Little Bridge Island is a series of books by Meg Cabot. It is set on the fictional island of Little Bridge.
Tropes found in the saga as a whole:
- Florida: Little Bridge Island is one of the Florida Keys (an archipelago off the southern coast). It's also the smallest Key but purportedly, the most beautiful.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The books are titled some variation of "No X": No Judgments, No Offense, and No Words.
No Judgments contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Drew has a habit of saying he's adopting any dog they find that seems to have been abandoned, mistreated, or so much as ignored as he and Bree do animal checkups around the island. He also renames them all "Bob" regardless of gender. It gets to the point where Bree tells him, both amused and touched by his concern, that if he adopted all the dogs on the island, there would be no room in his house. She also cracks up when telling him the dogs may suffer identity crises if they're all called Bob. Despite saying his way is easier, Drew is also amused when she suggests some names that incorporate Bob while differentiating them.
- Attempted Rape: Bree reveals that her ex's friend Kyle lay on top of her while she was asleep, and wouldn't get off while trying to rape her. She had to lie that she would date him for him to get off, and then grabbed one of Caleb's suitcases to pack her things.
- Chekhov's Gun: Literally. Bree's boss Lou gives her a gun to carry while she does animal rescue work around the island. She uses it to shoot a bottle of tequila that Kyle was using for margaritas, refuse his apology, and show she means business.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Lou ends up being this and a Reasonable Authority Figure. He can swear up a storm, especially after the hurricane damaged his home. When Bree, his employee, says she needs to get her cat and her landlady's guinea pigs, Lou insists that she take a gun with her.
- Drew can be a bit rough around the edges, Brutally Honest, and nosy, as Bree can attest. He also insists on helping Bree with animal rescue and checkup after the storm despite minor questioning, wants to adopt any abused dog that he sees, and dotes on his nieces.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Rick, Socks's owner, kicks his dog on a regular basis while getting a drink. When he does this on storm night, Drew threatens to lay him out if he does it again. Rick scoffs. When Drew follows on his promise, Rick goes to get the sheriff. Bree then lies for Drew and says she didn't see him punch Rick, which is Exact Words, but everyone saw him kick Socks. The sheriff arrests Rick for animal abuse.
No Offense contains examples of:
- Analogy Backfire: Tabitha says that she named her baby Cosette for the child from Les Misérables. Molly points out that Cosette suffered a lot due to her mother being a single parent.
- Alone with the Psycho: Downplayed. Mrs. Tifton fears this will happen when Larry Beckwith starts petting her dog and confesses that he's the one who stole her dead husband's camera and iPad. She doesn't get angry because she's worried that he would break Daisy's neck. He then goes away, however, and she follows him discreetly while calling the police and giving them a location.
- And Then What?:
- John seriously asks Larry what he would have done if no one had found Tabitha or the baby in time. Even if he didn't attempt to kill either of them, it looks like attempted murder. Larry insists that "civic-minded people" in the library would have done so, and he confesses he was drunk and not thinking straight.
- Tabitha's parents tell her that she can't live this nomad hobo cult life forever; she now has a newborn, with no job prospects. Her response is to blithely say that Larry is taking her to Tahiti and that they'll go to an island where they can get all the fruit they want. She has to put the kibosh on those plans when Molly breaks it to her gently that the cops arrested her boyfriend, and he can't rely on his dad's money and lawyers this time. Instead, she stays in Little Bridge with her mother helping out with the baby and living conditions.
- Both Sides Have a Point: The sheriff and Molly disagree about calling Tabitha's parents. Molly says that it would be disrespectful to Tabitha's wishes because she is an adult. John says that Tabitha reminded him of his daughter Katie and that if it were Katie that had nearly bled to death in a renovated building while having labor, he would want to know. In the end, both admit the other may have a point: Molly meets Tabitha and sees that her parents were genuinely worried about her while she's out of touch with reality, given she has a child to raise. John realizes that Larry does care for Tabitha and let himself get caught on realizing he was a father.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Deconstructed with Tabitha. John is Brutally Honest when calling her "bananas," and Molly admits that while the term is offensive, Tabitha is out of touch with reality. Tabitha ran away from home when her parents wanted her to improve her SAT scores for college, using her dad's credit card for purchases. She then fell in with Larry's Sunshine Kids and thinks that they can break into people's homes and public libraries to squat in them and leave behind pizza boxes. When Molly points out to Tabitha that the cult destroyed public space, Tabitha insists that buildings and spaces aren't to be owned. She also says that Larry is going to come and take her to Tahiti in a boat. John brings the reality check that Larry is going to be in jail for a decade at least.
