Sea Change
Author: Aimee Friedman
Series: ---
Publisher: Scholastic
How Received: publicist
Sixteen-year-old Miranda Merchant is great at science... and not so great with boys. After major drama with her boyfriend and (now ex) best friend, she's happy to spend the summer on small, mysterious Selkie Island, helping her mother sort out her late grandmother's estate.
There, Miranda finds new friends and an island with a mysterious, mystical history, presenting her with facts her logical, scientific mind can't make sense of. She also meets Leo, who challenges everything she thought she knew about boys, friendship... and reality.
Is Leo hiding something? Or is he something that she never could have imagined?
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Sea Change was the perfect book for me to kick start my summer with. After all, how much more summer fun can you get then a book with mermaids?! (Er, mermen.)
Miranda reminded me a bit of Temperance Brennan from Bones when the book first starts out. She's very science oriented, focused, all logic, ignoring the few emotions that flutter through her brain. Selkie Island - and more importantly, the very alluring Leo that comes with it. I liked Leo. He knew how to hide his secret and still manage to be awesome.
I loved the side characters as well - CeeCee was entertaining (we all know a girl like that) and I'm a sucker for the 'English lord' type, so I liked the scenes with T.J., even though he SO wasn't right for Miranda.
I didn't like how fast Miranda moved with both boys. Even with the actions of the girls around her, it was out of character. She went from seeming like this brilliant potential student to an immature, uncertain girl who was just going to do whatever those around her did. And as much as I like Leo, and got the whole chemistry bit, I hate when characters just plop into love.
But I felt as if Leo and I were beyond dating. We were in antoher category now, one that couldn't really be defined.
That's your first official date with him. Um. No.
But I can ignore all that, because the book met my quotability factor. (Books automatically get bonus points from me if they have a quote I like.) You also get bonus points if you have references to my favorite movies. Look at this - double whammy:
Back in April, we'd even downloaded the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie off iTunes and watched it on his laptop (that same night, Greg had also tried to get me naked, and I'd insisted on keeping my socks on, which understandably killed some of his ardor).
Final Comments: The perfect book to start off the summer with. It's not deep, or ZOMG amazing, but a light, fun, summery read. And that's all you want for summer.