So I have been hearing a lot about John Green and how awesome he is, but honestly, I wasn’t impressed. I really had to push myself to get into this book and to finish it. I couldn’t connect with the characters or the story. Well, if you could even call that a story. I wasn’t really sure what the point of the book was.
Basically I found the boys to be big pansies who were controlled by a bitchy teenage girl. Alaska was a “party” girl who thought she was Queen Shit and I guess everyone else did too. She didn’t really think of the consequences to her actions, and in the end it was her undoing.
For my sake, I hope John Green’s others books are better because I have a few of them. I would still recommend this book to others just because I don’t want my opinion to affect whether they read it or not.

It took me all of two days to read this book and even that was two days too long. If I didn't have work, a household and kids to take care of I would have had this read within hours. I absolutely LOVED this. The characters, the story line, everything. The only part that suck was that now reading it before the book is out I have to wait until next Winter before book number two is released.

The story draws you in by making you love the main character, Gemma, from the beginning. You're intrigued at how dedicated and how much she loves swimming and her love for the water and you love how her romance starts with boy next door, Alex. It wasn't until the middle of the book when I started to like her older sister, Harper. She's a tough cookie and is the backbone to their family. She's like a mother to Gemma since their mom is in a mental institution. In the beginning I thought, "Wow can we get anymore paranoid?" but in the end Harper won me over because all she really wants is to protect her sister and for good reasons. The fact that she started her own little romance in this story helped me like her a bit more too, lol.

There are Sirens (mermaid like) in this story which always wins me over as one of my favorite movies is The Little Mermaid. How Amanda Hocking went in detail as to how the three Sirens came to be gave you enough information to know that they were no good and why they needed and wanted from Gemma.

How book one ended left you with your mouth hanging open, but I guess that was exactly the point because now I'm anxious to read what happens next, I can't wait!