Anise has her whole summer before senior year planned out, spending all her time surfing and hanging out with her friends. But when her dad informs her that her aunt has had an accident and her three young cousins nee​d care, Anise finds herself uprooted to Nebraska, as different from California as possible. Anise loves her family and wants to help, but she feel so alone and stranded, watching as her life spirals away from her. But when she takes her cousins to their favorite skate park, she meets a boy named Lincoln who challenges her in ways that make her uncomfortable yet intrigued.

I originally found this book on Netgalley, where the cover and title first caught my eye (and yes, I do judge books by their covers) and then the synopsis really threw me over the edge with my want to read it, the title intriguing and I had heard really good things about the story, so I pretty much knew I had to read this book. I can happily report that this story lived up to my lofty expectations! Gawd, I just want to hug this book to my chest because the feels, oh the feels this story brought to me. This was such a charming growing up book, where Anise learns who she is without all the crutches and safety nets she has always been surrounded by. Her safe comfortable life is not really all that she wants, but it takes some big painful steps for her to learn that, as well as learn who she really is and who she aspires to be. And I would not consider this a romance, even though there was a great slow-building romance here, but instead the relationships between family, such as Anise and her cousins and friendship are valued even more highly than the actual romance in the book is, and I feel like this is such a new perspective for a teen book that I could not help but love this story for that aspect alone.

This was a very character driven story, with little to no real "action" except Anise's development as a person. But it was such a good journey! I loved Anise, and no she was not perfect, she had her flaws just like real people do, but she was willing to acknowledge what her's were and try and do something about them. She was given a scenario that went against everything she wanted, but she stepped up and made the best of it, and I rooted her on through every page. She was engaging, honest, stubborn, giving, loyal and so real. She was the plot of the book and I enjoyed watching her personal growth over the course of the summer.

There were a lot of side characters that helped define Anise, such as her 9 year old cousins the twins, Parker and Nash, and her 12 year old cousin Emery. She was incredibly empathetic when it came to how she treated them, surprising for an only child and a teenager in general. Her relationship with her dad was my favorite part of the story, a constant reliable bond that Anise never seemed to take for granted. And lets not forget quirky, fun, helpful and understanding Lincoln. He was exactly what Anise needed, whether she knew it or not. As a side note, ​I loved that Lincoln used the word finagle, which is probably one of my most favorite words, and he threw it out ever so casually and defended the use of it to Anise, which made me want to laugh and high five him. I think out of all the books I have read recently, this title had the most quotable moments that stuck in my head and felt so insightful and emotional that I had to write them down.​

'The thing is, even though technically I just failed, their encouragement is empowering.'

'"But bad things are infinite, right? he asks'
"That's true, but you know what else is true?"
"What?"
"Good things are infinite too."

​This was such a sweet feel good story, showing the importance of friends and family, that some bonds will never break, that change can be important and beneficial and you are whoever you want to be. I felt happy and content with the entire book when it was over, and no, there were no happily ever afters, and I would not change a thing. The story was real life where there are no certainties, you just try your hardest and hope for the best.

I will recommend this book to a new reader that is new to the genre. I think the story was had a lot off potential but every time a read it a could see a lot off clichés and things that you see very often in the contemporary genre. That being said I still enjoy that it was a coming of age story were our main character had to leave her comfort zone. She love surfing and the ocean, and spending that time out of water really help her understand that change is not bad. I also like all the skateboard references. but I still think it was to predictable for me.

Girl Out of Water by Laura Silverman was different than I thought it would be.

I personally thought Anise was immature, whiney and self-centered. Throughout most of the book she did nothing else than whine about being dragged across the country to be with relatives, missing her friends, surfing and the ocean. And shockingly enough I realized that's exactly how teenagers are.

Anise was exactly how an almost 18year old would react, when she was asked to pack and spend her summer in Nebraska of all places. She missed her friends, all the surfing she would be doing, and a crush that could have been more. On top of that, Anise had a mother that was never around. She literally flitted in and out of Anise's life and brought emotional upheaval with her every single time she visited.

