Review - Moonglass by Jessi Kirby

Title: Moonglass

Author: Jessi Kirby

Series: Stand Alone

Pages: 224

Published: May 3, 2011 by Simon and Schuster

ISBN: 9781442416949

Source: Borrowed

Description: I read once that water is a symbol for emotions. And for a while now, I've thought maybe my mother drowned in both. Anna's life is upended when her father accepts a job transfer the summer before her junior year. It's bad enough that she has to leave her friends and her life behind, but her dad is moving them to the beach where her parents first met and fell in love- a place awash in memories that Anna would just as soon leave under the surface. While life on the beach is pretty great, with ocean views and one adorable lifeguard in particular, there are also family secrets that were buried along the shore years ago. And the ebb and flow of the ocean's tide means that nothing- not the sea glass that she collects on the sand and not the truths behind Anna's mother's death- stays buried forever.

I Give This ...
  

I've been reading way to much paranormal.  At any given moment, I honestly expected the truth to come out that Anna's mom was really a mermaid.   I was really happy to see that this is really just a fantastic contemporary book about dealing with truth's long hidden.

I really enjoyed Anna's character.  I got the impression right away the she was in a little bit of denial of what might have happened the night her mother died.  And since neither she nor her father like to talk about it, I'm not surprised that the truth has managed to stay buried for so long.  I do like the relationship she had with her father.  They seem to get along really well outside of the one taboo subject.  I found humor in the fact that her father doesn't like her to hang out with the very people he's worked with his entire life.  I also liked Anna's relationship with Tyler.  It felt real and that's always a change of pace from instant romance.  She doesn't trust her feelings, and he's weary of the boss's daughter.   

I think my favorite part of this book was the ocean itself.  It's seem to be a character in the book.  Anna reacts to it.  It makes her feel things that she's really want to deal with.  And she becomes familiar with it and her mother that she didn't know in relationship with this place, she begins to remember bits and pieces of that night that she has long buried.  Really a beautiful setting for this type of book.

I look forward to another book by Kirby.  I understand the need to do something different, but she really has a knack for the ocean setting and I would mind reading something with it again!