Sea Creatures: A Novel by Susanna Daniel

(Thank you to the publisher and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book!)

about book:

When Georgia Quillian returns to her hometown of Miami, her husband, Graham, and their young son in tow, she is hoping for a fresh start. The family has fled Illinois trailing scandal and disappointment, the fallout from Graham’s severe sleep disorder and Georgia’s failed business. To make matters worse, their charming three-year-old son, Frankie, has for months refused to speak a word.

Although Georgia is still grieving her mother’s death from five years earlier, her father and stepmother offer warm welcome—and a slip for the dilapidated houseboat Georgia and Graham have chosen to call home. On a lark, Georgia takes a job as an errand runner for a reclusive artist who lives in the middle of the bay, and she soon finds that time spent with the intense hermit might help Frankie find the courage to speak, and might also help her reconcile the woman she was with the woman she has become.

But when Graham leaves to work on a research vessel in Hurricane Alley, and the truth behind Frankie’s mutism is revealed, the family’s challenges return, more complicated than before. As a hurricane bears down on South Florida later that summer, Georgia must face the fact that her choices have put her only child in grave danger.

Sea Creatures is a mesmerizing exploration of the high stakes of marriage and parenthood, the story of a woman forced to choose between her husband, her child, and the possibility of new love.

my thoughts:

DNF.  Yep, I did not finish this book.  I just couldn't.  As much as everyone else seems to have LOVED this novel, I just didn't.  I found myself unable to get immersed in the story from the beginning and had to force myself to reach my 10 page cap (the number of pages I make myself read before I declare a book to be a DNF) before I decided to put the book down and stop reading.  There was just something in the tone and emotion of the story that dispelled my interest.  Plus, I found myself disliking each character I was introduced to, which I knew would make reading the book impossible.  And I just found the whole story to be too slow-going. I think that the only aspect I enjoyed was the setting of the story and that's because I'm from South Florida.  At the end of the day, Sea Creatures was just not my cup of tea.

Since I didn't finish reading the book and provide you with a full review, I'm going to provide you with all the links for this book tour.  I figure that way you can read some of the glowing reviews that praised this novel as the BEST read of 2013.  Here are the links:

Tuesday, July 30th: The Well-Read Redhead
Wednesday, July 31st: BookNAround
Thursday, August 1st: Luxury Reading
Monday, August 5th: nomadreader
Wednesday, August 7th: Time 2 Read
Thursday, August 8th: Kritters Ramblings
Monday, August 12th: Read Lately
Monday, August 12th: Tiffany’s Bookshelf
Tuesday, August 13th: Bluestalking
Wednesday, August 14th: The Feminist Texican [Reads]
Thursday, August 15th: Giraffe Days
Tuesday, August 20th: Cerebral Girl in a Redneck World
Wednesday, August 21st: 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews
Friday, August 23rd: Melissa Firman
Monday, August 26th: BoundByWords
Tuesday, August 27th: The Blog of Lit Wits

And now I'm off to read The Best of Daughters by Dilly Court.  Happy reading to you!!

Thank you to the publisher and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book!