Review: The Sea of Tranquility

Rating: ★★★★☆(4.5)

Author: Katja Millay

Genre: New Adult Fiction; Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Anitsocialite Press LLC

Publication Date:  September 5, 2012

Pages: 380

Format: E-book

Content Rating: PG-13

“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.” ~ Katja Millay, The Sea of Tranquility

Overview

Full of rage and without a purpose, former pianist Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone discovering her past and to make the boy who took everything from her pay.

All 17 year-old Josh Bennett wants is to build furniture and be left alone, and everyone allows it because it’s easier to pretend he doesn’t exist. When your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, a hot mess of a girl who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. The more he gets to know her, the more of a mystery she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he may ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a slow-building, character-driven romance about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances. (Goodreads.com)

Review

Katja Millay's debut novel, The Sea of Tranquility,  is a sad, lonely and absolutely beautiful work of fiction.

I always read up about the author before I pick up a book.  Being a writer myself, I guess I am just interested in their motivations and quirks.  Reading up on Millay, I discovered she was once in film school and after reading The Sea of Tranquility I can see it totally fits.  Her prose are so beautifully descriptive and and her characters are so fully fleshed out, it is almost like you are watching a movie in your mind's eye.

Millay, herself, describes her novel as "a slow-building, character-driven romance" and she is right on both accounts.  On first appearance, this novel builds slowly to the point of frustration at times but once you reach the end you realize that the build was actually gaining in intensity all the way to the very last word.

Both the hero (Josh) and the heroine (Nastya) are tragic, broken people.  Honestly, they really depressed me, but damn if I couldn't put their story down!  There were points in their story that I truly felt like I was drop kicked straight in my gut.....hard. There were also points where I wanted to strangle both hero and heroine for putting me through all the angst.  But the moments where these two connect, where they are drawn to each other and to the possibility of a reset of their young lives is worth every second of angst.

I don't do spoilers, but I will say this:  This whole novel is built around the last few sentence and they will take your breath away ( but only if you do the work and follow Nastya and Josh's journey from the first to the last word.) The reward is in finish.