon. :)

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  2. As always Arlene, I adore your reviews to bits!:)

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    1. Thankies roomie! I had fun with this one. Loved it!!

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  3. This is pretty cool! And the book sounds great!!

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    1. Cass, the book distracted me for a whole weekend! I couldn't put it down. I hope you enjoy it!! XD

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  4. On the Island sounds like a great summer read and I look forward to reading it. Thanks for the giveaway!

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    1. It really is a great summer-y type read. I loved it! You're welcome and good luck!! :D

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  5. Hi. This book looks interesting. Is the giveaway open for international entry?
    Anyway thanks!

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    1. The book is really good wni. The give-away is being hosted by the publisher and it looks like it's for US residents only. I'm sorry about that. I hope you're able to get a copy of this book. I feel it's worth it. Thanks for stopping by!! :)

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  6. There's a lot of buzz about this book, and I have to say I do find it intriguing for many reasons. The age difference is not the least of them, if I'm being honest. Great review!

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    1. Yes, a ton of buzz. I can see why it took off after reading it. Really good. You bring up a great point because the age difference was handled perfectly that made me root for these two. T.J. might be younger, but what he's had to go through and the decisions he's been faced with at such a young age, really show his maturity where age becomes a moot point.

      Can you tell I ramble about boooks I loved? LOL :)

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    2. What a great giveaway! Definitely gonna read this :D...

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  7. Thanks for stopping by Nayab! I hope you enjoy it. :)

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  8. Thanks for the giveaway. julierupert@gmail.com

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  9. I'm a new follower. Thanks for the giveaway!

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  10. This book sounds so good. Thanks for the giveaway :)

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    1. You're welcome! Good luck with the give-away! :)

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  11. What a wonderful event going on here! I'm so glad you finally read and loved this, Arlene. Excellent review. Thanks for the amazing giveaway. :)

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    1. Right?! I was so excited to be a part of it. I swear I want to read the book all over again. I can't seem to start another one! LOL Good luck on the give-away!! :)

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  12. This book looks so good. Thanks for the great review. Can't wait to read it!

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    1. It really is! You're welcome. I hope you get to read it soon! Thanks for stopping by. :)

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  13. Fantastic review, Arlene! On the Island is one of my absolute favorite books. Thanks so much for the giveaway!

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    1. Thank you Gin Bryant! I'm about to pick it up to read it again. I can't seem to move on. LOL You're welcome! Good luck with the give-away!

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  14. I would like to thank you for an apsolutely fantastic book giveaway, that i would love to have the oportunity of reading & reviewing! Thank you x

    Email: lfountain1(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk

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    1. You're welcome! Good luck on the give-away Miss Lucinda Fountain. :) I hope you get to read it soon. :)

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  15. I have not been absorbed by a book for a very long time but On The Island was it for me. I hated to get to the end - I had mixed feelings toward the middle but Tracey won me over to her side by the end. Can't wait for Covet and would love to win this giveaway. Kudos

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    1. I feel the exact same way Alice! I was hooked. Okay, I need to look into Covet. I'll read anything Tracey Garvis Graves writes. She won me over with this book. :)

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  16. Great Review! I also loved this book and would sooooo love to win a signed copy!!!! I had mixed feelings going into this book as the age difference and the fact that she was his teacher really bothered me. But TGG handled it so well, I was cheering when they finally got together. I was so invested by the end that I didn't care. That's a good book. ;)

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    1. I agree Jody. TGG executed the entire scenario to perfection. I was rooting for them. Good luck with the give-away. :)

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  17. I cover looks amazing. I have to say I have been seeing this book around much never payed much attention to it but after reading what is was about I REALLY hope to win :D

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    1. I can't wait to read it now too! Arlene loved it so now I am chomping at the bit to get to it lol.

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  18. This books sounds great and really excited to read it.

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    1. It really is a great book. I hope you give it a try. I enjoyed it a ton! :)

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