Fresh New Voice of YA- Sea by Heidi R. Kling

Sea by Heidi R. Kling
"Still haunted by nightmares of her mother’s death, fifteen-year-old Sienna Jones reluctantly travels to Indonesia with her father’s relief team to help tsunami orphans with their post traumatic stress disorder—something Sienna knows a lot about. Since her mother’s plane went missing over the Indian Ocean three years before, Sienna doesn’t do anything if it involves the ocean or planes, so this trip is a big step forward.

But the last thing she expects is to fall for Deni, a brooding Indonesian boy who lives at the orphanage, and just so happens to be HOT. When Deni hears a rumor that his father may be alive, Sienna doesn’t think twice about running away with him to the epicenter of the disaster. Unfortunately, what they find there could break both their hearts."- summary from Amazon

I must say that I absolutely loved this book. It's beautifully written, very funny, and very steamy. Kling's prose mixed with Sienna's strong voice make the book hard to put down. I read the book very quickly, finishing it in just two days. The ending is heartbreaking and while I didn't cry, I'm sure I would have if my tear ducts worked better. However, the story did end how it was supposed to and it definitely made sense.

The romance, like I said before, is VERY steamy. I told Heidi on Twitter that she needed to find me a Deni of my own, but unfortunately, she doesn't have clones of him. Le sigh. Deni is a wonderful leading man- he's very broody, but is funny, sweet and romantic. It's a good thing I was always sitting down while reading because I'd be swooning all over the place if I weren't and then the book would never get finished.

But aside from all that, there's the main reason for going to Indonesia: to help with the reconstruction in the aftermath of the 2004 floods. It was really eye-opening to read those scenes because once initial coverage is over, you just think it's all taken care of and everything's back to normal. But it takes YEARS to put something back together after a catastrophe like that. I loved reading about all the effort that Sienna, her dad, and her dad's team put into helping all these orphans, and reading about their interactions just warmed my heart.

Overall, a remarkable debut, and definitely a book to check out. It's out in stores now; go buy it!!

FTC: Received hardcover from publisher. Link above is Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.