Review of The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Title: The Sea of Tranquility
Author: Katja Millay
Published by: Atria Books
Pages: 448
Source: Netgalley/Publisher
Format: ARC ebook
Rating: 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads:  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.

Words escape me to describe the beauty and emotion that rolls off of every page in this novel.  The Sea of Tranquility is one of those books that continues to haunt you long after you've set it down, but it is worth it just to hang on to those characters a little longer. 

For me, The Sea of Tranquility is one of those books that remind me of a secret...part of me wants to tell the world about it because it's that good, and another part of me doesn't want to tell anyone about it because it is very special and I want to hold on to that feeling a little longer.  But alas, I realize this book is just too amazing not to share. 

Josh and Nastya are broken.  They've lost everything, including themselves.  While both try to stay away from others and not to form any sorts of relationships, they are drawn to each other in a way that can only be described as magnetic.  While I loved spending time with Josh and Nastya, I couldn't get enough of the other characters that seemed to infiltrate their lives as well.  This whole cast of misfits seems to form an unlikely family.  They are not always good people or do the right things, but they are who they are without any excuses.  They were quite amazing.   

As the plot unfolds you learn more about Nastya and Josh's past, how those events shaped their lives and essentially tore out a part of them.  Do they need each other to heal or is healing even a possibility?  Are they so broken that they can't even fix each other?  These question not only go through their minds but also the readers. 

I was utterly amazed by this novel and the ending...unexpected, but complete perfection!  What an amazing read to start of 2013!