The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. - Week One

Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

First impressions of Sea Change: I was completely sucked in by the cover of this book. You can’t deny that it’s absolutely gorgeous. And sexy. The book itself is a fun, light read… definitely a summer book.

The story centers around Miranda, a 16 year old New-Yorker who is headed down to the mysterious Selkie Island, Georgia to stay at her recently-deceased grandmother’s house. Miranda’s grandmother, Ms. Isadora Hawkins, was one of the most prestigious and well-known residents of Selkie Island. Miranda’s mother, Amelia, had some type of a falling out with her late mother but despite this, she inherited her sprawling seaside mansion – aptly named The Mariner.

Miranda isn’t your typical 16-year old. She favors science museums to movie theaters. She’d rather spend the evening watching the Discovery Channel than going on a date. She’s tremendously smart and is on her way to becoming a doctor (following in her mother’s footsteps). She’d actually planned to spend the summer at an internship with the Museum of Natural History in NY, when her grandmother passed away. She decided to delay the intership for a month and spend the time down at Selkie helping her mother tend to her grandmother’s affairs. Thus begins Sea Change...

Miranda immediately feels like an outside on Selkie Island. It’s full of these over-the-top southern belles who “summer” on Selkie on their husband’s dimes. The girls she meets and befriends are ostentatious and flighty. They immediately try to play matchmaker and set her up with a son of one of the most prestigious families on Selkie, the preppy and polite T.J. Illingsworth. Miranda makes an effort to enjoy her time with her new friends, but she soon discovers that no matter what she wears or how much makeup she puts on… she’ll never be one of the “debutantes” of Selkie Island.

One night, while Miranda’s trying to escape the Selkie crew, she wanders onto the beach for a walk and runs into a mysterious (and really good looking) local boy. She befriends Leo and is immediately attracted to him. They share a love of animals and science and hit it off from the get go. At first things are smooth sailing, but then Miranda starts to notice some strange happenings on Selkie Island. The place is steeped in lore which Miranda initially brushes off as a joke – mermen, krakens, and sea serpents? Let’s be serious here. But after a few sketchy meetings with Leo that leave a lot of questions unanswered… Miranda starts to wonder if the stories have some truth to them.

Sea Change is interwoven with all the things that make a great story – romance, drama, and mystery. I found myself drawn in and devoured the book in a couple of days. I’d definitely recommend it to someone looking for a light-hearted and fun read.