This is a lovely, poetic YA novel. Mara is a hopeless romantic endlessly crushing on Nico, a mysterious busker, clinging to their uneven relationship even as her friends urge her to find a girl who treats her better. Nico is an enigma, manic one minute and brooding the next, running hot and cold and ghosting Mara for weeks at a time. On New Year’s Eve, Nico invites her to meet up, but Mara waits for her in vain for hours, only to receive a text after midnight dumping her. The next morning, a girl is pulled from the sea: Nico, with no memory of what happened to her or who she is. When a chance meeting reconnects them, Mara is torn and desperate for closure. Will they get a second chance? Will Nico ever remember? Byrne weaves a poignant tale and deftly drops breadcrumbs for us to follow as she points us to the truth and lets it unfold.

In The Shallows is a book with immense respect for teenage girls, for their intelligence and taste, the depth of their inner life, and the bonds of their friendship. It is incredibly romantic and emotional, and the writing is superb. We only get Mara’s single first person POV, which is important for the story. It starts out reading almost like a teen’s diary, an internal monologue with a sense of urgency and intensity that feels so real and true to a fifteen year old girl. It’s giving “this girl I like is the most interesting person in the world and my tenuous relationship with her is the only relationship that’s ever felt this way in human experience” vibes —honestly anyone who remembers pining for a crush as a teenage girl knows this is deeply accurate. The diary-like quality fades as Nico 2.0 re-enters Mara’s life after the accident, giving us more dialogue and scenes outside of Mara’s head and her immediate friend group. This shift, experienced through Mara’s pov, shows us how Mara feels more present and experiences her life more vibrantly when Nico is in it.

Prior to this shift, Mara’s pining and agonizing over their relationship gets just a tiny bit repetitive, especially when we’ve barely seen Nico in real scenes, only in Mara’s memories and as a subject of contention among Mara’s loyal friend group. If I have one quibble with this novel, it’s pacing in this regard. I think Byrne could have squished those angsty ruminations down a tad and had more room for the second and third acts. I would have liked to see her flesh out the scenes as Mara and new Nico build their connection and make the discovery about what’s behind Nico’s ongoing illness. I especially wanted more depth and detail to the story of what really happened to Nico on NYE, which as is felt too rushed. And the ending could have been less abrupt, and left space to show what happens to Nico once the dust settles after [redacted for spoilers] is revealed.

Overall though I really enjoyed it and definitely recommend it to romance and YA readers alike

When the girl of your dream mysterious goes missing and is later rescued at sea and wakes up with amnesia... it's time to figure out what happened to her and why. Mara has been in love with Nico ever since she met her, yet Nico isn't the most reliable girlfriend, from icing her out, ignoring her, and just being unreliable.... yet Mara still loves her. When Nico is meant to meet Mara during New Year's eve and ends up ghosting her... only to later be rescued from the sea on New Year's Day with amnesia, Mara knows something is off. Mara is determined to be with Nico, and make her remember her... but as she tries to get closer to finding out who Nico really is, she begins to question what has been happening in Nico's life the entire time and if they are really meant to be together. This one was a tough read for me, I could see what the author was trying to go for but it just felt a little too late for me and honestly I just disliked both characters throughout the entire book. I really wish I did like this because I adored Afterlove, but this one just fell flat so fast for me. I get that the author was trying to go for a thriller/they were meant to be together kind of vibe but honestly, I didn't see their chemistry at all. While this one felt like a miss for me, if you enjoy second chance romance with a twist, give this a go!

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group | Godwin Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

This book amused me, surprised me, and made me feel every other major emotion I expected from a Tanya Byrne novel. After reading AFTERLOVE and devouring it from front to back, my hopes were very high for IN THE SHALLOWS. Needless to say I was not disappointed.

If I were to give this book a tagline, it would be something among the lines of: “An amnesia story that refuses to forget the extremities ones will go to for those they love." As I read IN THE SHALLOWS, I kept making connections to Alyson Derrick’s FORGET ME NOT.” These stories are similar in the sense that a young lesbian couple faces hardships as one of them gets into a horrific accident and loses their memory, leaving the other partner in a state of sadness and confusion about how to handle the other's memory loss.

I was able to pick up what Tanya Byrne was putting down pretty quickly, about 55% into the book. She was able to provide enough hints that something was off without making obvious clues.

I truly enjoyed this! 4.75 stars. Well done, Tanya Byrne!! Thank you to Macmillan Kids and NetGalley for the eARC!!

while the ending of this book left me shocked and intrigued, i feel as though i wasn't the right audience for this book. i felt it was very slowly paced which isn't really something that i enjoy reading. i enjoyed the way the story was told and the rambling of the main character, but i felt myself skimming through the second third all the way to the end. i do think the author is very talented, i loved the twist, and i loved the romance.