On the Island

By: Tracey Garvis Graves

Narrated by: Heidi Baker

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

When 30-year-old English teacher Anna Emerson is offered a job tutoring T.J. Callahan at his family's summer rental in the Maldives, she accepts without hesitation; a working vacation on a tropical island trumps the library any day.

T.J. Callahan has no desire to leave town, not that anyone asked him. He's almost 17 and if having cancer wasn't bad enough, now he has to spend his first summer in remission with his family - and a stack of overdue assignments - instead of his friends.

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.

©2011 Tracey Garvis-Graves (P)2012 Tracey Garvis-Graves

Great story!

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed this book. Felt like I was right there on the island with them!

Captivating!

I loved this book. I saw reviews with people saying that this book is super taboo. It really isn't. It's only mildly taboo due to the age gap of 13.5 years. No lines were crossed though. TJ was almost 19 before they even kissed.

I was captivated from the very beginning. There were several instances where things were too good to be true and pretty contrived for the sake of the story but it still made for a great read. Some examples are things that should have sank in the ocean but instead washed up to where they were, the specific items that washed up that helped with survival, the fact that all these things washed up yet the rescuers were unable to follow the debris field in the current to locate them. I did some eye-rolling but was easily able to suspend reality for the sake of this awesome story.

I highly recommend this book. Once I finished the kindle version with the whispersync narration, I ordered the paperback so I could add it to my home collection. I wanted all the versions. I will definitely read and listen to this book again.

Audible: The narrator did a good job. Her voices weren't great but they were good enough and she was pleasant to listen to.

Problematic narrator

I enjoyed the book, although I thought there were a few too many convenient coincidences. My main complaint was the narrator. She reads well, but fails to differentiate between the voices, so they all sound the same. For a while I wondered who the third person was on the island. Without any distinction it's difficult to remember who's talking at any given time. Still, I gave it four stars for the enjoyable story.

Great Story! Too Fast Narration!

Would you consider the audio edition of On the Island to be better than the print version?

No. The narrator talked so fast that it was making me anxious. I downloaded this on my ipod and had to slow down the audio to 1/2x. I loved the story though.

What did you like best about this story?

Anna and TJ's life on the island.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Heidi Baker?

Well Sara Drew is my favorite narrator so I would take her in anything.

Narration bad

I’ve been itching to finish the book so I could come comment on the narration...then I get here and read the same sentiments from many others. Narration was not good. She did not change her voice AT ALL between the 2 characters. WHY? What kind of narrator, whose job it is to bring a book alive, can’t change their voice between female and male...in a ROMANCE book. Maybe I’ve just become spoiled by the great narrators in the books I listen to, but DANG - don’t record the book if you can’t find somebody to do a quality job to read it. It is frustrating.

Favorite

This is one of my all time favorite books. I have read it 3 times now. The first time I read it was at least 7 years ago and then again a few years later and again now. It has such a great story line and the ending is wonderful. If you haven’t read it you are missing out! Im actually about to buy a hard copy to have on hand and share with friends. Im sure I’ll read it again in a few years!

Amazing book, inappropriate narrator

Listen to a sample before you buy. I'm sure whether or not her voice appeals is entirely individual.

I read this book on kindle and loved it, so decided almost two years later to add narration and listen again, as it is a story well worth revisiting. However, I didn't make it past the second hour. Her voice was too fast, too cheerful, and her rendition of TJ (the male character) was entirely too feminine and too close to how she portrayed the main character.

I'd recommend reading this one. I'm an audible fan through and through, and I am disappointed in the choice of narrator here. It's not that the narrator is bad--I'm sure she'd do a great job narrating teenage girl voices, books that are meant to be light and humorous. This just wasn't a good fit.

I loved the story.

I loved the story, I've been thinking about it for days since I finished listening. But I did not enjoy the narrator at all. I would listen to this book over and over again if it had a different narrator.

Story ok. Poor narrator.

What did you like about this audiobook?

The book's story was ok, moved along at a reasonable pace given most was set on a very small island and not so much happening. The characters grew in the story which I liked.

What did you find wrong about the narrator's performance?

This is the first time I have not listened prior to purchasing an audible book. I wish I had, the narrator spoke so quickly, did not pause at comma's or full stops and constantly ran one sentence into another. I actually slowed her speed down on the iphone but it came across too computer like so went back to normal speed. Narrator, slow down, concentrate on the structure of the sentence and take a breath.

Good Story, Bad Narration

As other reviews state, the narration isn't great. She spoke fast and upbeat, even in dire situations. She didn't try changing her voice for different characters and this sometimes made it hard to decipher which character was talking. But, it is a good story and I'm glad I didn't quit listening.