Sunday 13 March 2016

Waking Under Water by Christine H. Bailey

Kindle Edition, 243 pages
Published September 16th 2015 by Vinspire Publishing (first published September 10th 2015)
I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Blurb

"Sixteen-year-old Mia Hughes is not really a bad girl. She’s just made one bad decision after another, like mixing in with the wrong crowd and disappearing for days at a time. Her latest move has forced her parents to do the unthinkable—send her away to boarding school.

Trying to make sense of her new world, far away from Pittsburgh, is only half the battle for Mia as she fights to survive the wicked ways of the rich, spoiled kids at Galt Academy. But Mia is a fighter, and when she befriends junior Lucas Dunlap, the cute coffee shop guy, and his friend, Natalie, things start to look up for her—until the betrayal.

After falling into a deep depression, Mia resorts to the one thing she does best: running away. There’s only one problem—Lucas has a hold on her. And just when Mia thinks life can’t get any more complicated, it does with some life-changing news. Can Mia keep her head above water long enough to survive the pressures of her new school? And will Lucas be there when she finally comes up for air, once and for all?"

My review

I found the story of this book to be quite interesting. Mia has a lot of issues going on, including dealing with an eating disorder and a diagnosis which is life-changing for her. However, I have to say I didn't warm to her character very much and I felt sorry for her family having to deal with her behaviour. There is a lot of teen angst in this book and bemoaning that no-one understands her. Although Mia's character does go through a lot and did grow on me towards the end. I think the supporting characters could have been developed further as some of them would appear for a chapter and then disappear for ages and then reappear at a time when something needed to happen to develop the story with no mention in between.

I think in this book the story could have improved by being more chronological rather than jumping back and forth between how Mia got sent to boarding school and her time at the boarding school.

This is a good read, but the story didn't grip me. I would give this 3 out of 5.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Let me know what you think :)