Book Review: Teardrop (Teardrop #1) by Lauren Kate

Title: Teardrop (Teardrop #1)
Author: Lauren Kate
Publisher: Random House UK
Publishing Date: October 24th 2013
Length: 441 pages
Keywords: YA, fiction, romance, legend, Atlantis, water
Source: Publisher

Never, ever cry...

Seventeen-year-old Eureka won't let anyone close enough to feel her pain. After her mother was killed in a freak accident, the things she used to love hold no meaning. She wants to escape, but one thing holds her back: Ander, the boy who is everywhere she goes, whose turquoise eyes are like the ocean.

And then Eureka uncovers an ancient tale of romance and heartbreak, about a girl who cried an entire continent into the sea. Suddenly her mother's death and Ander's appearance seem connected, and her life takes on dark undercurrents that don't make sense.

Can everything you love be washed away?

Summary by Goodreads

 
 

Never, ever cry...that's been Eureka's mantra since she's been a little kid. She's a descendant of a long line of women who may be powerful enough to drown the whole world with their tears. What an unique approach at an immense and very powerful character conflict! In addition the story Lauren Kate spins around the old Atlantis legend is imaginative, her writing is as diverse and her plot as gripping as I've known it from her FALLEN series.

Lauren Kate deliberately chose to set the focus on Eureka's complicated emotional world, how she's dealing with her mother's death and where she finds comfort now. Her best friend Brooks was one of my favourite characters... until their relationship morphed into some kind of an unhealthy and very strained romantic thing. There's not enough time for Eureka and Ander as it is and it took some time for me to see them working as a couple, so why introduce a possible second love interest? Eureka and Brooks' relationship isn't at all as it seems and a good portion of attentiveness will help the reader figure out what's behind it all. Nevertheless, I'm sure there will be just as many Team Brooks fans as Team Ander girls.

One of the things Eureka's mother left for her is a book. The book of love. And of course Eureka tries to translate it. The sequences of Eureka reading about this ancient tale were slowing the story down too much and I caught myself desperately waiting for the next encounter with Ander. He's perceptive and persistent. Also he is one of the few guys who knows his feelings are true and always follows his instinct to put Eureka's life before his own. YA readers will fall in love with him even before Eureka does! Eureka and Ander were just meant to be, their chemistry is great and the build-up of very strong emotions between them is one of the reasons why I'm so looking forward to see where their story is headed in the second TEARDROP book.

Eureka's enemies are numerous, people who don't want to see her gain power. TEARDROP has two strong fronts, one group is convinced that the world's end will mean a better future for everyone. The others are determined to prevent Eureka from crying, even if it has to happen by taking her life. The confrontations between these two formations could have been more offensive and dangerous for my like (because there is so much at stake). Still it was plausible that Lauren took her time to set the story and give us the chance to get to know Eureka very well, instead of giving us an action overdose.

Eureka's relationship to her mother, father, her step-mother and their twins is of high importance, too. Many childhood memories mixed with her current situation make the reader care about every character so much more. So I would characterise TEARDROP as a more character-focused first book in a series rather than one that would put the plot and its fast pace first.

 

4/5 **** TEARDROP – A mesmerizing new interpretation of the Atlantis myth, with a smooth and fluent writing and a spellbinding attraction between two lovers who are destined to be enemies.

From the picturesque and maritime setting, days spent at the beach or on the ocean sailing, to Eureka's restraint to shed any tears, this book is water-themed through and through. Lauren Kate's dreamy interpretation of the Atlantis myth leaves room for so many more ways for the story to go. I'm really curious to see what Lauren Kate's Atlantis looks like and how Eureka and Ander are going to survive the looming end of the world. So ready to dive into book two! 

"The question and her gaze paralyzed Ander. In that bewildered moment, the wave curled around them, and a crucial chance was lost: he would have time to save only one of them. He knew how cruel it was. But, selfishly, he could not let her go.
Just before the wave exploded over them, Ander grabbed her hand.
Eureka." ― p.10

TEARDROP by Lauren Kate you probably won't be finding another YA book with an Atlantis-inspired story background, at least I haven't heard of it. Please let me know if you do know one. I picked three mermaid or siren and water-themed books you could enjoy if you liked TEARDROP. They are OF POSEIDON by Anna Banks, SIREN by Tricia Rayburn and RIPPLE by Mandy Hubbard.

 

* Want to read more by Lauren Kate? How about starting her FALLEN series?

* Click here to read an excerpt of TEARDROP.

* You can watch the TEARDROP book trailer here.

*  For more information about Lauren Kate and her books visit www.laurenkatebooks.net.

* Many thanks to Rose and Random House UK for sending me a copy of TEARDROP for review!

Mini Reviews # 2

Here's part two of my mini review series featuring  titles I didn't get to review for a long time. Todays's post is dedicated to contemporary titles that deal with personal and familiar conflicts that affect our protagonists in IF I STAY, RETURN TO PARADISE and RICH AND MAD.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

In IF I STAY Gayle Forman confronts us with a precarious and more than difficult decision that has to be made. Leave this world forever or stay and try to rebuild the ruins of your life?

