The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler: Mermaid Monday – Exclusive Giveaway & Review
Today, Bookcrushin is excited to be participating in “Mermaid Monday” – celebrating the upcoming release of The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler. All of the stops on the blog tour will be posting exclusive quotes from the book, all leading up to the exclusive reveal of the first two chapters at 6pm EST today on Perpetual Page Turner, so be sure to head over there today to check it out!
For our post, we have a fantastic exclusive giveaway, our own creation of a quote graphic, and spoiler free review! Be sure to pick up a copy when it releases on June 2nd and of course at it to your TBR list!
The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler
Category: Upper YA, Contemporary Romance
Publication: June 2nd, 2015; Simon & Schuster
Purchase: Amazon
The youngest of six talented sisters, Elyse d’Abreau was destined for stardom—until a boating accident took everything from her. Now, the most beautiful singer in Tobago can’t sing. She can’t even speak.
Seeking quiet solitude, Elyse accepts a friend’s invitation to Atargatis Cove. Named for the mythical first mermaid, the Oregon seaside town is everything Elyse’s home in the Caribbean isn’t: An ocean too cold for swimming, parties too tame for singing, and people too polite to pry—except for one.
Christian Kane is a notorious playboy—insolent, arrogant, and completely charming. He’s also the only person in Atargatis Cove who doesn’t treat Elyse like a glass statue. He challenges her to express herself, and he admires the way she treats his younger brother Sebastian, who believes Elyse is the legendary mermaid come to life.
When Christian needs a first mate for the Cove’s high-stakes Pirate Regatta, Elyse reluctantly stows her fear of the sea and climbs aboard. The ocean isn’t the only thing making waves, though—swept up in Christian’s seductive tide and entranced by the Cove’s charms, Elyse begins to wonder if a life of solitude isn’t what she needs. But changing course again means facing her past. It means finding her inner voice. And scariest of all, it means opening her heart to a boy who’s best known for breaking them . . .
Spoiler Free Review:
[book rating=4.0/5.0]The Summer of Chasing Mermaids is one of the most unique books I’ve come across in awhile, for starters the heroine of the book is mute, it features an interracial couple and while the book is contemporary it was woven with a lot of mysticism that added to its allure.
It was a heartbreaking story as you could feel Elyse’s overwhelming sadness and frustration with her situation. She was literally a prisoner of her own body, she had lost her voice, the one thing she thought had defined who she was. With that she cut off her family and moved to another country. The author did a good job of illustrating how debilitating and isolating being without a voice is.
The cast of supporting characters were some of my favorite I’ve ever come across. Vanessa and Kirby felt like real girls to me. Girls I’d hang out with. And for once (and so refreshing) there was no bitchy back biting, no agenda, just two girls that were genuine in their sincerity to bring Elyse out of her shell so to speak. I was especially enamored with the side story about little Sebastian and his quest to march as a boy dressed as a mermaid in the local parade. It was an empowering and uplifting side part of the story.
However, the heart of this story is the relationship between Elyse and Christian, the town lothario, who is really more than he seems. They end up bonding and forming a relationship as they spend the summer working on his boat. One of my main points of contention with the book was its slower pacing and some of my frustrations with the interactions with Elyse and Christian. As the main character is voiceless, some of the things that would have come so easily to a speaking character sort of get lost here, as she lets them get lost. There was a lot of writing on palms, and in notebooks, and I kept screaming, can’t you people just text it would be SO much faster, lol. Still the lyrical quality of the writing in this book is not to be missed. As Elyse, is a confessed poet, there is a very poetic quality that weaves throughout the pages and separates this book from a lot of its contemporaries.
Because this blog is called Bookcrushin, I have to tell you that while it took awhile to get the romance going, when it does, it’s heartbreakingly beautiful. Some of the sexiest and most beautiful scenes I’ve come across in a YA in awhile. I’d actually classify this book as Upper YA or even New Adult.
My only gripe would be that I wish that Elyse had come into her own a bit faster. Wish she found her voice, so to speak, not so late in the book. Her melancholy and forced isolation made me have a hard time connecting to her as a reader for the first half of the book. Then, I drew comparisons to another famous mermaid, Ariel, and her lost voice and how she was saved through love (and a lovable cast of supporting friends) and it seemed the story really gelled for me. Still, when I closed the last page I felt a bit like Elyse, adrift, the words and scenes in the book, flooded back to me and I was awash in their lush images. And I just wanted to be back on that boat with Christian and Elyse as they scrawled words on their bodies, safe and happy at sea.
Exclusive Giveaway:
Win a finished copy of The Summer of Chasing Mermaids & a Pacific Rim Ring Set from Urban Outfitters courtesy of Simon & Schuster!
Share the above graphic quote on any social media using the hashtag #MermaidMonday or you can RT/repost our posts with that image — then add your links to the rafflecopter for ease of choosing a winner! You can enter up to 5 times for unique shares on any social media until Tuesday, June 6th at 11:59 PM EST. **Sorry US only**
Be sure to check out the other posts from Mermaid Monday throughout the day for more chances to win other exclusive contests & ending with a preview of the first two chapters of The Summer of Chasing Mermaids:
- 10am: Andi’s ABCs
- 12pm: Novel Novice
- 2pm: Uncreatively Zoey
- 3pm: Elizziebooks
- 4pm: Words Like Silver
- 6pm: Perpetual Page Turner
Great review! I really like how two girls take Elyse under their wing to try to get her to open up again. What I’m really interested about is how Elyse is mute, I haven’t seen that in a book since Speak, in a main character anyway and I would love to see it more. Thanks for the giveaway!