Finally Friday - Still Summer by Jacquelyn Mitchard

 High  school friends, Tracy, Olivia, and  Holly were the Godmothers. Their bond survived years. Now they reunite for a luxury sailboat ride in the Caribbean.  Tracy's college age daughter joins the group. With a two man crew they sail into paradise.   (Cue the Jaws like theme forbidding music). 

A small mistake triggers devastating mistakes. These women must battle the elements, modern day piracy, and their own history. 

Still Summer by Jacquelyn Mitchard is a spellbinding adventure and a story about the bonds that hold friend to friend and mothers  to daughters, and how facing our own mortality tests the truth of everything we know. 

Good story. Rich characters.  The author kept  the pages turning. I was worried, concerned, and cared  about these women. 

Book Review - Cage of Stars by Jacquelyn Mitchard

 Veronica (Ronnie) Swan is twelve and lives in a close-knit Mormon community. Her life is turned upside down when a young man having a schizophrenic episode murders her two younger sisters while Ronnie is babysitting them. They were playing hide and seek and she was in the shed.  Her parents ultimately forgive Scott Early. Veronica cannot. 

Cage of Stars by Jacquelyn Mitchard follows Ronnie's journey. At seventeen she sets out to CA to change her identity, train to be an EMT, and avenge her sisters' deaths.  cover blurb  She will discover the true meaning of sin and compassion...before she makes a decision that will change her and her family forever. 

This novel is a compelling read with well thought out characters and real emotions. 

p.120 at Cape Cod visiting a family friend: I felt free of the two little stone hands on my sisters' graves that locked me to their deaths...And I didn't feel guilty.

The teen years between fifteen and eighteen are tough enough, let alone navigating such a huge family tragedy. Her parents do end up having two more children - boys, and while Ronnie loves them, she's conflicted over missing her sisters. She questions her faith, her loves, and her life. 

p.259 Once I had wished with all my being  to clear out of the little hollow below the ridge at Pine Mountains. And now....

Mitchard's Cage of Stars is a worthy read and handles mental illness, faith, love, and family issues with a strong guiding hand and a very intelligent, warm teen narrator.