Series: None
Author: Laura Silverman
Published May 2nd 2017 by Sourcebooks Fire
Goodreads Synopsis
Anise Sawyer plans to spend every minute of summer with her friends: surfing, chowing down on fish tacos drizzled with wasabi balsamic vinegar, and throwing bonfires that blaze until dawn. But when a serious car wreck leaves her aunt, a single mother of three, with two broken legs, it forces Anise to say goodbye for the first time to Santa Cruz, the waves, her friends, and even a kindling romance, and fly with her dad to Nebraska for the entire summer. Living in Nebraska isn’t easy. Anise spends her days caring for her three younger cousins in the childhood home of her runaway mom, a wild figure who’s been flickering in and out of her life since birth, appearing for weeks at a time and then disappearing again for months, or even years, without a word.
Complicating matters is Lincoln, a one-armed, charismatic skater who pushes Anise to trade her surfboard for a skateboard. As Anise draws closer to Lincoln and takes on the full burden and joy of her cousins, she loses touch with her friends back home – leading her to one terrifying question: will she turn out just like her mom and spend her life leaving behind the ones she loves?
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
Her summer before senior year should be perfect. Anise can't wait to spend time on the Santa Cruz beach, surfing the summer away, with her friends, and finishing it all off with the annual Surf Break festival. However, when her aunt is seriously injured in a car accident, Anise and her father need to travel to Nebraska for the summer, to help look after her, and her three children. Now Anise's plans are on hold, and she thinks the summer is going to be a total bust. Being in the childhood home of her absentee mother brings up all sorts of feelings, as does the handsome guy, Lincoln, who she meets in the skate park. Will she realise that there's more to life than living in the same place always, and that exploring is good for her?
One thing I will say for this book, is that I'm glad I put off reading it for so long. I recently read another of Laura's books, Recommended for You, and really enjoyed it, whereas this book, I didn't like. Honestly, if I had read Girl Out of Water first, I don't think I would've bothered with her recent release. To start of with, I really disliked the main character, Anise. She was so selfish, and bratty, and I never warmed up to her. She was gutted about having to leave the beach for the summer, which I do understand, but she was so self centered, that she never really considered how her aunt, or her cousins, were feeling about the entire thing, especially after she met Lincoln. She also had a really bad hang up that surfing was the be all and end all, and no other pursuit was okay. She had to be forced to try skateboarding, and when she realised liked it, she still obsessed over surfing. And then there's her relationship with her friends. She has some decent friends back in California, and had even kissed her best boy friend, Eric, the night before she left. But once she got in Nebraska, she ghosted them all, never talking to them or checking in - and then expected them all to be waiting for her when she got home. Her and Lincoln were okay, but by the time anything really happened, I was already annoyed with the book, and skimming it until I could be finished. Not a good debut, but at least I know Laura's books have improved.
Dates Read:
April 8-11, 2021
Rating
2 Stars
