Stranded on Castaway Island 5 star YA adventure survival

Stranded on Castaway Island written by Amy C. Laundrie is young adult adventure survival contemporary fiction told from the first-person point of view of fourteen-year-old Annie. Life has dealt her a difficult hand. She lost her mom in a car accident, and her best friend, Mirra, betrayed her. As the story opens, she is the caregiver to her two younger brothers, emotional support for her dad, and has taken on the role of providing whatever is needed for the family. But life turns upside down when her former best friend asks her to join her for an island picnic. She boards the boat thinking perhaps Mirra is going to apologize. That is far from the case, and when a sudden storm turns the boat ride into a terrifying fight for survival, Annie and Mirra find themselves shipwrecked on a remote island. The two of them are forced to learn how to survive together, and how to let go of their grudges which grow to encompass whose fault it is that they are stranded. 

 

 

Wild horses that live on the island bring an interesting element to the story. I won’t share it in detail, because I don’t include spoilers in my reviews, but I have to say I enjoyed this harbinger on more than one level.

 

Laundrie does an excellent job telling the story from a teenage point of view and the pacing of this story is perfect with a constant ebb and flow of conflict and resolution. An element of mystery and a whole new danger level ratchets up the tension when the girls find warm embers from a campfire and man-sized footprints. Is someone watching them? Why doesn't he show himself? Are they in danger?

I highly recommend this book for readers who enjoy YA adventure survival like Wildfire by Rodman Philbrick, or A Map for Wrecked Girls by Jessica Taylor. I enjoyed the characters, the setting, and the realistic details that made it all come to life as well as the healing nature of the story. I give Stranded on Castaway Island 5 stars.

As BookHookup, I am a longtime book reviewer and I received Stranded on Castaway Island as a free review copy and have not been compensated for reviewing or recommending it.  

 

This review is posted in collaboration with #Blackberry Book Tours. Some links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliate sites. 

 

About Author Amy C. Laundrie

 

Amy Laundrie taught elementary school for over thirty years. She loved sharing her love of nature, animals, and stories with her students. Her survival novel, STRANDED ON CASTAWAY ISLAND, takes young adult readers on a wild adventure. THE QUACK-A-DOOLDE PARADE is a rollicking picture book. She's also a weekly columnist and has collected her favorite pieces and included them in an adult memoir called LAUGH, CRY, REFLECT: STORIES FROM A JOYFUL HEART. Her latest series beginning with FOLLOW ME INTO THE WOODS is a nature picture book series. NOAH'S ARK PET CARE CLUB is a fun story about three kids who pet-sit. Amy’s also the author of WHINNY OF THE WILD HORSES, and the Kayla Montgomery mystery series for older readers. EYE OF TRUTH, THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER, DELIVER US FROM EVIL, LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, and WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING include suspense, light romance, and horses. 

Visit her at www.laundrie.com.

Contemporary, action-packed story of overcoming, healing, and growth

Climb (The Ashley Davies Trilogy Book 1) by Philip Barker takes place in rural Australia. Layers of red dust cover the cars, and fifteen-year-old Ashley Davies struggles to find purpose. She doesn’t care that she doesn’t fit in but longs for friends. As the youngest of two children she lives with her mum and an older brother who is wheelchair bound since “the accident.” But what accident? Why doesn’t anyone talk about what happened? And why did her Dad leave when she was so young?

 

When a classmate, Jacob, says her handicapped brother deserves to be in his wheelchair, she challenges him to climb the old rusty water tower. Whoever climbs to the top first gets to let the other’s phone drop to the ground. Ashley is a born climber, and when she wins the climbing challenge, she drops Jacob's phone, and it crashes to pieces. In short order, she is called to the principal’s office along with her mum. 

After getting in trouble, Ashley tries to turn over a new leaf and be a better student. She makes a few friends, and life unfolds with a torrent of events that reveal bits and pieces of the past in her small-town clarifying details of the accident and why her Dad left. As she deals with emotional baggage, the school’s American janitor offers her a chance to enter a climbing contest in Sydney. At first, she dismisses the idea but changes her mind. She loves climbing. To her surprise, when she shows up for training Jacob is there to train for the qualifying contest. To make matters worse, he is to be her climbing partner.

 

When her brother, Cameron, learns she is training for a chance to go to Sydney he offers to help her. As the two work together, he admits he used to be “pretty good” at climbing and he gives her his dusty bag of climbing gear. He teaches her the clove hitch and says, “You don’t even need a partner to climb with you. The knot is your partner. And the only person that you ever need to trust is yourself.” She grabs onto that idea. This way, she will never let anyone down.

Climb is an inspiring YA story about overcoming emotional, physical, and psychological obstacles for all ages. Ashley faces one hurdle after another in her quest to compete in Sydney and prove something to herself and others. When she gets injured, the man training her meets her mum. Can she hide her plans? Or will this put a stop to her dreams to compete? Then she learns the secrets behind her brother’s accident. It drives her to want to prove herself. To show her family is better than what people in her small-town think. This is more than a coming-of-age story. It’s an overcoming story. A story of healing and growth. A contemporary, action-packed story that doesn’t stutter or stall. It’s a story of first loves and finding oneself amid the chaos of the world. In one word Climb is satisfying, and I recommend it to readers young and old. I give it 5 stars and look forward to the sequel, Climb Harder.

As BookHookup, I am a longtime book reviewer and I received Climb as a free review copy and have not been compensated for reviewing or recommending it. This review is posted in collaboration with #Blackberry Book Tours. Some links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliate sites.  

 

About author Philip Barker

Young adult literary fiction author Philip Barker believes it is important to do something every day that scares you, even if it’s only a little bit; it means you are pushing yourself to experience new things. Through his writing, he aspires to provide his young readers a different perspective, to put emotions into words so that they can hopefully feel a way that they normally wouldn’t, or even wouldn’t want to.

Philip realized in high school that he wanted to be a writer when he discovered that books have the capacity to make him think outside of the established way that was taught to him growing up in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. He likes to ground his stories in reality and relate them to personal experiences. It is his opinion that life itself is amazing and story-worthy, and there are so many interesting people in the world, all things that he can harvest great writing from.

Philip believes a great story is one that has relatable and interesting characters. Everyone lives interesting lives, and getting to know people is the fun part, even with fictional characters. Having them leave their comfort zones becomes fascinating and often hilarious. To Philip, everyone has a story to tell, and he hopes his young readers learn from his own story that life is complicated and things occur that can often be out of their control. But how they overcome obstacles is what’s important and committing oneself to something with a goal and purpose, like rock climbing, can help ground you.  

When he isn’t writing thought-provoking fiction stories for young adults, Philip enjoys rock climbing, gardening, and watching B Grade movies. His wife, siblings, mother, and in-laws provided positive support and courage for his book and in his life. He lives in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, NSW, Australia with his wife, two dachshunds, Alfie and George, and a rabbit named Abby. Climb is his debut novel.

Author’s Social Media Links:

https://www.abbeydalecollective.com/

https://www.instagram.com/abbeydalecollective/

https://www.facebook.com/AbbeydaleCollective