Top 3 Water Based Novels That You Have Never Heard Of Before 



Water Shaper
Laura Williams McCaffrey
***** 5 Stars

Margot is a princess, but she is not beloved. Her mother died when she was very young. Passing on the unnatural longing for water and a strange book, which smells of the sea and contains strange images like nothing Margot had ever seen before in the landlocked kingdom that she lives in. One day she meets Orrin, a foreign king. Who rules a kingdom by the sea, seeing her chance, she escapes with Orrin, back to the kingdom by the sea. There she discovers the truth of the mysterious book which hides from those who seek it, and finds out who she truly is and what power she holds.

This book was amazing! All the action, betrayal, and depth to this book is outstanding! My favorite character was Margot, she fights for what she wants and can withstand anything. She starts off as a naive young woman who has no idea what the world beholds outside the walls of her fathers isolated kingdom. But as she discovers the truth, and believes in herself, when she realizes she can withstand anything, it teaches her that she is the only one who can control her own future. This is definitely not your average fairytale.
Some content in this book may not be appropriate for children, such as drinking.

                                                  



Water Steps
A. LaFaye
*****5 Star

Shape-shifting silkies, baby-stealing fairies, and spitting in water as a test for liars. Kyna's adoptive parents have an endless stream of stories to keep her amused. But no matter how hard they try, Kyna can't get over her fear of water. As a small child, a storm at sea claimed her family, and nearly took her own life. Now even seeing a glass of water makes her freeze up, while her mind goes awash with stormy waves and sees the image of her family slowly slipping away.
 When Kyna's parents rent a house on a "magical" lake, she begs to stay home. No such luck.
At the lake, Kyna resolves to hide in the woods, and stay as far away from the water as possible. As she explores the forests, she meets Tylo, a boy who is set on proving that there are silkies in the lake, where Kyna finds herself dangerously close to the water, and dangerously close to a truth she cant believe.

Water Steps was probably one of the reasons I became inspired to start photography, Kyna made it sound so wonderful (which it is). Every word was chosen exactly, and couldn't have been worded any better. My favorite character was Kyna, how she overcame her fear and accepted her parents for who they were. This book is filled with humor, emotion and everything else. This book puts a twist on a handful of your everyday celtic myths.





Seven Tears Into The Sea
Terri Farley
***** 5 Stars

At the age of ten, Gwen Cooke woke in the middle of the night and was drawn to the beach, where she encountered a strange boy with liquid dark eyes. He whispered into her ear a strange rhyme, then left, vanishing into the waves. After telling her family of her strange encounter, they shortly after move away from the ocean, to a landlocked town.

Now seventeen, Gwen is returning to her childhood home. Her nana asked her to come for the summer, But Gwen knows there are other reasons, its time to return to the thing she has not seen in seven years, the sea. Perhaps the sea is calling to her, maybe she still clings to the thought that the encounter with the strange boy, was real. Even though it was the very thing that made her family leave.  His words seem to haunt her mind, drawing her back to the place where they met. Perhaps it is time to face her destiny.

This book was moving, it is full of intense romance, the conquering of fears, and a teenage girls story of her struggle to stop running from the past, and to embrace the present and future.
This story is one of my favorites, the characters are done really well, and the story leaves an an imprint in you mind long after the last page has been turned.
My favorite character was Gwen, I always like the characters who evolve and strengthen the most in every story. I like Gwen because she was always proud, and bold, but she was fragile enough that if something too deep came along, she would break down. In the end she always knew what the right thing to do was, and was able to conquer her fears. This fiction book is one of its kind.

These three books were hard to find, you have to be a hard core book shopper to track down these stories. But it is worth it! To find rare books like these, I always go by the same rule, look in the most unlikely places. You might just find the best book! But to help, go to Amazon, that website is a treasure trove. Here are the links to order these books:  Water Shaper,  Water Steps, Seven Tears Into The Sea .

                  
                                                                    -Olive

Home To The Sea

Home To The Sea
By: Chester Aaron                
***** 5 Star!

Twelve-year-old Marian Conroy is a regular girl, she lives in a regular house, goes to a regular school, and has a normal best friend. Her life is same old regular. At least she thinks it is, but her life will never be the same. Strange changes begin to happen to her body, and there is nothing she can do to stop it.
Marian, who has never been in a body of water deeper than her knees, becomes wanted by every swimming coach in California, because she has the ability to make history in the Olympics for her swimming skill.

