The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Title: The Sea of Tranquility
Author: Katja Millay
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: November 13th 2012
Pages: 426
Source: Audible, Purchased

Summary from Goodreads:
I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.

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.

Review

I don't typically gravitate towards books involving troubled teens finding, and saving, one another. Of all the issue books that I might be inclined to read, this topic is one of the least motivating to me. Perhaps that is why I have yet to continue with Katie McGarry's books after Pushing the Limits (although I do intend to). It's not that I can't enjoy them (clearly). Honestly, I'm not really sure why I shy away from them.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I often find these types of stories to carry a certain level of  coincidence and unbelievability with them, The Sea of Tranquility included. Or maybe since I can't relate, I never fully connect with the characters. I've connected with other issue books, but maybe because these characters have been through something traumatic, their personalities and behaviors are changed to a point beyond which I could ever understand. I'm just speculating here...

My point is that despite my hesitation with this subject matter, The Sea of Tranquility still captivated me. And although I might not have experienced the same level of emotion or have come to love this book to as great of an extent as many others given my disposition, I can understand why this book has warranted that reaction and I still enjoyed it greatly. There was something about it that was irresistible.

My fascination with Nastya is what ultimately pulled me in. She was a puzzle to me, one that I needed to solve. I wanted to know the details of what happened to her, wanted an explanation for why she stopped speaking and continued to remain silent, and wanted to understand why she behaves the way that she does. Katja Millay doesn't give this information freely and keeps readers desperate to read faster. Whereas Josh was less of a mystery because his story was given more readily.

I also loved the innocence to this story. Nastya and Josh were good people who had bad things happen to them. And they might have been lost and confused and angry and desperate, but they never lost their innocence. Their pasts and their journey's were distinct to this story and pulled at my heartstrings.

I admit that I had started to hope for an ended that didn't come to be, but I am still pleased with the ending that was given. I like when characters end in a good place.

All in all, this book had a certain readability to it. Nastya and Josh are complex characters and their stories are heartbreaking. As far as troubled teens go, Nastya and Josh's story was one of the better ones.

Hopeless (Hopeless #1) by Colleen Hoover

Title: Hopeless
Series: Hopeless #1
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: December 19, 2012
Pages: 327
Source: Audiobook, Audible

Summary from Goodreads:
Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

Review

Was I reading the same book as everyone else? Because there are an overwhelming amount of glowing reviews for this book and I just don’t understand it. At all.

Holder is not likeable. Maybe Holder was a good guy in the last 1/4 of the book but what about the first 3/4? I don’t care that his most controversial behavior is explained in the end, it is not at all excusable or justified. He was temperamental, invasive, controlling, insulting, selfish, threatening and unpredictable. His behavior was so off-putting to me that “off-putting” is putting it mildly. How is it ok to show aggression toward a girl, stop talking to her for weeks with no explanation, and then CLIMB IN HER BEDROOM WINDOW IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. Not to apologize. He didn’t want Sky to forgive him (he said this). He just needed her to need him there more than she needed an apology (he said this too). This is just one example. Excuse me while I go throw up in my mouth.

I like Sky only slightly better than I do Holder. I have no respect for her because she has no respect for herself. And that has nothing to do with the several boys she lets take advantage of her (although that certainly doesn’t help) and everything to do with how she is so accepting/forgiving of Holder when he gives her every reason not to be. She admits to being TERRIFIED of him on SEVERAL occasions and yet she lets him continue to control her. And I thought that she acted pretty irrationally, selfishly, and without thought in the second half of the book. I understand the horribleness of her situation and I am not trying to be insensitive, but I’ve read books involving sensitive subjects and they were handled much better than this.

Now I am not going to say this book was ALL bad. I liked the friendship between Six and Sky. I think Breckin was awesomesauce. And I think Karen was a really good parent to Sky. There were some good lines in this. And the ending wasn’t terrible. Then again I could have been misplacing my glee over finally finishing this book. That is the extent of the things I liked. And sadly, the things I didn’t like totally overshadowed them.

So no, I don’t think I can recommend this book. There are so many books either of the contemporary, swoony boy, and/or sensitive issue variety that are better than this one in my opinion. Then again, I seem to be a black sheep.

And for the record, There were an awful lot of panty dropping references for a girl who considers herself a virgin and a book involving child molestation. Just saying.