“Crying could not show weakness if one remained strong after one’s emotions were spent.”–Sally Britton, Saving Miss Everly
Hope Everly is vivacious, adventurous, and tends to get into trouble. Her twin sister, Grace, is the calm, responsible one. Hope has been excited for a trip to the Caribbean, but when she stirs up trouble once again, her father decides she must stay home and let Grace go instead. Grace has no desire to go and Hope can’t imagine missing out on the adventure, so they do the only reasonable thing–they switch places.
Hope is ecstatic with her adventure and loves the warm sun and water of the Caribbean and doesn’t regret her deception for one minute. She decides to go on an excursion to a small island with a naturalist expedition and that is when disaster strikes. A storm comes up and they find themselves stranded on a desert island with only one other inhabitant–the handsome Alejandro Córdoba, who has been trapped and alone long enough on the island to have given up hope of ever being rescued. As they work and spend time together, Alejandro and Hope begin to fall in love but everyone thinks Hope is Grace and if they are ever rescued and she has to tell the truth, she worries she’ll lose Alejandro forever.
This is the third of five stand alone books in the Inglewood series by Laura Beers and it explores the dynamics of forced proximity and how strangers come together in a terrible circumstance. Hope matures and grows as a character and the romance between her and Alejandro is sweet and believable. This is a good beach read–but maybe not the best one to take on a boat!
Content Advisory: Peril, shipwreck