I was sort of unsure where this book might have gone because the cover did hint at a fair bit of the cheese factor. I was pleasantly surprised by this book because it did have hints of a light beach read but really it was so much more. This book had a wonderful combination of romance, the paranormal, and real issues. I think that this book could have been easily turned into a bit of fluff but the author did an excellent job of not taking the story in that direction. ( )

With the weather turning cold here in KY, I needed to read something with warmer weather. I fell in love with the cover of this one, and knew it would be a perfect read.

At first I couldn't stand Sirena, she seemed whiny to me. I understand that she is 17, and her parents are getting divorced. But really, who would pass up a summer at the beach for a summer at camp? I would have loved to head to the beach to stay with my aunt instead of some camp when I was that age.
Sirena meets Pilot, the lifeguard pretty early on in the book, though she doesn't learn his name for some time. She of course develops a crush on the god-like lifeguard. Pilot is kind of stand offish, or so it seems to Sirena, kinda hot and cold really. Sirena grows over the summer and we learn a little more about Pilot towards the end of the book and I began to understand him just a little more.
The ending was very anti-climatic for me, I wish there had been something more, though I did love the ending line! ( )

The Lifeguard by Deborah Blumenthal
ISBN: 9781453247334
This book first appealed to me because of the water scene and then the words Rhode Island in the summary of the book. I am from there and wanted to read this to find out
if I knew of any place they spoke of. Love the water and the shells so this is a familiar scene to me.
The prologue starts out with her standing in the water, on the edge and the undertow making her fall, she can't get a hold of her footing, it's like quicksand and she ends up away from the shore where noone is paying attention to her yells of help.
Sirena arrives in Rhode Island to spend the summer with her aunt. Her parents are working out the details of a divorce and they thought the best place was for her to get out of the middle of it.
She lives on a beach and goes daily, sketching on her towel. She has some interest in the lifeguard as he is so cute.
Her aunt Ellie is a writer and likes to write about ghosts.
They talk about the female ghost and Sirena learns the story of the ghost.
She volunteers at the hospital and first day there's a little boy that comes in and it scares her. She also sees a teenage girl jump on the back of the lifeguards motocycle. She follows the boys progress over the next few weeks.
She also meets an 80 yo man, Antonio who has his own gallery and she explores, and works side by side with the artist, and confesses the theft.
She remains grounded with letters from her friend Marissa who is stuck at camp all summer.
Love learning about healing powers of plants, stingray bites, very fascinating.
What happens next is the whole story, what one perceives what happens and what really happens is all divulged and why. ( )

I received this book for review via Net Galley and would like to thank them for the opportunity to read it.
Sirena's life it falling apart, at least she thinks so. Her parents are getting divorced and to her this is worse than death. She is shipped off to Rhode Island for the summer to spend time with her aunt while her parents get things settled in Texas. Rhode Island turns out to be a very different world than the one Sirena knows. There she meets new people, learns of of their shamic skills, realizes ghosts really do exist and falls hard for Pilot, the local lifeguard.
I loved the way the writer was able to pull me into this book. At first, I wasn't sure about the long paragraphs of narrative, but for this book they actually worked. I was also skeptical of the first person narrative, but for the most part it was appropriate for this book. This book flowed like it was Sirena's journal, relating her summer to us and all the things she learns. She even mentions in the book about how she once thought of starting a diary but never did it.
I liked the fact that Sirena was not the whiny teenager we often see in love stories such as this. Did she have her jealous moments? Of course she did, it wouldn't be young adult romance without it. But it wasn't overwhelming and it didn't seem to consume every thought she put out to the audience of the book. And she was brave, which surprised me because I didn't think she had it in her at first. She stood up to her fears, she faced her realities, she looked life straight in the face and learned what it was to live. We learn a lot from her letters to her best friend Marissa, who is spending the summer at camp.
Pilot is very mysterious. He keeps much to himself and doesn't let Sirena in. Their moments together are often quiet. He's this perfect "Godlike" boy who saves people not only with his lifeguarding skills, but with his healing powers. He is almost angelic. He has "powers" that allow him to feel what people are feeling, hear when people are in distress and help people out of dangerous situations.
Sirena's Aunt Ellie leaves Sirena alone for the most part. She gives her space so her wounds can heal and she can realize that life it worth living. That her life is worth something outside of her family being only a cookie cutter crew. And her friend, Mark, is very supportive of Sirena, as well, although we don't see much of him in the book.
Antonio is an 80 year old painter who spends his time capturing every emotion, every nuance his painted scenery has, whether that is a still life or a person. He listens to Sirena, when she just needs an ear. And he points things out to her in an unobtrusive way so she can come to her own conclusions about her life.
All in all I really enjoyed this book. I read it in less than 24 hours. Blumenthal really has a way with words. Her writing flows and is lyrical, her descriptive abilities poetic. I didn't really want to put the book down. I loved that the end really had no wind up, no final conclusion as if it might have a sequel but still does so well as a stand alone.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars. ( )

Reviewed at http://www.mandikayereads.com/archives/505

I was quite surprised to find that I truly enjoyed this book. Though there was a bit of supernatural mysticism involved in the story, it doesn’t overshadow the story of Sirena’s summer.

Sometimes, I truly just love to read a story about someone else’s life. It needn’t be full of heroines and quests to capture and keep my attention. A well written simple story will do quite the same thing. This is one of those well written stories.

While Sirena’s story isn’t a quest in the traditional sense of the word, it is a journey.

“Arrive the same, Leave different.”

Sirena grows as a person into a compassionate and thoughtful young woman during the course of her summer in Rhode Island. Some of that may have to do with the accident, but most of it has to do with the relationships she made.

This book touched me, and if you are anything like me, it will make you see how much relationships can touch and change someone. ( )