I do not particularly read contemporary, but this sounded really interesting. I was not disappointed! This book drew me in and did not let me go, so I was forced through a the twists and turns with the characters and oh my gosh, I could not stop thinking about it once I had finished.

This book was a fun read that really brought together mystery and romance in an unexpected way. Courtenay's voice just felt so authentic and really helped develop the amazing (and amazingly awful) characters that made me fall in love with the story.

t's not often I come across a UKYA author I haven't read before, so I like to support them when I can. To this end, when Girl at Sea came up on a browse through Netgalley I had to give it a go, and I'm glad I did. Girl at Sea is a delicious combination of mystery, thriller, and romance with a side order of comedy. I don't know what it is, but there's just something more 'real' about UKYA compared to its US counterpart that floods our British shelves. Maybe it's the difference in culture and school systems, maybe it's a language thing, or a combination or none of the above. Whatever the reas0n, every time I read UKYA it leaves me lusting for more. It's like a tasty palate cleanser after a big dish of US words. Not that there aren't some brilliant US writers out there, but it's just different. I am very happy to add Courtenay to my list of favourite UK authors, alongside the great Holly Bourne and old-school Liz Berry. Girl at Sea is a riotous page-turner that will keep you gripped and on the edge of your seat. Brilliant and brilliantly awful characters, witty dialogue and a fast-paced plot come together to form a very readable book.

Enjoyable enough romance with likeable characters & an entertaining (if rather far-fetched) plot. Won't set the world alight but has great shelf appeal.

2.5 stars

Girl at Sea reads much like an improved version of fellow 2018 YA contemporary The Truth and Lies of Ella Black. Both feature rich sixth formers experiencing culture (and status) shock in an exotic Portuguese-speaking location as they learn to cope with real life while disentangling dark secrets related to their parents. The premise isn't really for me, but readers who enjoyed Ella Black will likely take to Girl at Sea as well.

The main thing about Girl at Sea is that although it ends as a pretty strong, hard-fought coming of age tale, the beginning is grating. I was seriously contemplating DNF'ing as my reading pace stalled to a standstill in the opening chapters. They're intentionally cryptic and filled with a bunch of bland setup, almost all of which escapes memory. You have rich girl Precious Silva and rich boy Nathan Payne who both stink of entitlement and daddy issues.

Along for the ride is Harry Temple, a less conspicuously rich (but still well-off) boy with a mountain's worth of, you guessed it, daddy issues. At the beginning, it's hard to care about any of their problems thanks to how rapidly Girl at Sea dumps them at us without pausing to flesh out the characters.

Eventually I forced myself to get through the slog, and to my surprise, the book took a significant upturn around the 100-page mark. Pieces started to fall together as the three protagonists' paths crossed. The 'thriller' part of the book began to come into play. The chemistry between Precious, Harry and Nathan made their interactions much better than the sum of their parts. Suddenly, a book where the most interesting thing was teenagers making dumb mistakes turned into a wacky, fun romp through the picturesque Algarve, fuelled by highish-stakes drama.

If, of course, you can make it through the slow start.

All three main characters come into their own over the course of their novel, going from unlikeable to tolerable to worth rooting for. The rotating POV really helps because it lets you see the wildly contrasting perspectives of two or three people on the same event, often revealing misunderstandings that are painful to read. In the less enjoyable bits, it also means that you only have to stick with a character for a few pages if you're getting annoyed at them. Which might happen a lot in the first half, and sporadically afterwards.

I'm hesitant to say this, because I'm typically all for nuanced grey characters, but I feel that Girl at Sea would have been stronger with (a) defined villain(s). Several reprehensible people are present who perform deeds that cross the line from dickish to criminal, but they're never treated as 'bad guys', and the book ends on a semi-open note that fails to resolve much of anything beyond its protagonists' internal growth. I thought there would be an epilogue but nope, the next page went immediately to an author's note on background information. An epilogue giving the lowdown on what happened after the last scene would have been appreciated.

Personally speaking, the humour falls a bit flat. There's a lot of the rich people doing dumb things kind of slapstick comedy; if you like that, more power to you. On the other hand I quite liked Lucy Courtenay's integration of Portuguese lore, especially her quirky use of King Sebastian, which gradually makes more sense as the story unfolds. Her use of various Algarve locations was also on point--I've never been, but Girl at Sea makes me want to visit.

Overall, this is a nice summer read provided that you can get past the confusing opening chapters. For better or for worse, Lucy Courtenay's characters sound like exactly what they are: teenagers learning the hard way that whatever their 'this' is, there's more to life than this.

Precious's parents got divorced or are getting divorced after pictures emerged of her dad with other women.




Harry's dad drowned at sea and his mum had a breakdown over it.



Nathan wants to be an artist but his dad doesn't approve and yet he's a drug dealer.



After their GCSE'S are over, Precious and Lotta are off on holiday with their mum's to the Algarve only Lotta wants Olivia to join them when Precious can't stand her and finds her just wanting drama and gossip.



Harry is interailling with new friend Sasha whilst he wants to avoid the sea then ends up alone travelling by it anyway.



Harry and Precious first meet at a hot dog stand when she leaves her change, they witness the bomb go off on the boat, her father's boat and later when she can't catch her flight home and has an uneasy feeling she's being watched, she tries to leave via a cab once again offering too much money, Harry strides in to help. She then follows him as he talks of loneliness and catches the train with him.



Nathan is sent after her as the hunt for her goes national, her face on billboards everywhere whilst running with Harry away from the guys following them as her father's business is in trouble...



This book was told from a three way split perspective once from each main characters point of view. They all have father issues and talk about them whilst the boys also have a jealousy and territory issue over Precious and wanting to help her. The book did have some good points but I did find it dragging in other's, the action was good but more to do with the parent's business deals would be possibly made things clearer. The characters voices were believable and I liked how headstrong Precious is.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!