Unfortunately knowing all the circumstances AND knowing that Anise was still young and showing typical teenage behavior I did NOT like her. I couldn't connect with her, and she got on my nerves more often than not.

Lincoln was the very opposite of Anise. He was used to traveling, moving, and living in a new city every year. Lincoln was friendly, outgoing and extrovert, and used to making friends on the fly. Anise was happy staying in California and the group of friends she had since she was young. She wanted stability, he craved the world.

It was an interesting take using Lincoln as a catalyst for Anise's summer of finding herself.

I thought the author did a great job writing a very well plotted and executed novel. I have to give her kudos for writing a very well thought through book that came full circle in the end.

Anise's summer was all about growing up, letting go, opening up and finding acceptance.

Even though it wasn't my kind of book, it felt authentic and real.

review will be published July 24th

There are some unmarked spoilers, but it's not really the kind of book where anything is a "twist", so... continue at your own discretion?

I honestly tried to salvage my thoughts into something USEFUL, but this review would be better described as a rant. If you're the type of GR user who loves salty tangents, please keep reading.

PLOT ➳➳
It's the summer before Anise's senior year, and she's got to make this summer count: she's going to spend every waking moment catching waves, spending time with her very best friends, and planning the annual Surf Break event that draws tourists from all around to Santa Cruz to watch great surf and even better bands. It's going to be a summer to remember... until Anise's aunt Jackie is hospitalized due to an accident, and her father is dragging her out to Nebraska to take care of her young cousins. For the entire summer. How can Anise survive a summer without her unofficial family, the salt water, and the childhood BFF who's suddenly catching her eye?

WRITING ➳➳
This book was an incredibly quick and easy read, but that isn't necessarily a compliment in this review. Maybe I've become jaded by the amounts of fantasy I've been reading lately, but this just feels so overly casual. The banter feels incredibly forced at times, like there's just this really concerted effort to convince the reader that this is just a couple of teenagers chatting with each other, but it didn't come across well at all for me. There's so much filler material in the dialogue!

ANISE ➳➳
There are honestly so many things I could say about how much I hated Anise's character, but I'll just stick to a few main points. Still... buckle up, y'all.

• She’s incredibly self-centered and rude. She spends the majority of the book moping about one thing or another, whether it’s having to take care of her cousins, having to help her aunt, staying in the house her mother grew up in, being away from the beach, skateboarding… I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt for the first 30% or so of the book, and kept chalking it up to, “she’s just being written as a melodramatic teen!” but this was honestly too much.

• She refuses to believe that anything on the planet could hold a candle to her beloved surfing. She literally goes on multiple inner and outer tangents about how pathetic every sport is compared to surfing, and how surfing is soooo much harder than everything anyone else does… until she tries skateboarding, which just leads her to complain about how hard skateboarding is, and how lame it is… until she magically is a pro skateboarder after SEVEN DAYS of practice, and then overnight, it becomes the most amazing thing ever and she’s a born-again evangelist of the religion of the Almighty Skate Park.

• She literally kisses her LIFELONG BEST FRIEND right before she leaves, knowing she’s about to leave, and then within five minutes of meeting Lincoln, it’s like, “who the hell is Eric?” and she stops responding to any of his messages or even making any attempt at all to salvage their friendship?

• Actually, on that note, she bails on ALL of her friends and manages to completely alienate every last one of them. Of course, by the end, everyone has forgiven her and pretends nothing happened (including Eric, who, you know, spent the entire summer waiting for her to come back so they could resume their budding relationship but lol NOPE she’s ~in love~ with Lincoln!).

• Despite her insistence that Lincoln is basically The Greatest Dude Ever, she treats him like complete garbage. He tries to cheer her cousins up? She yells at him. He offers to spend his money to drive her to Santa Cruz in time for Surf Break? She spends the entire trip sulking and moping and treating him like garbage. He goes to Surf Break and tries to hang out with her friends? She gets wasted and ditches him for the entire evening. LINCOLN, RUN. JUST RUN.

