Dolphins. Aw Yeah.

A Ring of Endless Light

By Madeline L'Engle

It’s been a while since I read a book that left me with a book hangover. I’ve read plenty of really good books lately but A Ring of Endless Light was different. Turns out, it’s actually the fourth book in a series of five, The Austin Family Chronicles, although it could be a stand-alone book.

In A Ring of Endless Light, almost sixteen year old Vicky moves, with her family, to The Island, for the summer to spend what might be his last summer with her grandfather. During this time she finds herself dealing with unimaginable loss and sadness, as well as incredible beauty. Vicky says at one point “I’m practically never entirely sure about anything.”

While she’s on the island Vicky gets tangled up with three boys: The Old Friend, The Dangerous One (aka The Jerk) and The One You Know She’ll Choose Because No-one Ever Chooses the Other Two. Now I’m not going to go into detail on the love triangle or square thingy, because that makes it sound like any other fluffy teen romance novel and it isn’t. Not by far. And, added to all this there are dolphins. In fact, the most beautiful parts in this book are definitely when Vicky is in the water with the dolphins.

I came to A Ring of Endless Light not knowing what to expect. To be honest, the blurb made it sound a bit fluffy but a friend highly recommended it.  It’s beautifully written, and Vicky is a nice, believable character. Reading it made me wish I could crawl inside the book and live Vicky’s life (minus the whole death and sadness part). The one criticism I have is that I wanted to smack Vicky when she stuck around with the aforementioned Jerk, but eventually she tells him to take a hike and it’s all good.

I highly recommend A Ring of Endless Light and will definitely reread it multiple times. Now I just have to read the other four books…

Feisty chick-o-meter: 10/10
Age rating: 12 +
Rating: 10/10
Stand alone or series: Series
Book or audiobook: Book
Last word: Close