My thoughts
This is my second book read by this author. It's a very touching and emotional story. The story of a young lady who loves the beauty of the sea. She was suppose to be a ballet dancer before the loss of her mother.
The hope she has of saving some of the creatures in the sea. How she survived losing her parents and then her brother leaving. The prejudice she was forced to witness because she chose to befriend you young Aboriginal boy who loved to watch her dance on the beach.
Gaia and her brother were being trained for the ballet. Their mother had been a ballet dancer and wanted her children to follow in her footsteps. The family lived on a farm where they worked the land. Sold vegetables in the market to make money. They didn't have electricity. Their parents wanted them to live off the land. They lived in a remote area with only a neighbor and his wife.
One day Gaia and her finds Sea Dragons in the water and is mesmerized by them. She knows they are a rare one to see and is so excited. But that night something horrible happens and her life takes a whole new path. She loses both parents in a fire and is badly burned herself. Her brother received burns but nothing like she did. After this Gaia pretty much isolates herself from people.
Gaia makes new friends. She deals with a lot of prejudice and violence because of a young boy who she befriends. While dealing with the possibility of losing the peaceful and tranquil life and the beauty of the sea to people who only want to take land and build resorts. They don't care about the wildlife. She does.
This is a very sweet book. A good read with a good feel to it. Aside from the prejudices that is. It's told in a beautiful way that just draws you in and keeps you turning the pages. To me it was a fast read. One I just couldn't put down.
The Epilogue was beautiful. Gave me chills and a few happier tears. Also do not skip the Author's Notes. A lot of great info there.
Thank you #NetGalley, #SeaDragonPress, for this ARC.
Five big stars.
About
GOLD: 2024 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER BOOK AWARDS (IPPYS), BEST FICTION, AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND-AOTEAROA/PACIFIC RIM
SILVER: 2024 READER'S FAVORITE BOOK AWARD FOR LITERARY FICTION
SEMI-FINALIST 2024 THE BOOKLIFE PRIZE
From Jenni Ogden, author of multiple-award-winning 'A Drop in the Ocean', comes another evocative story of friendship, coral reefs, and marine conservation for book-club readers.
It is the late 1970s and teenagers Gaia and her brother Bron live with their parents on their isolated property on Western Australia’s Coral Coast. Intensively trained for a career as a professional ballet dancer by her mother, once a Principal Dancer in the American Ballet Theatre, Gaia also loves snorkeling over the coral reef that borders their small market garden. Then comes a day that changes her life she discovers a rare pair of dramatically colored seadragons, their courtship dance over the coral spellbinding, and that night she loses her entire family and her dancing dream. Two years later she returns to the abandoned property, determined to live off the land. For years her only friends are the wild animals of the bush and reef, and Mary and Eddie, an Aboriginal couple who work for the racist farmer on the neighboring property — until one morning Jarrah, Mary’s 11-year-old orphaned nephew, is entranced when he sees Gaia dancing on the beach. As an unlikely friendship between these two lonely and scarred people deepens, they discover that when you lose everything the only way to survive is to open your heart.
SILVER: 2024 READER'S FAVORITE BOOK AWARD FOR LITERARY FICTION
SEMI-FINALIST 2024 THE BOOKLIFE PRIZE
From Jenni Ogden, author of multiple-award-winning 'A Drop in the Ocean', comes another evocative story of friendship, coral reefs, and marine conservation for book-club readers.
It is the late 1970s and teenagers Gaia and her brother Bron live with their parents on their isolated property on Western Australia’s Coral Coast. Intensively trained for a career as a professional ballet dancer by her mother, once a Principal Dancer in the American Ballet Theatre, Gaia also loves snorkeling over the coral reef that borders their small market garden. Then comes a day that changes her life she discovers a rare pair of dramatically colored seadragons, their courtship dance over the coral spellbinding, and that night she loses her entire family and her dancing dream. Two years later she returns to the abandoned property, determined to live off the land. For years her only friends are the wild animals of the bush and reef, and Mary and Eddie, an Aboriginal couple who work for the racist farmer on the neighboring property — until one morning Jarrah, Mary’s 11-year-old orphaned nephew, is entranced when he sees Gaia dancing on the beach. As an unlikely friendship between these two lonely and scarred people deepens, they discover that when you lose everything the only way to survive is to open your heart.
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