Latest Review: The Sea of Tranquility

Goodreads Summary:
Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.

Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a rich, intense, and brilliantly imagined story about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.

My Thoughts:
I read this due to the review from Allison at The Allure of Books (who always has amazing, under-the-radar recommendations).  This book had me turning the pages feverishly right from the start and overall I really enjoyed The Sea of Tranquility. 

I loved the cast of characters in the novel and it had superb dual narration.  Not only were the main characters awesomely unique and empathetic, but there were some well-drawn secondary characters too (which is a super-rare quality in a book). Seriously, character-driven novels are pretty much my favorite.

My only gripe is that the drama rose to soap opera-ish levels (maybe that's why the author references General Hospital?).  Granted, some extremely disturbing and upsetting things happen- but towards the end it just all seemed to pile up.  It was just one crazy event on top of another to the point where I was feeling a little eye-rolly.  BUUUuut there are lots of books out there where IMHO the drama levels are too high and most other people LOVE them.

So, take my criticism with that in mind.  If you are sensitive to this sort of thing like I am (for example...most of the time love triangles bug me), then you may get annoyed at the latter part of the book but still like it despite that fact.  If not, I think you will be absolutely enamored with this unique love story.  Overall, no matter where you fall on the drama-dramz spectrum, this is definitely a book worth checking out!

4/5 stars

Disclosure: I received a copy for review via NetGalley.