Float | ARC Review

Waverly Lyons has been caught in the middle of her parents’ divorce for as long as she can remember. This summer, the battle rages over who she’ll spend her vacation with, and when Waverly’s options are shot down, it’s bye-bye Fairbanks, Alaska and hello Holden, Florida to stay with her aunt.

Coming from the tundra of the north, the beach culture isn’t exactly Waverly’s forte. The sun may just be her mortal enemy, and her vibe is decidedly not chill. To top it off? Her ability to swim? Nonexistent.

Enter Blake, the (superhot) boy next door. Charming and sweet, he welcomes Waverly into his circle. For the first time in her life, Waverly has friends, a social life, and soon enough, feelings . . . for Blake. As the two grow closer, Waverly’s fortunes begin to look up. But every summer must come to an end, and letting go is hardest when you’ve finally found where you belong.

I. Love. This. Book. I originally read it years ago on Wattpad when it was still being posted chapter by chapter and I loved reading this new, polished version just as much.

One thing I absolutely love about this book is the characters. Waverly is our main character and she is so awkward and relatable that I knew exactly why she was feeling the things she did throughout the book. Then we have our wonderful, brooding Blake who has family issues to work through while also making the reader fall head over heels for him. Then we have everyone else. Our amazing friend group reminded me so much of my own and made me want to give them all a hug. Aunt Rachel is so fabulous and made me want to move to a beach town to be a freelance artist for a living. And that’s only scratching the surface of my favorite people from this book.

Can I also just give an honorable mention to Alissa. The way Marchant wrote this character and made us love her is just beautiful. I won’t say too much, but I just wanted to point out that I love where her story was taken in this book.

Also, I really enjoyed this plot. It was interesting, moved at a great pace, and had made sure we saw enough of each character to love them. My one complaint about it comes at the very end of the book. This is slightly spoilery so you’ve been warned. Once Waverly and Blake become a thing, we did ever have a problem come up in their relationship. There’s a small issue, but there’s nothing that makes them mad at each other, or makes them have to break up and get back together. I was hoping for that tension and it never came. I also would have liked to see more of Blake teaching Waverly how to swim because it just kinda disappeared around 3/4 of the way through the book, but I’ll deal.

Overall though, I love this book. I would read a story about every single one of the friends in this friend group! I’ve already pre-ordered it and plan to re-read it many times over. 4.5 stars!!!

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed a gifted and advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rating

To check out my other reviews, click here. Or to check out more books by Kate Marchant, go to her Goodreads profile.