Sea by Heidi R. Kling Review

From Goodreads: Haunted by recurring nightmares since her mother’s disappearance over the Indian ocean three years before, fifteen-year old California girl Sienna Jones reluctantly travels with her psychiatrist father’s volunteer team to six-months post-tsunami Indonesia where she meets the scarred and soulful orphaned boy, Deni, who is more like Sea than anyone she has ever met.

She knows they can’t be together, so why can’t she stay away from him? And what about her old best friend-turned-suddenly-hot Spider who may or may not be waiting for her back home? And why won’t her dad tell her the truth about her mother’s plane crash? The farther she gets from home, the closer she comes to finding answers.

                                      And Sea’s real adventure begins.

Rating: 5/5

Plot: 5/5

Characters: 5/5

Ending: 5/5

Favorite line: "I wanted to tell him that you can meet someone and they can change your life forever, even if you have only known him for a short while, that when you leave, you're a different person than before you met him... and I undertstand that because of meeting Deni."

Whenever there's a lot of buzz surrounding a book, I'm somehow always hesitant to pick it up. I don't know why, but I'm glad I didn't shy away from this one. It was one of the most well-rounded books I've ever read, in terms of YA. The story had romance, culture, and a very believable coming-of-age story. And all set in the aftermath of 2005 Indonesian tsunami! Heidi Kling is a great writer and I'm anxious for what she'll write next!

Sienna's, aka Sea's, life has been forever changed since the disappearance of her mother over the Indian Ocean. She lives right on the beach and doesn't go into the water, has stopped talking to one of her good friends, Spider, and has nightmares and anxiety attacks. On her 15th birthday her father asks her to come with Team Hope, his volunteer group, to Indonesia to help at an Orphanage with children who lost their parents to the disastrous tsunami. Reluctant at first, she agrees to go. While there, Sienna helps with young girls with PTSD, but also ends up with a kind of therapy herself.

She finds a friend in Deni, a sexy, mysterious boy who lost his family. Together, they each come to terms with their losses and figure out what's important to them. The romance between Sienna and Deni was very sweet and swoon-worthy. Especially in the setting they were in. But there was also her relationship with her old friend, Spider. It was oddly nice to see her relationships with both of them- it showed her evolution.

I really enjoyed learning about Indonesian culture, their language, and the great imagery Heidi put into her book. I honestly don't remember hearing or seeing much about the tsunami in the news, besides people raising money, so it was a very educational read that didn't feel educational.