Book – The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky
Author – David Litwick
Star rating - ★★★★★
Plot – captivating, beautiful, nicely plotted
Characters – lovable, diverse, relatable
Movie Potential - ★★★★★
Ease of reading – very easy to read
Cover - ✔
Suitable Title - ✔
Would I read it again - ✔

** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **

First off, let me start by saying this book is something special. I don’t say that often, but there is something un-pinpoint-able and undefined that is wholly beautiful, endearing and magical about this book and the story. I’m going to lay this at the author’s feet. If this author bring out another book, you can bet I’ll snap it up as soon as it’s in print, because I can tell from this one alone that me and David’s books are going to be lifelong friends.

When I saw this book was up for a blog tour, I knew I had time in my blog calendar to fit it in, so although it didn’t sound like anything I’d read before, I snapped up the chance to read something new. And I’m glad I did. This may be one of my favourite YA novels, ever and it’s probably the biggest surprise a book has given me since I started reading at ye high.

I’m always nervous about starting a new book, especially one that I didn’t technically choose for myself. With Read4Review books, I tend to take a bigger chance and hope for the best, so when a new one comes along, I always worry that I’m not going to enjoy it and I hate to turn that first page and be proven right. This time, I was proven wrong.

From page one, this story sucked me in. The start was intriguing, and held a lot of promise for what would come next. Then, we got whisked away into the future and saw Helena and Jason’s story, which only caught even more of my attention. Helena is, to me, broken during the majority of this novel and a lot of what she goes through is a test to see if she can cope, if she can finally be honest with herself and if she’s willing to take a risk. All of that is down to Jason. And let me just admit right now that whether the author planned it or not, Jason is kind of my perfect guy. He doesn’t disappoint. Not once, throughout the story, do I fall out of love with him.

I don’t want to go into too much detail about what I loved about this story because I could be here all day. It’s safe to say that I want, no, NEED you to read this book. And trust me, you NEED to read this for you too. I’m not going to include spoilers, so let’s get down to what I thought about what I can talk about.

The story itself is original, and somehow familiar. Not in the way that I’ve read anything similar, but in a way that it’s comforting and sort of similar in a dream sense. Like when you have Deja Vu and you swear you’ve felt a certain way before; that’s how this book makes me feel. All warm and fuzzy and slightly disorientated and not sure if I’m dreaming. It’s a good feeling.

I didn’t have a lot of time to read this book, but I started early enough that a few hours at the end of each night, I’d have enough time for a chapter before bed. Well, that chapter turned into 20% of the book each time I sat down to read it. I even spend four hours, one day, just reading it when I first started it because it was so good. I don’t even care that I’m completely sleep deprived; it was more than worth it.

This author is a new favourite of mine. Yes, it’s only one book and it may be a fluke, but the writing isn’t. This is a great author with a talent for storytelling. Litwick weaves an intricate, but not complicated tale into a book that would seem long if not for the fact that it was easily devoured in not a lot of time. Overall, it took me three days, which is pretty good for a book this size.

The characters are all real, lovable people, relatable and with vast personalities. There are no two characters alike in this story, as far as I can tell. Each one is an individual that is enjoyable to read. Even Benjamin, because although he’s sometimes overbearing, scary and often unhinged in my opinion, he’s still a complete mystery that, as a read, I want to solve. The same goes for Martha. I spent most of the book believing both were as dangerous as each other to little Kailani, our MC, but I was surprised by what really happened.

Kailani herself, the Daughter of the Sea and the Sky, is adorable, too cute and beyond words for me. She is the character the book is about, but we’re shown her story through other characters, which is pure genius. She’s a character you want to know and hold and love, and tell everything is going to be okay. At the same time, you wonder about her fate and the effect she has on others, whether she’ll get back to the Blessed Lands or have to stay with the Soulless.

I also really like that the author gives different characters the chance to show their side of the story. This is a method I fell in love with years ago, because you get such different angles on the same story, and it’s done excellently here.

The ending is, in one word, perfect. I couldn’t imagine a better ending. Not everything is wrapped up in bright red ribbon, wrapped up for convenience and a nice tidy finish. But we get the story we want and asked for when we opened the book. And that’s pretty perfect to me.