The Sea of Tranquility - 60 points

Title: The Sea of Tranquility

Author: Katja Millay

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.

1 HEART

DIDN'T FINISH BOOK!!!

PS: SPOILER ALERT

POINT BREAKDOWN

Plot: 45

Potential.

This book had so much potential.

A Sea of Potential (pun intended).

The idea of two people helping each other overcome their past trauma while slowly falling in love is adorable! I even loved that Nastya didn't talk.... because the first person she talked since she was 16 was Josh. And that's also adorable! The first thing she said to him may not have been particularly adorable, but it was cute that she saved those words for him nonetheless.

The fact that she would keep coming back to his garage every night even though she didn't talk to him.... was adorable. The way they slowly built a friendship and then a relationship was also very, very cute. Him making her her own chair for the garage was priceless. Them baking and folding laundry together made me smile.

So many RIGHT things about this plot. SO MANY. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into it because the writing was barely tolerable. More on that later...

Characters: 10 points

Nastya: Apparently this isn't her real name, but that's beside the point. 

-WHAT I LIKED ABOUT HER: She was tough and she learned self-defense; that made her a total badass. She stayed quiet and only talked to Josh (for awhile anyways). She was free-spirited. She started dressing more girly at times and without makeup, which is when I loved her most. 

-WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE ABOUT HER: I HATED the way she dressed to school, and I really don't see why she ever had to dress like a slut and wear stillettos. Oh my gosh... REALLY!!!??? That kinda pissed me off from the beginning. It seemed like such a bad idea to me, given her past. I also hated what she had with Drew and what she let him do to her just "for show." I kinda just hated Drew in general really. He got on my nerves. And I REALLY, really hated it when she talked to Drew!!! Like, a lot. The first thing she said to him wasn't so bad, but I wish she didn't talk to him after that. It just bugged me. 

Josh:

-WHAT I LIKED ABOUT HIM: Ok, honestly I liked Jost for the most part. He didn't take Nastya's past and baby her, which was kinda nice, but he was also sweet and cared about her. He was the one that I really think was responsible for their relationship progression. He was a hard worker, and you could tell he really cared for Nastya.

-WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE ABOUT HIM: He was just a tad too insensitive at times, and the whole thing with Leigh was a turn off. I wish she didn't exist. 

There were a lot of supporting characters in this book - most of which I didn't like - and that just made the book a little chaotic at times. Clay was OK, but the rest I didn't really care for. 

Writing/Depth: 5 points

I wanted to like this book... truly I did. It was fairly expensive for a kindle book, but I thought it would be worth it because it got a 4.44 average rating on goodreads.com, and a good rating on amazon as well. So I took a chance!

I just couldn't get into this book no matter how hard I tried. I knew it was gonna start slow, but I didn't know it was going to be turtle-treading-through-peanut-butter slow. I got about 70% in (which was a huge reading investment for me), and I just couldn't take it anymore. It got to the point where I didn't care how it ended, because I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be climatic. Would it be shocking? Probably. But emotionless and dry on the same token. So I just decided it wasn't even worth the extra 30%. 

The whole book was very anticlimactic. I couldn't even feel sorry for the characters because there was really no emotion expressed in the book. Their first kiss was the most emotionless first kiss I've ever read. And their first date? Couldn't the writer make SOMETHING go right for them for goodness sake? 

They didn't seem to really care about their past, as horrible as their pasts were. They were just holding in things for the hell of it. Josh downright started mentioning his past without Nastya really asking! And Nastya narratively talked about her past. We didn't even see Josh get it out of her. We found out a lot of it through her narrative. 

Speaking of narrative... there was so, so, SO much narrative in this book! I just wanted them to utter actual words! Speak to each other! With the exception of Nastya of course... but even more nodding or head shaking would have been nice!!! 

It just felt like one, huge story book where the characters remain silent most of the time. If that's the kind of book you're into... then this is the book for you. But if you're into actual communication, you might want to try a different one because you will end up feeling frustrated and empty. 

I will give the book 5 points for writing style because the writer was innovative, and there was some humor, and the maturity level of the writer was high. I didn't feel like I was reading a book for tweens, which was nice. This writing style just isn't what I am used to I suppose. 

TOTAL: 60 POINTS