Megan is a castaway, sole survivor of a small passenger plan which went down in the Carribbean.   On a conciliatory second honeymoon with her straying husband, she suddenly finds herself washed up on a small island, totally alone except for some very inhospitable wild pigs.  As she waits for rescue, she gathers supplies and useful items scavenged from the wreck, and manages a fairly comfortable existence while performing the heartrending task of  burying the bodies of her fellow passengers as they wash up on shore.  Two weeks later, this female Robinson Crusoe meets her man Friday when another body is found on the beach, but this one’s vcry much alive…he’s also sexy, Australian, and twelve years younger than she.  Happy to find another human being, Megan welcomes Seth to her camp and they set about coping with each other’s personalities until rescue arrives…if it ever does.

There’s awkwardness at first, of course, for here are two total strangers now living in intimate proximity.  Finding a boat on the opposite end of the island eases their predicament somewhat.  It’s the Dinki-Di, the boat Seth was working on before he went overboard, its owner now drowned also.  The boat can’t be repaired but it does have electricity, a working stove and refrigerator, so they make it their home instead.  By now, their enforced closeness, Seth’s  devil-may-care sexiness, and Megan’s guilt and anger over her husband’s infidelity and the uncertainty of his death bring about disclosures and confrontations ending in the two becoming lovers with a passion which frightens both as it draws them closer together.  Intruders to the island, attacks from wild pigs as well as pirates—the routing of the pirates from the island is a hilarious scene!—and continual rainstorms add to the intensity of their lives, and then Megan discovers that Seth  isn’t exactly who he says he is, and he has a terrible secret of his own…

These characters are great and how they go about adapting to their predicament is a minor lesson in What to Do if you’re Ever Shipwrecked.  Megan is resourceful and, in spite of her subconscious fears and pain, tends to be very optimistic.  She knows they are going to be rescued, just not when.  Though she mourns her husband and the loss of their marriage, she doesn’t sit around and wring her hands but sets out to survive. A housewife most of her married life, she’s gotten a lot of knowledge from attending classes to fill her time and that holds her in good stead as she settles into island life.  Seth has his own abilities—as a surfer, a diver, a mate on the Dinki-Di—and his Aussie cockiness offsets Megan’s seriousness, his Down-Under slang lightens everything he says.  He has his problems, also,  but hides them well until Megan confronts him.  He also manages for a while to control his attraction to her behind his wise-ass façade, but once it’s unleashed…

MY OPINION:  Loved the story, but not the ending.  I felt it was too abrupt, as if someone called out, “Okay, time to finish up!”  I also thought it was a little unrealistic.  However, that’s just my opinion.  Nevertheless, this is an entertaining story with likable characters, and the survival techniques they employ are well-thought out.  I kept getting visions of the first episode of Lost as I read. On that basis, I’m giving it three stars, with the following request:  Please Janice, let’s have a sequel to tie up all those loose ends—Seth’s parents, Megan’s sons and her mother, the business Megan wanted to start…perhaps whether Megan’s husband Jonathan actually perished in the crash or not.  It would make me happier and a lot of other readers, too, I’m sure, and you’d already have a head-start on your next novel.

(The copy of this novel was supplied by the author and no remuneration for the review was involved.)