Nantucket Red (Nantucket Blue)
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