Pure Imagination

Release Date: June 4, 2013
Age Group: Young Adult
Received From: NetGalley
IBSN:978-1476730943
Blurb:

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.

You’ve read all the rave reviews, right? Well, you’re about to read one more. I’m not sure that I can say anything that hasn’t already been said about The Sea of Tranquility over and over, but I have to put my two cents in. I started this book expecting to like it. That’s usually a recipe for disaster, but all those glowing things I’d heard about this book were absolutely true.

The Sea of Tranquility is one of those books that stick with no matter what you’re doing. Even when I put the book down I was still so immersed in the story. Nastya and Josh were always on my mind and have been for days after I finished it. It’s been a long time since a book did that to me and I adore that feeling. The characters were certainly my favorite part, Josh especially. He was so real to me. He was someone that I could have easily fallen for or at least wanted to be friends with. It doesn’t hurt that he has that whole wounded boy thing going for him too. Oh, and he was also just a nice guy. No matter what he thought about himself, he was a good guy.

Nastya was a little harder to get to know. Her back story comes out very slowly and that made for a nice mystery surrounding her. At times she was just a little odd, though. She did very strange things and she could have easily been hard to relate to or unlikeable, but Katja Millay finds a perfect balance for her.

The pacing of the story was the kind of slow I love. Things just unfolded perfectly and I was so taken with just seeing Josh and Nastya form their bond that I never wanted to rush the story. Honestly, I probably could have read 100 more pages of it. I also want to say that this book felt like so much more than a romance to me. It’s also about amazing friendships, family, and overcoming horrible odds. The Sea of Tranquility is a gorgeous book and if you haven’t been convinced to add it to your to read pile yet there might be something wrong with you.

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