Sorry... I had a lot of feelings about her.

WHAT I LIKED ➳➳
Lincoln and Tess are enjoyable characters. They're both really sweet and way more patient than Anise has ever deserved for a moment in her life, thank you very much. Anise's dad is also a patron saint and he has these fantastic heart-to-hearts with her that actually portrayed a healthy, loving father/daughter relationship, which I don't see nearly often enough in YA contemporaries.

OTHER STUFF I DISLIKED ➳➳
The ending. I mean, there's this huge build-up over whether or not Anise and Lincoln will be able to survive the distance, with her in Santa Cruz and him in Nebraska. Despite Lincoln's very obvious and intentional efforts to get close to Anise and to offer himself to her as legitimate relationship material, she just keeps telling herself that there's no way they can make it as a couple because he wants to explore the world and she doesn't. I mean, I know they're just a casual summer fling couple, but if you're going to keep telling the reader that you're head over heels for the kid, the least you could do is act it.

I digress. The ending is so open and just... nothing gets resolved, at all. We have no clue what will happen between Anise and Lincoln, plus Anise's first conversation with Eric after she gets home basically consists of her ogling him, which felt a bit tasteless given the fact that she showed serious interest in him and then ditched him and led him on while she chased another guy?

Also, there's this whole big story arc regarding Anise's mother, who basically only shows up once every few years, for a few days at a time, before disappearing again. No phone calls, no letters, just the occasional postcard with no return address or phone number or anything. It's bizarre enough that we're told Anise's father just accepts all of this as normal familial behavior, but to make matters worse, we spend the entire book hearing about Anise's mom and how she's probably going to show up at Aunt Jackie's house as some sort of surprise visitor, and then... nothing happens. NADA.

FINAL VERDICT ➳➳
I would not recommend this book to you unless you just really love surfing and/or skateboarding, and don't mind really obnoxious narrators. The only reason I gave this 2 stars instead of 1 is because Lincoln is amazing POC rep and disability rep and I loved his lil' cinnamon roll self.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for sending me this ARC! All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Good story, fairly standard YA novel. Liked the Midwest setting for a change of pace.

Why Did I Listen To Girl Out Of Water by Laura Silverman?

Girl Out Of Water by Laura Silverman initially hit my radar because of Twitter. Like, I do not know the entire story because I am old and not as into twitter as I once was. However, apparently the author was under internet attack by anti-semites? Anyways, that grabbed my attention and so when I then later saw people I trust giving it glowing reviews, I knew I had to pick up the Netgalley edition. Of course, I am also a realist and when I saw this book on Hoopla, it was an instant YES I NEED TO LISTEN TO THIS NOW. And really, I did listen to it as soon as I downloaded the Hoopla audiobook.

What's The Story Here?

Laura Silverman's debut is about this girl named Anise. Anise lives with her dad in sunny California. Her mom isn't really in the picture because she's one of those wanderer types. Anyways, Anise's aunt gets pretty injured and so instead of her cousins coming to visit her - she and her dad head to one of those flyover states for the summer to help take care of her aunt. This is rough on Anise because she's really into surfing (if I am remembering correctly). So, anyways, Anise then learns about skating with the help of this boy - Lincoln. Lincoln only has one arm, however, he's pretty fantastic at skating (I can't remember if it is skateboarding or rollerblading - I am old and the worst). So, Anise gets interested also in Lincoln and there's a little bit of a romance and a little bit of what happens next when summer ends.

How Did I Like Girl Out Of Water?

Girl Out Of Water was a lot better than I had expected it to be. So, I do like sports books, really I do. I just do not always read them all that often. What was particularly enjoyable was how into surfing Anise is. It was cool seeing her adapt when she was in Nebraska for the summer. I also enjoyed seeing her friendship with Lincoln grow and eventually become something more. The book goes pretty quick too. It's a nice read for winding down summer, I think.

How's The Narration?

