"Nantucket Blue" by Leila Howland

NOTE: I received Nantucket Blue from Netgalley. Thanks for the opportunity!

This is a book about friendship; a book about love; a book about making mistakes and searching for forgiveness. It's a book of growing up and realizing that standing up to the challenge is what can get you to move on - not succumbing to regret and guilt. A book where love develops over time, and not straight away. A book that teaches to expect the unexpected, to trust your instincts, to be brave and hardworking.

It's also a book that's underlain with grief and pain and all sorts of wrong decision. And all sorts of right ones. It's a book where friendship and love actually have a meaning.

If I had to describe the story in terms of colors, I'd have to go through the whole rainbow. There were mourning blacks, passionate reds, cheerful yellows, dancing purples, calming greens, lively oranges, blinding whites. It was an amazing bucket of color!

It's admirable, how the author managed to squeeze into some 300+ pages so many life stories, so many problems, so much great advice while at the same time having it all wrapped up in the perfect teen romance.

What I loved most about the main character, Cricket, was her loyalty. She loved fiercely, and she wasn't willing to give up what was important to her. And who was important to her. She wanted to protect the people she loved, to make them feel better, to console them in their hard times. She was one amazing young lady. What impressed me most about her though was this one quote in the end:

"If you think I'm desperate, then you must not like [name omitted] very much."

The meaning is subtle, but so strong, it blew me away! Cricket was being insulted, but she turned it around in such a way, that I was completely speechless.

I loved that girl. I loved that novel.

My rating is