Why is the webbing between her fingers and toes, that was removed when she was baby, growing back?
What are the inhuman voices calling her to the sea? Marian is changing, and she is discovering secrets that she should have been told long ago, and with these secrets, she is discovering herself.

I loved this book! I have read it so many times. Chester Aaron took a story that has been stuck in the Fantasy section since its creation, and transformed it into a story that seems like something real! This book is a scientific version of The Little Mermaid in reverse, and better! (The teen version) This is a very deep book, and full of emotion.
Those are the kinds of books I am addicted to!
My friend calls them sad books, she likes reading "sad books", (sounds weird). But I agree with her, but I prefer the title, either: Emotional books, or: Novels. (I am actually writing one) So read this book!
This book may be to complex or inappropriate for children under the age of 12.

                                                                       -Olive

Isabel Of The Whales

Isabel Of The Whales
Hester Velmans
*****5 Star
Eleven-year-old Isabel is a "plain old" girl living in Province town, Massachusetts, who believes she is destined for something special. When her class goes whale watching (a trip she has been anticipating for a long time). Something amazing happens! Dozens of species of whales surround the boat, bumping the the deck and sending Isabel over the railing and into the ocean. Underwater, Isabel cannot comprehend when the whales speak to her. They tell her she is able to turn into a whale and back again. She is destined to live among the whales, though she desperately wants to go home.

As she starts to warm up to her pod, living with them is fun, at first. Isabel gets attached to her new family, especially one male in particular and she starts to think she would like it if she stayed with the whales. But she gets injured and she can go back to her own world now, from which she can not return. She must make a decision, and being caught between two worlds become more difficult than she could have ever imagined.

This book was definitely one of my favorite books, I can't really describe it, but there was something different about this story, that makes me wan't to read it over, and over again. But I can tell you that this book is full of romance, laughs and a story of adventure, emotion, and lots more. So watch out Little Mermaid, here comes Isabel!

                                                     -Olive

Olives Ocean

Olives Ocean Book Review
By: Kevin Henkes
***** 5 Star!!!

Olives Ocean, is the best book I have ever read In my life!!! It's probably going to become a family heirloom some day. I am a very big Fantasy reader, when ever my mom suggested a Realistic Fiction book, I would immediately turn it down, because I thought that all books that didn't have any magic in them were straight out boring. (I guess I was a big stereo type) But then one day I got Olives Ocean for a birthday present from one of my classmates. I decided to read it, to be polite and because I'm pretty sure there was no more books around the house that I had not read besides that one. Olives Ocean was the best book I had ever read!!!!!! It had wonderful details, and the story was very emotional, the author fit random things into the story that usually wouldn't work in those kinds of books. But he made them work in a way that I felt like the book wouldn't have been the same without it. This book was packed with laugh out loud's, and things that could make you cry like my "slightly" weird friend. This book couldn't have been done better, Martha was definitely my favorite character. She was very self conscious and got embarrassed easily, but as the book went on the events that occurred changed her. I thought that her way of trying to cover up her red hair was very funny, and interesting. This book was the first Realistic Fiction book that I ever read. And it gave me the best introductory I could ever get to a whole new kind of genre I had never took the time to explore. So if you have not read this book yet, for your own sake, DO!!! Go to allreaders.com for more details.

                                                            -Olive

Witch And Wizard Book Review

Witch And Wizard
By: James Patterson
***** five star

Ok, you might start to think that all I read is James Patterson, if that's all I review, but I can't help it! His books are so good! Anyway, Witch And Wizard was awesome!!! It was just as good as Harry Potter, but better! (In my opinion, sorry if I am insulting those Harry Potter fans out there) But Witch and Wizard just might be the next series that will make you go nuts. One of the reasons I didn't exactly finish the whole Harry Potter series was because I got scared. I started to think that the snake from the Chamber Of Secrets was under my bed, the dementors hid in my closet, and Voldemort in my toilet. Yes, Voldimort was in my toilet. Imagine, you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.... Then all of a sudden Voldimort's bald nearly noseless head suddenly pops out of your toilet and cackles at you. A very scary picture if you think about it. One of the things that I like about Witch and Wizard, is that there is nothing horrifyingly scary in it, except for the lost ones...