The audiobook is narrated by Laurence Bouvard and is published by Dreamscape Media. Dreamscape is kind of new to me, but they have a ton of audiobooks on Hoopla of young adult books, so I am starting to listen to them more. I felt like this was a quality audiobook. It's kind of short and easy to listen to. It's very well narrated.

When Anise’s dad breaks the news that they will be spending their summer in Nebraska to take care of family, she doesn’t want to go at all. Now, some may say she’s being self-centered. Her reasons for staying or purely beneficial for her alone. But the reality is, I felt for Anise. If I were in her situation, I’m pretty sure I would have acted the same. She just wants to have fun this summer with her friends and surfing, not being stuck in a place that doesn’t even have a beach. But off she goes to Nebraska and she got more than what she bargained for.

The people Anise met in Nebraska were just what she needed to help her be open-minded about things in life. Lincoln was the perfect addition to the story! I totally loved him and his quirkiness and all the cuteness he brought to the story. I will say, at times I thought Anise and Lincoln fit more as friends, but that’s just me. Anyways, Anise’s cousins were great. I loved the relationship that they got to build over the summer and how close it brought all of them. I really liked Anise’s relationship with her father. It felt so real! They don’t agree on everything, but their bond is something special and they know they can fully trust one another.

I wish there had been more time for Anise’s friends from Santa Cruz. We only got glimpses of them. And also, the ending left me hanging a little. The ending should have had more to it, for sure.

Overall, Girl Out of Water is a cute contemporary that’s perfect for a summer read! It deals with family, friends and growing up. For a debut, this is hands down a great one and I can’t wait to read more of Laura Silverman’s work.

A good, solid debut. I felt like there were a few ends that could have been tied up better, but overall, a great summer read.

You know when you read a book and it just sits deep in your sole because of the message behind the words is just so amazing, you can't help but be moved by it - yea, that is this book. Girl out of Water was so much more than what I anticipated.

"Time doesn't varnish things; it just shifts them."

This is the perfect book for any young adult to read and be able to relate to these characters in one way or another. Yes, the main character is Anise who's never left her hometown til now. But it's every single other character in this book that makes this story so damn good. How each and every one of them interact with one another at some point.

Laura not only wrote some very amazing characters, but she wrote one hell of an awesome story. Anise grows a lot in this book, but not in the way that you think. She's already got a great head on her shoulders, but she struggles with some issues that I think any young adult in her position would struggle with. She matures in her self respect and her actions. But what I truly found resounding in this book was that none of her growth was because of a guy she met or anything along those lines. Her maturity and growth came all from within her and her alone. That's what makes this book stand out amongst the other YA novels

The ending to this book was the best ending you could have. Anise and her friends are all young and some are off to college or armed forces. Their futures are unknown with endless possibilities. And I love that Laura doesn't give them this perfect, tied-together ending. Their young and their lives are just now starting for them.

I highly recommend this book to anyone to read, young adult or not. But I would truly urge any young adult to read this book. It's a great read and one I won't be forgetting any time soon.

Girl Out of Water by Laura Silverman is a contemporary YA romance. There is some language that may be inappropriate for younger readers.
Anise lives for surfing. It allows her to forget that her mom ran out on them and doesn’t care. She and her Dad live in a house on the beach on Santa Cruz. This is going to be the last summer that she and her group of friends will be together before they split apart for future plans. It’s going to be the best summer she has ever had and it will be spent in the surf. When her aunt is in a car accident and her legs are crushed, she and her father have to fly to Nebraska to take care of her 3 young cousins. She is miserable with the idea that she will miss her summer. But she also wants to do her best for her cousins. A challenge turns her from surfing to skate boarding and she begins to feel more comfortable someplace new. The change might be the best thing that could happen to her as she learns about herself and what she truly wants.
I really enjoyed this book. The characters were well developed and interesting. I feel the need to point out something that I found really refreshing. I loved the fact that Lincoln was black….and no one cared. It was a non-issue. No one said anything racist and there were no thoughts in Anise’s mind that she might get backlash from anyone she knew for dating him. What a wonderful world this would be if everyone had this mentality!
I give this book 4.5 stars for the excellent story and wonderful characters.

