Where
I Found You
Author:
Heidi R. Kling
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Pages: 307
Release date: 4th
December 2017
Genre: Young adult
Contemporary
Synopsis
(Goodreads): After her mother's plane went
missing over the Indian Ocean, seventeen-year-old Sienna Jones gave up
everything she loved about living in California. No more surfing. No more
swimming. No more ocean, period. Playing it safe, hiding from the world, is the
best call.
Until her dad throws down the challenge of a lifetime: spend the summer with his humanitarian team in Indonesia, working with orphans who lost everything in a massive tsunami.
The day they arrive, Sienna meets a mysterious boy named Deni, whose dark, intense eyes make her heart race. Their stolen nights force her to open up and live in a way she thought she couldn't anymore. When she’s with Deni, she remembers the girl she used to be… and starts to feel like the woman he sees in her.
A woman he wants for his own.
Gulp.
But when Deni’s past comes looking for him, Sienna’s faced with losing another person she loves. She can’t do it. Not again.
Fortunately, this time, she has a plan.
Until her dad throws down the challenge of a lifetime: spend the summer with his humanitarian team in Indonesia, working with orphans who lost everything in a massive tsunami.
The day they arrive, Sienna meets a mysterious boy named Deni, whose dark, intense eyes make her heart race. Their stolen nights force her to open up and live in a way she thought she couldn't anymore. When she’s with Deni, she remembers the girl she used to be… and starts to feel like the woman he sees in her.
A woman he wants for his own.
Gulp.
But when Deni’s past comes looking for him, Sienna’s faced with losing another person she loves. She can’t do it. Not again.
Fortunately, this time, she has a plan.
Review:
2 out of 5 stars
Where
I Found You is the first book in the Sea series by Heidi R. Kling and
follows the story of seventeen year-old Sienna Jones who after
three years is finding it hard to move on with life following the tragic death
of her mother and is being encouraged by her friends and father to start to do
things that she once loved like swimming and surfing, something that she hasn’t
been able to do. When her father purchases her a plane ticket to accompany his
team on a humanitarian project to tsunami devastated Indonesia she is most
reticent but agrees to go along.
What I did enjoy about Where
I found You was learning about the Indonesian culture and customs and how
the Indonesian people were dealing with the after effects of the Tsunami, it
was utter devastation to see how affected the children and the area that was
hit were coping and how they were attempting to move on and rebuild their lives.
Sienna was working with a group of orphaned children and helping them with
their loss through therapy, this aspect was written well.
What I didn’t enjoy was the rushed romance, I didn’t feel the
connection between Sienna and Deni at all and everything happened so quickly;
it was too much, unrealistic and the way Sienna continually defied the strict
traditions and the rules of the orphanage as well as her father made her look
like a spoiled brat. I didn’t enjoy this aspect whatsoever; she didn’t seem to
show any respect at all.
Sienna was a character that didn’t grow on me over the course of
the book and Deni was a bit mysterious and secretive, he was a bit of an
unknown; I did like the secondary characters – the children of the pesantren
(orphanage) showed strength and resilience despite their PTSD and were able to
connect with Sienna as she too suffers with night terrors and grief over the
loss of her mother; reading the conflict between Sienna and her father was
difficult as well as her loathing towards his Team Hope colleague Vera who he
had started to show affection towards. I was keen to see the relationship
between Sienna and Spider explored further.
Where
I Found You is a book about grief and loss but also hope; the author has
written about one of the most devastating natural disasters and you are saddened
and reminded of the utter loss and turmoil that the Indonesian people
experienced, it was heart-wrenching.
Unfortunately, I didn’t love this book and I won’t be continuing
with this series. Thank you to Entangled Teen via Netgalley for the opportunity
to read and review Where I Found You.
About
the author: Heidi R. Kling writes books
about normal girls in fantastic situations. Her debut novel SEA (Penguin/Putnam) was a finalist for Northern California Book of the Year," an IndieNext Summer Pick, Goodreads “Mover and Shaker," Scholastic Reading Pick, and Gateway Reader’s Award Finalist among other generous accolades. SEA, which launched June, 2010, is a bittersweet love story set in the aftermath of the devastating 2004 Indonesian tsunami, and is set to relaunch with Entangled Teen December 4 as WHERE I FOUND YOU (Sea series #1) with its sequel WHERE THE SEA TAKES ME out April, 2018!
After earning her MFA in Writing for Children from the New School in New York, Heidi returned to the Bay Area where she lives with her family in a tiny seaside village like the towns in her books.
She's also the author of the acclaimed PAINT MY BODY RED (for fans of Speak and 13 Reasons Why), bestselling romantic comedy NOT OKAY, CUPID and the Spellspinners of Melas County series about feuding witches and warlocks.
Please visit her on twitter (Heidi R. Kling) where she loves to live-tweet TV shows, overuse gifs and chat with her readers about books, love and travel. She's very fortunate to write stories for a living and is grateful to you for reading them!
http://heidirkling.com
Too bad this one didn't connect with you. I have had books like that and it makes it hard to get through... I imagine especially with this one which deals with grief. Hope the next one rocks for you and brilly review.
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