The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay ARC Review

Title: The Sea of Tranquility
Author: Katja Millay
Published: November 13th, 2012 by Atria Books
Book rating: 4 stars
Cover rating: 3 stars

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.

I'm sure you've heard about The Sea of Tranquility, awhile back it was all that was talked about in the blogger world. Every blogger I loved was reading and absolutely adoring this book and I'm just now jumping on the band wagon but better late than never right? In honor of the release of the paperback on June 4th I want to add another loving review to the collection of many towards this book because it was wonderful and it's deserving.

Nastya is this mysterious girl, who we know barely anything about, which is always fun. Add to that the fact that she doesn't talk, well except in the shower to herself. I wasn't sure how I felt about her in the beginning but I know I felt something. Her background remained a mystery until the very last parts of the book but I liked that. I liked getting to know her before everyone found out about what happened, it's like I connected with her in a way that I usually couldn't because we didn't have much in common. I ended up loving her and feeling for her and what she was going through, although who wouldn't? She was incredibly screwed up but with reason and I just wanted her to find her way back to living life and being happy. When we're introduced to Josh I honestly thought he was some huge prick but really I was being judgmental and weird. Go figure. I fell in love with him after getting to know him more. Finding out what he'd been through and why he could get away with anything and everything in school made me so sad. On top of Nastya's past it was just one ball of depression thrown my way. Feeling alone is something I think we've all felt at one point in time but he shows us the meaning of being alone and oh how I wish he wasn't. Really both of their situations were complete shit and I wanted nothing more than to just help them be happy because they deserved it. The supporting characters in this book were really interesting and a great mix of personalities. I loved Drew the most, he sort of reminds me of Riley from the Stalk Me Series by Jillian Dodd. He's the best friend of Josh but over time he becomes like a protective big brother for Nastya and I loved it. He was hilarious and at first you think he's just the man ho best friend but we later find out that he's more than that and I liked how Katja gave him some depth and allowed him to lighten the mood of such a serious book.

I love how their story wasn't just a love story. It was about family, redemption, and finding yourself and hopefully the path to happiness too. Katja managed to take an overused plot line for contemporary books and make it her own, giving it depth and such a realistic feeling that I couldn't help but love it. I think every contemporary lover should give this book a chance because it's sure to not disappoint.

Favorite Quotes

"With any other girl I could probably pull out the classic guy fail-safe of walking over and wrapping my arms around her and letting her put her head on my shoulder. It's cheap, but it works. Drew swears by it. But I'm afraid that in this particular instance it would result in one of two things: a string of innovative new expletive or her knee in my balls. My money's on the knee." ~  Josh

"Of course if I were to take the books at their word, I'd also have to believe that all teenage boys go around calling girls baby, because apparently that's the express train to romance. He was an asshole a minute ago, but then he drops the baby on you and it's all over. Uncontrollable swooning and relinquishment of all self-respect activated. Oooh, he called me baby. My panties are wet and I luuuuuv him. Do real boys actually calls girl 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." ~ Nastya

"They're like zombie people. Empty. Haunted and endlessly waiting for something. I know what it looks like. These people were normal once. I think about how easily this could be the Leightons if it had been Sarah. How every normal family is one tragedy away from complete implosion." ~ Nastya

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for providing me with a copy to read and review.

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