Friday Reads

**SPOILERS**

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I found this on kindle unlimited at work the other night. Half asleep and I was so confused and thought the book was about aliens and meteor hitting their house...I decided to restart it the next night and I am so glad I did! 

An old couple crippled by the grief over their son dying at 8 years old are living on a small not so friendly island in a house they built on a cliff. The story of his death is told early on, which I enjoyed b/c you can focus more on the story of how they are handling it and not trying to figure out what happened. The Grapes' are being evicted from their cliff side home due to zoning issues. The night before their eviction, a bad storm comes and a bolt of lightening strikes a cable holding the house from falling off the cliff. When the Grapes wake up the next morning, their house is in the ocean floating on volcanic rock.  Their journey continues for a couple weeks through the freezing waters. Unsure of where they are, the husband is pretty resourceful, and is able to give them electricity for water and to cook. The story is pretty incredible, they are 2 older people lost at sea and are able to hold it together. A few weeks into their journey, they come across some nomads  After almost freezing to death trying to walk to the camp, they are spotted and brought in to safety.  They live with the nomads for a few weeks, until the nomads tell them it is time to leave their current camp since the ice will be melting soon. The head of the nomads tells the Grapes, they can either contuine to travel with them to the new camp, or they can drop them off at the trading post where they will be found and brought home. Obviously, they chose to go home. 

Now here is where the story starts to be a little unrealistic in my opinion. After a death within the nomad community, and a trip back to their house on the ice to retrieve any things they may want to bring with them, they decide they don't actually want to go home, they want to sail the ocean in their little house. Which, while they were talking about it I really thought they were going to the trading spot, be rescued and get a boat and sail like normal people. Nope. They take off in their little house that's been beaten all to shit by the ice and harsh weather of the past months. They have no food, very few clothes, no radio AKA NOTHING one would need to sail the ocean. And these people are in their 60s! I'm sorry I just don't find that realstic even the slightest. Sure, they did it before, but it was out of necessity and they both almost died, multiple times. Why not get rescued, go home and actually get the things to help you survive? So dumb. 

Overall though, I did love the story and it was a nice heartwarming story about how a couple who lost any hope or ambition or really, any love for each other the night their son died, found love in each other again and learned to live.