Title: Chasing Atlantis
Author: Kelly Coughlin
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Published Date: July 16, 2013
Buy on Amazon: Paperback & Kindle
Author Website: http://chasingatlantis13.blogspot.com/
Synopsis:
Amy isn't like most girls her age who dream of spending all summer on
the beach. In fact, she dreads it. The yearly visit to see her mom seems
even more ominous than usual. In the quaint town known as Vero Beach
many bizarre things begin to happen that leave her perplexed. She can't
place her finger on it but even the housekeeper is acting odd, and
praying over her room. Things get even creepier when her family starts
pushing an old friend on her for dates and he doesn't seem to know how
to take no for an answer. So why do the three enigmatic life guards
intrigue her, especially Ty, who is yelling at her one minute and saving
her another. The only question is: What is he saving her from? What
lies out in the ocean waiting for her? Together they must discover the
truth about the world and battle the evil that threatens to destroy
them.
My Thoughts:
Chasing Atlantis, by Kelly Coughlin, is an intriguing Young Adult novel that has a mixture of romance and paranormal elements. Chasing Atlantis is Coughlin's first novel and it is easy to see that she has a great imagination and storytelling capabilities. At first Chasing Atlantis seemed like a regular YA romance, however I was surprised as the novel unfolded when Coughlin introduced readers to many creatures of the night including vampires, mermaids, and dragons.
At the start of every summer Amy must leave her father's home and fly to Florida to visit her mother and stepfather. Never something she looks forward to, Amy is especially resistant this year and is preparing herself for the feeling of being not good enough for her perfect mother and stepfather. However, things at her mother's house seem even stranger than normal and Amy begins to find ways to escape spending time there.
On one such occasion, Amy finds herself at the beach and being watched by Ty, a lifeguard. She automatically feels a pull towards him, but is confused by his familiarity with her. Has she met the mysterious lifeguard before? As she embarks on getting to know Ty better, Amy realizes that there are many strange things going on in her mother's small town, and it would seem that they are starting to revolve around her. As Amy's mother pushes her towards a romance with the young and insolent Adam, Amy must figure out just what is going on in Vero Beach before she is swallowed whole.
Without giving away the story, they characters in Coughlin's Chasing Atlantis are not as they first appear and it seems everyone knows but Amy. I felt most sorry for Amy's mother. When Amy was a little girl her mother doted on her. However, everything changed when her mother met and married youthful and perfect Steve. From that day on everything her mother did revolved around making Steve happy and being the picture perfect wife to the plastic surgeon. Amy and her needs were placed on the back burner, and as Amy became older they grew more apart. I really felt horrible for Amy at the end of the novel with how things ended between her and her mother.
If you are a fan of both Young Adult Literature and paranormal novels, Chasing Atlantis is for you. Kelly Coughlin does a great job in revealing the secrets of Vero Beach and it's inhabitants at a pace that will keep readers interested. She also succeeded in writing a very creative story. While parts of the novel seemed a little out there, the scorching romance that is between Ty and Amy make up for it. I personally can not wait to see what Coughlin comes up with next!
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