Review: Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland

Title: Nantucket Blue
Author: Leila Howland
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Age Group: Young Adult
Category: Contemporary Romance
Release date: May 7th, 2013
Pages: 304 (ARC)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Source: Publisher
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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.

For Cricket Thompson, the Clayton's home had always been more like her own.  It was warm, inviting, and she always felt like Mr. and Mrs. Clayton's second daughter.  She even made plans to join them on their annual summer vacation to Nantucket this year!  Unfortunately, that all changed due to Nora Clayton's untimely passing.  Though her invitation had been revoked, Cricket decides that she's going to find her own way to Nantucket so she can still be there for her best friend if she needs her.  There proves to be a few roadblocks and the last thing she thought would ever happen does, but for Cricket Thompson, this is the summer that could change it all.

Nantucket Blue is your typical fun summer story filled with emotion and adventure.  Cricket is obviously reliable and constantly proves to be a great friend, but she also doesn't understand that Jules needs to deal with her mother's death in her own way.  Sadly, for her, that way is to push away her loved ones and rebel.  For most of the book, Jules is seen as the enemy, but it's very clear that she's just dealing with tragedy the best way she knows how.  I did enjoy the writing though, and the fact that the author made Nantucket seem like the perfect summer vacation destination.

The romance was exactly as I expected it to be, though I wish there had been more of it.  As a fair warning, if you go into this book seeking a romance that will sweep you off your feet, that's not what you're going to get.  Nantucket Blue focuses more on Cricket's friends, her broken family and her mom's old secret relationship with an anonymous gentleman known as Lover Boy.  What little romance scenes that did occur throughout the book were enough to fill that craving, though.

Overall, while Nantucket Blue isn't my favorite summer read, I can't deny that it was a good one.  The characters are just trying to find where they belong, and it may take longer than others, but by the end of the book, everything seems to fall into place.  If you enjoy The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han, I recommend that you give this one a try!