After the horrible car accident that led to the death of her family, Mia is in a coma. She is the girl in between. Told from her perspective, Mia’s constantly reflecting on the sequences that have defined her life so far and compares them to her current situation. There are moments with her family, simply eating breakfast, or her falling in love with her boyfriend Adam.

I had high hopes in the relationship between Mia and Adam. I imagined it to be romantic and epic, but I felt just slightly entertained by Mia’s retelling of some of their relationship highlights. Tough Adam was the person I liked most in IF I STAY. He is sweet, has inner strength and is willing to fight for Mia no matter what.

But unfortunately I just didn’t click with the other characters. Mia’s parents felt too alternative for my taste. Nonetheless I find it helpful and necessary that Gayle Forman includes moments of their lives and retells the most important stations to offer the reader a glimpse of what could be forever lost to our torn protagonist Mia.

And torn is exactly how I felt about Mia, too. On the one hand I totally got how she felt about this whole messed up situation. On the other hand I couldn’t really identify with her character. Her life- as her parents’ lives- is highly dominated by music. She’s so passionate about her violin and I admire her for that. People who are interested in music the same way Mia is should like this read a lot.

I might not have cared about the characters as much as I’d wanted to, but the overall discourse definitely affected me and made me think a lot about what I would have done if I had been in Mia's situation.

3,5/5 ***/* IF I STAY- A philosophical discourse about the safety of life and the security a family offers. Gayle Forman tells the story of Mia with the right amount of sensibility and beautiful piano notes contributing a soundtrack to the sad story.

Publisher: Random House UK

Publishing Date: May 13^th 2010

Length: 232 pages

Keywords: YA, contemporary romance, car accident, coma, loss, music, love, friendship

Source: Bought 

Goodreads Summary

If I Stay Excerpt

Author's Homepage

Return To Paradise by Simone Elkeles

The sequel to LEAVING PARADISE circles around Maggie, Caleb and the accident…again. There might still be the need to talk about Maggie and Caleb’s feelings and the events of the past, but sometimes their conversations just felt like a revision of the LEAVING PARADISE talk.

Now Maggie and Caleb are forced to spend a four week trip together to talk about their experiences with drunk driving. Time to sort out their differences one could think, but to me it felt like Maggie and Caleb seem to be stuck in their old dialogues and actions. It’s not like in LEAVING PARADISE where they made progress by approaching the other. In RETURN TO PARADISE they are caught in a silly loop and unnecessary frictions, pushing the other away and letting him get close again.

New about this part of their story is that they join four other teens on their trip. They are Matt, Erin, Trish and Lenny. These teens have stories of their own, that are definitely worth hearing. Thanks to them and their refreshing personalities RETURN TO PARADISE doesn’t feel like a total dragging read. My favourite character in this novel might be Lenny with his ridiculously funny actions and jokes.

I didn’t really need a sequel after LEAVING PARADISE, but I’d already got it and so I made myself read it. There are some things that could have been solved faster. In the end I was content that the story came to a decent end.

3/5 *** RETURN TO PARADISE - A decent but unnecessary sequel. RETURN TO PARADISE promises more talk about the accident and its consequences, luckily with a few funny and fresh character cast additions.

Publisher: Flux

Publishing Date: September 1st 2010

Length: 312 pages

Keywords: YA, contemporary romance, love, drunk driving, friendship

Source: Bought

Goodreads Summary

Return To Paradise Excerpt

Author's Homepage

Rich and Mad by William Nicholson

Two teenagers falling in love for the very first time. Doesn’t that sound like a romantic and potentially overwhelming story? I imagined Mad- Maddy- to be independent and strong and Rich-Richard- to be that reckless and sexy young man. They both were nothing like that though. Maddy is so gullible and somehow doesn’t get what’s really happening around her. And then Richard is compulsively insecure and clumsy with all things concerning girls.

Rich and Mad’s families as their friends and crushes play a big role in the story aswell. How many illusional feelings and miserable thoughts can a young person bear and what does it take to take them away and replace them with self-confidence and happiness? That’s what RICH AND MAD is all about. I also liked that he involved the topic of sex and that he made clear that it can be a very dominant part of a teenager’s life.

But their love story simply wasn’t what I'd expected. I had been really looking forward to read RICH AND MAD, in the end it just wasn’t for me. There were too many issues and no clear line to follow. And I cannot believe the low self-esteem many characters showed so my connection to the characters was rather distant.  Rich and Mad's romance didn’t convince me either since it felt forced and meagre most of the time.

Note that RICH AND MAD contains explicit content such as physical and psychical violence and sexual interactions. William Nichols provides the reader with vivid details. Those scenes would have felt a lot more meaningful though if the romance between them had been a part of the story from the beginning on and not just some kind of rational decision. 

2/5 ** RICH AND MAD- Hormonal teenagers and a ton of personal, familial and social issues. That’s what William Nicholson’s RICH AND MAD has to offer. Unfortunately the story lacks the emotional depth I had wished for.

Publisher: Egmont UK Limited

Publishing Date: April 5^th 2009

Length: 314 pages

Keywords: YA, contemporary romance, love, sex, family

Source: Book Fair 

Goodreads Summary

Rich and Mad Excerpt 

Author's Homepage