 Witch and Wizard was amazing, James Patterson really worked his tail of on this book (there is going to be a sequel). He put lots of dialogue in this story that made me laugh out loud, which I don't usually tend to do when I am reading a book. He left no confusions, and nothing that didn't add up, everything fit precisely. His characters were portrayed beautifully. One of the things that impressed me the most was timing, he would hit you with an event that you never saw coming, and in some way, he would manage to slip in the scene at exactly the right time, so that it would leave you shocked. His topic was a very common one, you know kids find out they have magical powers same old, same old. But he found some way to make it seem like the whole outline was completely new and not all used up like it should be. He did the same trick with his other series called Maximum Ride. In this book, my favorite character was Wisty, she was immediately reflected to me as an outgoing, feisty person who was never afraid to say her mind. The only thing in this book, that confused me was, with every chapter, he would switch from Wisty's perspective, to Whit's (he's the other main character). It started to mix me up after a while, because I would get so engrossed in one chapter, that when they suddenly switched over, it would mix me up until I realized we were switched to the other main characters perspective. It didn't help when they were completely in two different places at the same time. But it was worth it, and every other awesome part of the book made up for it. So if you liked Harry Potter, than you will LOVE Witch and Wizard. Check out witchandwizard.com for more details.

                                                                            -Olive

Sisters Of The Sword Book Review

Sisters of the Sword
By: Maya Snow
*** Three Star

Sisters of the sword is an ok book, but there is ALOT of violence. Trust me, I have read tons of books in my time, and about 50% of them have a "little" blood shedding. So when I say alot of violence, I mean ALOT of violence, lots of important characters perish in this book. Usually thats ok, when there are a couple of dramatic deaths in a story. But in this book it was different, the first couple of deaths were sad. But then I just started to get tired of it, of all of the endings (if that's even possible). I mean, how many deaths can you fit in a book! To me, this books details and occurrences were a dramatic FAIL. But the only reason I gave it three stars at all, was because from my perspective, it was a good topic and would have made a good impression in my mind, if the author had really thought about WHAT she had included in the book. So if you are the kind of person who sits in front of a TV and laughs hysterically at a violent TV show, then this book was made for you.

                                                             -Olive

Maximum Ride book review

Maximum Ride

By: James Patterson

* * * * * Five Star

I loved this book! I am officially obsessed! The description is amazing, I love that he doesn't just do a straight forward story, he adds little complications in the characters lives that grow more and more important as the story goes on until that small problem effects their whole lives completely. He also attaches little details that most authors don't take the time and care to do, those little details make the story whole. Some authors do attach details, but he has a way of keeping the the story going and making it flow together, every piece has a place on the puzzle of James Patterson's stories. I love Max! she is my favorite! He portrays her strong character, and how she does anything to protect her family very well, writing the story through Max's prospective was the best move James Patterson could have made in creating this series. He does a wonderful job of showing each characters personality and perspective about the world, through their decisions in life and and their actions, as well as their choice of words in the story. The whole book was wonderful, he puts every moment and picture crystal clear in the readers head. The story has wonderful structure and is beautifully written, every intense seen, every battle, every flight,  projects like a movie in your head, it keeps you reading till the last page. Maximum Ride was a delight to read. To find out more about this book go to Maximumride.com for more details on this series.

                                                                    -Olive

3 Years

The last three years of my life have been filled to the brim with words and pages , I have read roughly around 350 books, at least those are the ones that I actually was able to buy. I am a very lucky 12 year old, I have a great family, a great house, a very wonderful but creepy dog, I am very fortunate. But when I was younger every time I finished a new book I would think how adventurous the characters life was, and my own life then seemed so uninteresting compared to theirs. So I began to spend more time reading so I would never have to face the fact that the wonderful things that happened in the story's, would never happen to me in real life. When I read I actually feel like the character and I felt like I was seeing and feeling everything they experienced themselves. So I never stopped, I read all the time, when I finished a book, I would immediately pick up another. But it took me long enough to realize that I could have my own adventures, that I could have just as much fun as any character in a book, even it wasn't exactly the same. So I decided to start a blog on anything to do with books. Quoting from my mom, she told me that I could be in my golden years and have done nothing or, I could be in my golden years and have done everything I wanted and more.

- Olive