The Sea of Tranquility

A Novel

By: Katja Millay

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne, Candace Thaxton

Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the Earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.

Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her - her identity, her spirit, her will to live - pay.

Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: Every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at 17 years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding - or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a rich, intense, and brilliantly imagined story about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.

©2012 Katja Millay (P)2013 Simon & Schuster

Soooo sad the book came to an end....

This book absolutely stole my heart and my feelings....the author did a fabulous job with going between the main female and male characters. For a debut, Ms. Millay was a natural. While the book itself was nothing like Gone Girl, the set-up was. The reason I even picked this book was b/c of Kirby Heyborne. He is an excellent narrator / actor. Candace Thaxton complimented her role and played it with equal greatness. This book earned every star possible and then some.

Loved it!

Wasn't sure if I was going to like this book at first. But the narrators did an awesome job and I didn't want it to end!

Phenomenal Read

I am speechless. I literally have no words right now. This book is everything. From the first word to the last and oh my what a last word it was. This is hands down one of the best books I’ve ever read and will forever be in my top favorites! I can’t say enough about how amazing this book is. Please just go read it! Or listen to it, the audio was superb! Just so, so good!

Gut wrenchingly beautiful!

Great story... Cried a few times would have hated it without a happy ending! Pretty dark, but still great

Wish More Stars Were Available!!

Having read this book on my Kindle TWICE and rated it 5+ stars both times, it was with great trepidation that I downloaded the audible.com version. It even took me almost a MONTH to begin listening to it.Y'all, this book is and was a phenomenal read, so you can imagine the leap of faith to listening to it. Well, let me put you at ease and also congratulate whoever is responsible for bringing the audio version to life. IT'S JUST AS GOOD AND NOTHING IS LOST!! In fact, the audio version adds a dimension to the printed/digital book that simply puts this book (and the author, Katja Millay) into the stratosphere of spectacular writing. There a literally hundreds of 5 star reviews on Amazon, so if you want the eloquence of a great review of the story and Katja's magnificent and powerful writing, go there. I cannot do most of them justice. But listen to me when I say that listening to this book was an experience I will never forget. Initially, I was thinking to myself "Uh-Ho--this isn't working". But knowing that it often takes acclimating to voices you may have heard in your head as you read the book, I stuck with it. And man, was it worth it. There was a tipping point when the narrators BECAME the characters and the book totally came to life. Both Kirby Heyborne and Candace Thaxton were superb in their narration, intonation, voice, timbre and whatever else it took to make this wonderful book a wonderful listen. Sometimes the 'esses' would whistle slightly but not to the point of distractions. The characters of Nastya and Josh were spoken richly by each narrator. I will return to this book again and again when I am beret of a powerful and beautifully crafted story. My three words about this book to all who see this review--LISTEN TO IT!

The Sea of Tranquility Stars

I first read this book in 2013, it’s a book I read at least 2 times a year.
And I was going through my GoodReads and noticed I only did a little review.. But this book needs more than my one line.

-I have no words to describe how this book touched my heart. MUST READ-

I stand behind my review lol MUST READ.

But this book it’s something else, I don’t know if I can explain why I re read it. Or why you should read it. I am always left with hope maybe that’s why I re read it as much as I do.
You have this girl who is screaming for something…You don’t know what…Understanding? Freedom? Hope? She is the obvious choice right? Her silence, the way she dresses, her makeup. She needs the help right? But no, it’s not just her.

"I think I'll stay in pieces. I can shift them, rearrange, depending on the day, depending on what I need to be. I can change on a whim and be so many different girls and none of them has to be me."

Josh, who seems so down, not sad just not present either like he is doing his time. Maybe a little bit of a loner? He is who I root for, he helps her and she helps him. It’s not even an understanding because they don’t realize it’s happening until it happens.

“It was everybody. All of them…gone…Why? What did I do that was so wrong?”

I probably didn’t explain anything, but this book just gives me that feeling when I am done reading it. Maybe that’s why I have read it so often.

If you haven’t read it and keep putting it off don’t I am telling you, you won’t regret the time it takes to read it.

Also the audio is phenomenal.

*You don't have to like my review but its 100% my opinion, and I am allowed to have it.*

Okay

I want to start off by saying how much I love this cover. The cleverness is just amazing.

I had to give this book between 3 - 3.5 stars. I loved the concept and thought it was incredible and a very touching plot to touch on. However, the story itself really did not get good until about 3/4's in. The first 3/4's of the story felt like filler, stuff that wasn't needed or that could have been edited a lot. Too much time was spent on Nastya's building relationship with Drew and Josh. And, yes, that was needed, we needed to see them all bond but I don't think it really should have taken so much of the story to do so. It was like too much backstory without the actual backstory.

A lot more attention and emphasis should have been placed on her tragedy. We got fed tidbits of it and still really had no clue what happened until the end of the book. I just think I would have appreciated this journey more if we had more focus on the tragedy and how she moved on with those boys and the new town after the fact. The last 1/4 was so much better because we got into the issues more, we saw the relationship between Josh and Nastya. We saw how much Drew changed and stopped being such a self-centered jerk and actually cared for someone besides himself. We saw her finally deal with the pain and feel something other than acting numb. There's not too much I can really say without giving it all away but the last part was the best.

I liked how thought out the telltale signs of distress were. The names, the clothes, the make-up, the hand, etc... symbolically it was incredible.

Also, sometimes while reading I felt like things were being repeated. I wish I could remember but it was like the author kept trying to reiterate her meaning by continuing to say the same thing with just different words. I wanted to fall in love with this book like so many others did, but I just didn't. I didn't hate it either. I actually thought the storyline has so much potential. And like everything in life, it's just my opinion, we're not all going to like the same things with the same capacity.

I would still recommend this book but it's just not my favorite book.

Loved it

Where does The Sea of Tranquility rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I've listened to it three times. I did the same with "Looking for me".

Who was your favorite character and why?

I agree with another reviewer that wrote that all the characters are well developed.

What does Kirby Heyborne and Candace Thaxton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

So many of the books on Audible are hopelessly narrated and/or have poor sound. These two bring so much to the story; they do a perfect job and the recording is high quality.

Any additional comments?

I'm 30 years old and I loved every sentence in this book. The story is easy to follow and the writing is simple, so it's very relaxing to listen to, yet it's emotionally and socially interesting and never boring.

Best love story between two damaged teens

The author has amazing talent at how she had this story unfold between two teens. You'll
Love all the characters and laugh and shed tears. I wish I could experience this book again for the first time. I've never experienced any characters the way these two came to life for me and moved me. Similar to All the Bright Places. I want this author to write another book!

very nice

good start good finish. not a surprising story though it's very will written, it is full of emotions I cried and smiled. I felt the characters live.
the way it changes the story between characters was very supportive to the flow and it was good