This was a fun adventure story with engaging characters, even if it was hard to take them seriously as, well, people. I liked Annie and Josh, our mainThis was a fun adventure story with engaging characters, even if it was hard to take them seriously as, well, people. I liked Annie and Josh, our main characters, quite a bit. Annie is that mixture of competent and uncertain that pretty much defines a fifteen year-old girl. Her mom owns a diving shop, where Annie helps out with both the retail store aspects and the scuba instruction. Child labor laws aside, this aspect of the story just works and gives Annie focus. Her dad is a history teacher at a posh private school who loves lost treasure stories. Annie attends the school he teaches at on a faculty scholarship. Annie is, of course, interested in the natural intersection of her parents' passions.
The rest of her friends and peer group is where the unlikely intrudes. It could be that the “private school for the rich and famous” is just too easy a crutch and that bothered me. Or it could be that there was a touch too much “win” associated with them as a whole. Or it could be that Annie's friends, or, more specifically, their talents or connections, were a little too crucial to the plot in points (Mimi knows the right politician to get them access to a national preserve, and I get that Gracia is smart and all, but a top-notch hacker as well?). It stretched a plot already thin from adults a little too eager to involve High School students into their plans for my taste.
And that's before we get to Josh. Who, let me be clear, is adorable. He's cute, capable, famous, rich, and interested in Annie. That sounds more unrealistic than he turns out to be, really. Even with all the overblown trappings, he's a good guy and I actually bought him falling for Annie—maybe because he started with finding an interest in the things that interested her (and not because he was trying to get close to her in the first place). Their friendship (with just a hint of maybe a little bit more) felt genuine, even if I couldn't buy his complete package.
Anyway, for its purpose, this book does well. It's a fun adventure and the technical aspects of the diving, at least, were solid and felt natural. The history, suppositions, and background (i.e. everything about the treasure hunting, essentially) was fantastically unrealistic but that didn't bug me as much as I thought it might when I began. Over all, an entertaining read that I enjoyed, though with enough caveats to prevent me from marking it “outstanding”.
NetGalley acquisition: This is the first book I’ve acquired through NetGalley. I’ve no idea why people post that as a detail, but far be it from me to break with common usage. I get that the books are free, and come with a soft obligation to review, but they’re also rather rough formatting-wise and hardly what I’d call an “asset” as such. And I certainly don’t feel any pressure to tailor my reviews and/or opinions as a result. Still, there you go…...more
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