"This is right where I want to be."5 out of this world stars!
Anna Emerson is a thirty-year old teacher and offered a job to tutor T. J. Callahan during the summer.
After fighting cancer, the last the T. J. wants to do is go to the Maldives and catch up on his schoolwork.
Then, while traveling to their destination, the pilot suffers a fatal heart attack. After floating in the shark-infested waters, they drift toward an uninhabited island and wait for rescue to come.
Was I worried about the age gap?
Was it a problem in the end?
They were thirteen years apart in age and I was pretty sure that was going to be a problem. That wasn't the case, however. The more they bonded, the more I believed that with them, age was just a number. With the cancer and now being stranded on an island T. J. was wiser than his years.
When their relationship moved past platonic I was overjoyed.
They fit so well together that after a while I was like screw your ages, your soulmates.
The book is set in alternating POV. I loved being able to see what each of them were thinking.
Anna was great. I was never annoyed or frustrated with her. She did her best to take care of T. J. even when things were hard for her.
T. J. was so... perfect? I don't know how to really describe him. He wasn't immature and didn't act his age. I felt he was so much older. When he and Anna started their relationship, you could tell just how much he loved her.
I pulled my arms out from underneath her body and tucked her hair behind her ears. “I love you, Anna.”
The surprised look on her face told me she hadn’t seen that coming.
“You weren’t supposed to fall in love,” she whispered.
“Well, I did,” I said, looking into her eyes. “I’ve been in love with you for months. I’m telling you now because I think you love me too, Anna. You just don’t think you’re supposed to. You’ll tell me when you’re ready. I can wait.” I pulled her mouth down to mine and kissed her and when it ended, I smiled and said, “Happy birthday.”
When they were eventually rescued and integrated with society again, they feelings stayed strong. While they were ridiculed and the butt of jokes, they pulled through because they knew they had each other.
“I don't fit in your world."
"Neither do I," he said, his expression tender yet resolute. "So let's make our own. We've done it before.”
Like any couple, they did have their problems and unlike some books, I really understood why. They never blew things out of proportions or let things get to them, but I think for them to be completely together, they had to remove all the doubts they had.
The book was short but didn't lack anything and had an amazing epilogue.