This is an amazing coming of age story with unexpected love, friendship, and acceptance, Highly recommend this for anyone looking for a summer read!

Unfortunately, this book was not my cup of tea.

That being said, Girl Out of Water was a solid contemporary novel and I would still encourage readers to give it a try.

I'm not the biggest fan of YA contemporary and unless the story really blows me away, I usually feel pretty indifferent about books in that genre.
That is exactly what happened with me for this book.
I did not find the protagonist very likable nor did I feel very connected to any of the characters.
This may just be because I read the book very quickly, though.
The me from a few years ago would have probably loved this book, but I just was not personally interested in the story at this point in my reading experience.

This debut is a super fast read that came out just in time for the summer.
Fans of Emmy & Oliver and Chasing McCree will likely enjoy this novel. Again, I encourage anyone who is interested to pick this up and see for yourself.

Although I am clearly not taken with this particular story, it had its merits and I will gladly give Laura Silverman's future novels a try.

***I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

*I received this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I quite liked this book- it was a fun summer novel. Anise the main character was overall a bit shit, she was SUCH a teenager; super selfish and with massive mother-based hang ups and my GOD she was obsessed with boys lips it was like she was on heat I just wanted to tell her to calm down. The result of all this was that the internal thinking writing was pretty lame.

Lincoln was such a lovely character, black and disabled so that brought some diversity along. As far as the other characters went, they got screwed over pretty badly by Anise being a really shitty friend. Especially Eric, wherein any other YA novel they'd be pretty well set as a pairing so it was a bit shit that he got the short end of the straw by Anise being too horny to wait around 2 months for him when she's apparently liked him for ages and has been best friends with him for forever.

Idk the ending was not what I expected. I feel like absolutely nothing was resolved. Anise's mother never came back (even though little things around the house were different, hinting that she did in fact visit? But nothing was said so maybe not? Who knows? Loose thread.) and also what is the go with Lincoln and Anise now that he's going back to Nebraska? Just a fun summer fling or will he go to California, seeing as he's doing the PCT and could go study biology in Cali anyway.

Idk I wanted more answers than what I got.

https://bibliophilefeminist.wordpress.com/2017/05/13/girl-out-of-water-by-laura-silverman-review/

Book Review

Girl Out of Water - 5 STARS

Girl out of Water was the second book I read for 2017 and let me tell you it did not disappoint for anything; I loved this book beyond words.

Girl Out of Water is about a girl who loves surfing, if she could she would spend her entire life on the beach and surfing. Anise thought she would have her last epic summer with her friends but a family emergency happens and Anise and her dad are uprooted to Nebraska for the summer.

Lincoln. I love Lincoln. Lincoln is a one armed skater who will steal your heart as soon as you are introduced to him. Every time he was in a scene my heart did this flutter thing and I couldn't stop smiling, I'm pretty sure he will be my top book boyfriend of this year, yup I adored him that much. AND THAT DIMPLE.

Family is very important to me, they are the ones who lift you up when everything feels like it's crashing down so the fact that Laura Silverman has this in her book was really great.

Girl out of Water is one of those books that you will read over and over again.

Those that know me know that I'm not usually a contemporary person. I'll read them but I'll get bored and give them low ratings. Not the case with Girl Out of Water! There were enough events happening throughout the story to really keep my attention which helped me to keep reading. I actually had a hard time putting it down, mostly because it was just a happy book full of adorable things. Sure there was some not so happy events but the whole book had a 'feel good' kind of feeling and that's what made it so addicting.

One thing I have to point out is the diversity. Girl Out of Water hit quite a few of those points but it was all so casual which was amazing! A lot of the time book will throw diversity in your face but in Girl Out of Water it was just another addition to the story that made it a fantastic read.

I also really loved the sports vibe in this book. Surfing and skateboarding which isn't something I thought would go together but in this story it worked perfectly together.

