Audio Book Review: Katja Millay - The Sea of Tranquility

Katja Millay - The Sea of Tranquility

• Pub Date: November 13, 2012
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio
• Format: Audio book, 13hr 10min
• Age Range: Young Adult
• Source: Publisher (thank you!)

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.

Holy wow. I knew from the beginning that this book could be a 5-star book. It takes a LOT to get 5 stars from me, and this book was so very close. It's raw, real, and full of emotion. This book captured me from the beginning, and I didn't want to stop listening. Nastia and Josh are broken, but they find each other. It's a great story.

The only thing that really makes this book a 4.5-star book is that I could hear the grammatical errors while listening to the audio book. When self-published books are picked up by major publishers, aren't they edited again? Or was this not a previously self-published book? Either way! Those thing should be caught. I don't have specifics because I didn't take notes. I just made the note on Goodreads about hearing grammatical errors, but I think it had a lot to do with "I" vs. "me" many times.

This book took me by surprise though. I had no idea what it was about before I picked it up. I like things that way. I'd been told to read it, and I'm so glad I did. It had a few problems, like it's kind of long and it drags out a bit. But my goodness, I absolutely adored the ending. Really only the last two words. And that's all I'm saying. Wowee wow wow wow.

Bottom line: Everyone should read this book. Seriously. The ebook is only $3.79 on Amazon!

Rating:

4.5 book sharks!