The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

A Goodreads Summary:

"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.

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...

After a week of seeing several people on Twitter raving about this book, I decided to give it a try.  Needless to say, at one point toward the end of the book, I was cooking dinner with one hand and holding my Kindle in the other.  

Nastya, the main character, seems like she's living a typical life of teenage rebellion.  She has attitude, refuses to dress normally and spends her days loathing herself.  However, her story is anything but normal for a teenage girl.  As it unfolds, you start to feel a deep compassion for her and wonder how she will ever get over her past.

Her therapy comes in the form of Josh Bennett, a reclusive, brooding, yet very swoony, teenager himself.  The two begin to form a bond, identifying with one another in a way others cannot.  He shares his secrets and past with her, but even though he shows her the patience and understanding he can have, she can't bring herself to lay it all out for him.   Ultimately, this leads them to a place of destruction.

There are several sweet, cute or thought-provoking tidbits interwoven into their dialog:

"Just so you know," he mimics me, "I would chop that table up and use it for firewood before I would ever choose anything over you." - Josh Bennett

“I wished my mother was here tonight, which is stupid, because it’s an impossible wish.” He shrugs and turns to me, drowning the smile that cracks me every time. 
“It’s not stupid to want to see her again.” “It wasn’t so much that I wanted to see her again,” he says, looking at me with the depth of more than seventeen years in his eyes. “I wanted her to see you.” 

"Do real boys actually call girls baby? I don't have enough experience to know. I do know that if a guy ever called me baby, I'd probably laugh in his face. Or choke him.” 

"Daylight won’t protect you from anything. Bad things happen all the time; they don’t wait until after dinner."



I cannot tell you how much of a book hangover I had when I finished.  These characters made me feel so, so much.   When they loved, I loved. When they broke, I broke.  When they healed, I healed with them.  

I recommended the story to a good friend of mine, not knowing how she might receive it.  I anxiously awaited her reaction.  Not too long after she starting reading, my phone started pinging with notifications of direct messages on twitter.  In the end, I believe we exchanged about fifty flaily direct messages yesterday.  Needless to say, I believe she loved it.

Ultimately, this is a story of forgiveness and second chances.  I encourage you to give it a try.  It earned 5 stars from me on Goodreads.  I'm sure you won't be disappointed.  Happy Reading!

P.S.  Warning: This book contains some language and adult situations. 

Aricle 5 by Kristen Simmons

A Goodreads Summary...

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren't always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it's hard for her to forget that people weren't always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It's hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings—the only boy Ember has ever loved.

My Summary and Thoughts...

Seeing as how I am going through a hardcore dystopian phase right now, this book definitely fit the bill. (If you are unfamiliar with the dystopian genre, here is an explanation.)  

I was fooled by the summary into thinking the entire story would be based on the small description but was happily surprised to find that it only covered the first few chapters of the book.  Unfortunately, because of that, I don't want to elaborate too much on the rest of the story for fear I might ruin it for someone.  

The heroine of the story, Ember Miller, seems like a normal teenage girl living in what she believes is a normal (by her standards) world.  She shoulders the burden of caring for her mother and herself while nursing the broken heart she suffered at the hands of Chase Jennings when he left her to become a soldier.  After her mother's arrest, she and Chase meet again unexpectedly.

With the perfect combination of romance, action and suspense, the tale of Ember and Chase kept me on the edge of my seat...and kept me up until 1am this morning until I made myself turn off my Kindle.  

This book is a fantastic read for those of you looking for something interesting with a hint of backstory and love.  I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads but really would rather have given it 4.5 out of 5.