Book Review & Giveaway: Wrecked by Anna Davies

By: Anna Davies

Published by: Simon & Schuster

To Be Released on: May 1st, 2012

Source: ARC from publisher at ALA

3 stars: It's A Good Read

Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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In the wake of a tragic boating accident that killed her friends, 16-year-old Miranda is consumed by guilt. She has no memory of how she managed to survive the crash, only the murky dreams of a strange boy in the dark water. Her only refuge is in the late-night swims she takes alone— until one night on the beach when she meets Christian, a boy who seems eerily familiar, but keeps many secrets.

The more she fights it the faster love pulls her under. Soon she finds herself in over her head when the dangerous true nature of Christian’s secrets rise to the surface.

Wrecked is a seductive contemporary reimagination of The Little Mermaid, with a paranormal twist, from debut author Anna Davies.

There's something alluring about mermaid mythology and the enchanting idea of the existence of an under sea world. The mermaid lore mentioned in Wrecked's synopsis is what made me want to read this book. I was intrigued with the concept of a teen girl meeting a mysterious boy who has ties the ocean that surrounds the island she lives on (that part you find out from reading the book itself). What surprised with Wrecked is that while the paranormal lore plays a bit part in the over story, the paranormal characters aren't as big as tragedy that unfolds for Miranda.

Miranda's story is one that's both intense and heart breaking. Her world gets rocked when her boyfriend and some of her friends decide to take boat her boat at night when a freak storm finds them wrecked out in the ocean, and the tragedy unfolds from there as there's few survivors. It wasn't hard for me to completely sympathize for this poor girl with everything she's had to deal with and what she ends up coping with in Wrecked. With out giving much away, I will say this girl deals with heartbreak more than once during the course of her story. Here's the thing about Miranda, she's tough, she gets through her grief and what unfolds in her story with that toughness. She also has hope, even it's just a glimmer of it.

One of the things I liked about this story was Anna's descriptive and in-depth telling of Wrecked's setting and the rich history that goes along with it. This not only laid the ground work for Anna to include her paranormal twist into Miranda's story, but it also allowed me to see and understand why the various characters in this tiny historical coastal town act they way they do. The island's history and the paranormal twist are tied together in a very realistic way, and it's one of the things that kept me reading this book. Apart from that, the paranormal twist and the romantic interest, Christian, the mysterious boy who saves Miranda left me wanting more than that was given to me in the story. I liked that Christian wasn't just a merman, he's what's called a Betwixt, which is basically a cross between being a human and a mermaid. Though I wanted more, I enjoyed getting the small glimpse into his underworld life from his pov of in the story.

Wrecked has an intriguing blend of both contemporary and paranormal elements that hooked me, but it left me needing more from the book to like it on the level I had hoped to. I felt that both the tragedy and Miranda's trying to cope with everything that's going on over shadowed the paranormal twist in the book. I wanted more of the paranormal element. I wanted more Christian, who fully emerges onto the scene a little too late in the story for me. While I felt sympathy for Miranda, I struggled to connect with her. I understood her depression and her trying to cope with the deaths after the accident, and I felt bad for her. With Christian I was completely drawn to him and wanted to know so much more about him and his undersea world than what I got. Since Anna hooked me with her paranormal lore of the Sea Witch and than finding out what Christian is, I wanted to dive into the undersea world more than what was given to me.

Having said that, I did like that this story wasn't wrapped up all nice and happily in the end. Don't get me wrong, there's a bit of happiness in it, but it's not what readers are going to be excepting, at all. Though I wanted more from this story, I will say I sat and read this book in one sitting, because I couldn't stop reading it. I wanted to know if Christian was going to follow through on what his task was (which you'll find out in the book), I had to know what would happen between him and Miranda and as well as how Miranda was going to fair through all this. Wrecked definitely lives up to it's name in more ways than one, with both the actual wreck that happens and the emotional and mental wreck that Miranda faces after it. It's definitely an intense book and one I'd recommend to YA readers. I'm looking forward to reading more of Anna's books. There is an underage drinking scene and some mild language in the book.

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Thank you to Simon & Schuster I have a fabulous prize pack to giveaway to 1 lucky winner! 

* A   waterproof e-reader cover 

* A copy of Wrecked by Anna Davies

To Enter, please fill out the form below (standard giveaway rules apply):

- US residents only

- 1 entry per person

- 13 yrs & older (parent/guardian permission is required for under 13)

- This giveaway will end on May 21st, 2012

Good luck!!

Prizing courtesy of Simon & Schuster