By: Jody Gehrman
Published: April 14, 2015 by Entangled: Crush
192 pages
Source: Netgalley ARC from publisher
(Goodreads / Amazon)
Summary:
Dakota McCloud has just been accepted into a prestigious art school. Soon she'll leave behind the artists' colony where she grew up―hippie dad, tofu since birth, yurt―and join her boyfriend and best friend on the East Coast. It was the plan…until Dakota finds out her boyfriend and best friend hooked up behind her back.MY REVIEW:
Hurt and viciously betrayed, Dakota pours out her heart on a piece of paper, places it in a bottle, and hurls it into the ocean. But it doesn't quite go where she expects…
Jack Sauvage finds the bottle washed up on the shore and responds to Dakota's letter. Except what if his straight-laced life doesn’t jive with the free-spirited girl he’s only seen from afar? As Jack creates a persona he believes she’ll love, they slowly fall for each other with each new letter. Now Jack is trying to find a way to make this delicate, on-paper romance happen in real life…without revealing his deception.
Part predictable, part sweet, part psychotic. I found this to be sort of a mashup of You've Got Mail meets Catfish. <unpleasant shiver>
Dakota, our lead female, is a 17 year old high school graduate, who has been accepted into her dream college, when she gets hit with the betrayal of her best friend and boyfriend hooking up...all through an email. (Don't worry my fellow readers who hate cheating, this is so brief and happens less than 10% into the book) She then questions her college choice since the location is also close by to where they are in college. So she starts throwing around the idea of taking a year to travel and then going to school, after the hurt is not so deep and fresh. To start off her journey she throws a bottle with a written note in it out in the Pacific in hopes she might meet a fellow lonely stranger pen pal.
Jack, our leading male, is an 18 year old pianist who is to attend Julliard in the fall. His family is super wealthy and so Jack doesn't connect to others easily, especially after the death of his best friend and then finding out his last girlfriend was really just into him for the money. Jack finds Dakota's bottle (after seeing her throw it into the ocean by happenstance) and decides to write back only not completely as himself. (Enter Catfish scenario)
This is a stand alone novel, which I appreciated. There really wasn't enough plot to the story to last another book. It wraps up nicely in my kind of happily-ever-after ending. Although I wasn't blown away by the story, it was sweet enough to keep my interest through to the end.
Favorite Quotes:
Maybe it's time to go low tech - pen and paper, glass and cork, no Wi-Fi required.
Still, if I'm being completely honest, there's also something delicious about it. Almost sensual. Waiting, trying to imagine what he'll write next, anticipating when it will arrive.
He didn't challenge me or draw my secrets from my depths. He didn't make my heart race with a sideways glance.
Language Rating: 1 (light)
Mature Content Rating: 0 (none)
Final Rating: 3 stars
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