- Domestic Abuser: Larry leaves his girlfriend Tabitha to bleed to death and abandons their baby in a library toilet; both nearly die. Larry is horrified upon learning about that last tidbit, denies that it was attempted murder, and argues that he was not thinking straight because he was drunk.
- Genre Savvy: Both Molly and Mrs. Tifton love reading mysteries, and John notes that Mrs. Tifton would fit in well into a cozy novel as the nosy old lady detective. They take a personal interest in finding the baby's mother, especially when it turns out the father may have robbed Mrs. Tifton. It turns out their power of observation and pragmatism are what John needs to arrest Larry Beckwith.
- Good Is Not Nice: John feels bad about having to interrogate a hospitalized Tabitha once she's stable and out of the ICU. He does it anyway because Larry has several warrants pending for theft, vandalism, and attempted murder, and Tabitha is in denial that she nearly died and caused trouble in Little Bridge. Sergeant Marguerite tells him that it's tough but he's doing a good job.
- Heroic Bystander: Mrs. Tifton becomes one. She recognizes Larry, keeps calm when he admits that he was the one that stole her dead husband's camera, and follows him from a distance while calling the police. John admits that she is nosy but it was useful intel for catching Larry and getting Mrs. Tifton's things back.
- Moral Myopia: Molly tries to explain to Tabitha why trashing up the library's rec room was unconscionable, especially since other people were using it. Tabitha says that spaces aren't meant to be owned, and neither are people. Molly then asks if Tabitha would say the same thing about someone taking her baby. Tabitha goes Mama Bear, oblivious that Larry did just that and Molly outright tells her that it was attempted murder, if unintentional.
- Papa Wolf: He claims that he's not bailing Tabby out of any more trouble, but Tabitha's dad gets excited and worried when he learns she gave birth to a girl. The man asks where his granddaughter and daughter are and comes straight to the hospital from the Little Bridge airport.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- John once more is this. While he says that whoever abandoned the baby committed a crime, he and Molly determine that Tabitha wasn't the one who did that given she was semiconscious and soaked in afterbirth blood. John decides to let her off the hook but calls her parents to let them know where their runaway daughter is.
- The social worker comes to talk to Tabitha, to determine if she's a fit parent for her daughter. Offscreen, she apparently determined yes, but is making frequent visits as Tabitha stays in Little Bridge with her mother and the baby.
- Social Services Does Not Exist: Subverted; a social worker talks with Tabitha once she is out of the ICU. Officer Marguerite mentions that the odds are in Tabitha's favor to keep her baby despite the circumstances since she doesn't have a criminal record. Indeed, Tabitha retains custody of her daughter while her mother stays in town to help her with the baby.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Tabby is in denial that her boyfriend and the father of her baby are bad news. She insists that "Dylan" promised he would "borrow" a boat and they would go to Tahiti. Molly breaks it to her that he's been arrested, and with his rap sheet, he's going to be in jail for five years at minimum.
- This Is Reality: Larry insists that he didn't leave Tabitha to bleed to death or their baby to nearly succumb to hypothermia in a library toilet. He says that women have had babies all the time and they don't die. John, rather than punch him in the face, tells him that without neonatal care, women throughout history have died from blood loss and other complications.
No Words contains examples of:
- Bait the Dog: Sure, Garrett isn't nice per se, but he tells Jo that he is a big fan of her books, and says that children's authors ought to stick together. Jo finds out that he hits on underage readers at these events and staged a stunt where everyone thought he had drowned.
- Didn't Think This Through: Will reveals that he was drumming up the nerve to apologize to Jo for saying her writing wasn't good enough to plagiarize. He didn't consider that Jo wouldn't have appreciated him manipulating events so she would come to the festival.
- Forgiveness: It takes the whole book, but Jo realizes that Will is truly sorry about what he said about her books not being good enough to plagiarize.
- Writer's Block: Jo has been suffering it since her mother died, someone plagiarized her books, and no one wants her grim and gritty stuff.