This was generally just a happy book. It made me feel good while reading it and I felt great after finishing. The main character Anise felt her age but she had to mature a little quickly at some parts and she wasn't always graceful about it which made her feel more realistic to me. She was surrounded by her family for most of the book but her friends were around too and they were all these really interesting characters. Definitely a book I'd recommend.

I was sad for Anise because her whole summer was planned out. She was a good student, ready to enjoy her vacation before a jam-packed senior year and before her recently graduated friends leave for college. When an accident puts her aunt on the sidelines and unable to care for her three children for weeks at a time, Anise and her father fly to Nebraska, leaving behind any plans Anise had, including her end-of-the-summer surfing bash.

Her aunt is the closest family member Anise has besides her father, considering her mother abandons her family for months or years at a time. Even though this is her mother's sister, Anise is loyal to her aunt and helps out, watching her cousins as best she can while dealing with her own hard feelings about missing her friends and with the fact that she's as far from home as she's ever been. Nebraska is vastly different from Santa Cruz, California. A landlocked state full of hills and farmland, there's no ocean in sight, but there is skateboarding...and Lincoln, the boy who could make things better.

I loved reading this book, aside from the initial sadness of Anise being taken away from her planned summer and her home due to her aunt's injury. While we don't get to spend as much time with surfing as Anise would like, you could feel her love for it in the brief glimpses we got and once skateboarding was introduced. I've never done either sport, but I've watched them and they're beautiful, in a way. There's a danger element (drowning/breaking bones on cement), of course, but the adrenaline, the speed, the lines as the sportsperson flies along the water or ground, there's magic in that.

It wasn't just the main characters Anise and Lincoln that made this book fun, though. While like the surfing we don't get to see or hear as much of her as I'd like, Anise's friend Tess was a joy for the brief time I knew her on the page. She was evidently someone that loved Anise and was crushed that she wouldn't be around to share things with over a crucial summer.

Laura Silverman's debut novel gives me a good feeling that her future work will be just as good. Her writing style in this contemporary novel was suitable to the genre and was really easy to sink into and read almost straight through. Sometimes a contemporary novel can be difficult because real life is not always something I want to read about; usually I read to get away from that kind of thing. Whether her next book is a contemporary, fantasy, non-fiction, or otherwise, I'm sure I'll be picking up the next Silverman work, no question.

This is a very realistic and fair portrayal of what it's like to be a teen torn from their home for a summer they didn't expect. The dialogue, thoughts and actions of Anise, our lead gal, are genuine and honest. This is not a girl who is perfect and selfless; this is a teen girl who is bitter and confused but also sensitive and caring. I found myself relating to many of the things Anise said or did. All things I thought or did as a teen.
I believe Anise is a teen much like many of us were (or are). Selfish at times, but not because she doesn't care but because life is hard and being a teen is even harder.

The love interest in Girl out of Water is probably the most frustrating part. While I like him, he's a little too perfect. I would have liked to see him have some vulnerable moments and share times when he's struggled. With the love interest being a little more realistic there might be a fifth star for this book, but as it is I just can't rate it next to Judy Blume's Tiger Eyes at five stars. That said, this is a solid four star read.

This is not a book where the plot moves the story forward; in fact there is very little plot. Instead this is a character development book focuses on Anise and her 'coming of age' story. I didn't have a problem with it and felt it had just enough of everything.

I would recommend this book for anyone that enjoys average teens doing average things for stories. Or anyone who is struggling with leaving to go somewhere. This is an excellent story to gift to a teen that is moving homes, being forced on a vacation they don't want to go on or anyone that is struggling with change.

I really wanted to read this book because I live 40 minutes down the coast from Santa Cruz where the story originates. I work in schools in Santa Cruz all the time, so I wanted to be able to recommend this book if it was ever applicable. And I think that I would! The coming of age and hardships were so beautifully handled. The writing is wonderful. The whole story is memorable and enjoyable. And great local representation!