Sinking - Sarah Armstrong-Garner

I was incredibly lucky to receive an  advanced reader copy ebook of Sinking by Sarah Armstrong-Garner direct from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Following my Sinking Blog Tour post on the 19th I promised a review of the book and I decided to bring it to you on the day of the books Facebook launch party and here it is.

Sinking follows the story of Jocelyn who is washed up naked, unconscious and with a severe case of amnesia on the beach of a small town in Ireland, she is found by and elderly widower who decides to take "ownership" of the girl and make plans for her.

Having amnesia, Jocelyn could have very easily have been a very bland character who went with the flow and didn't stand out in any way. However her character is written beautifully and her personality breaks through her lack of memories and shows you what kind of person she is, even if she doesn't know who she is. It's incredibly hard to get a character suffering from amnesia right, but Sarah Armstrong-Garner has done an absolutely amazing job of making it both believeable and interesting, Jocelyn comes across as a strong, confident and intelligent character and I really liked her from the minute she woke up.

Then we have Aidan  who is the main male protagonist and is a Captain who loves the sea and his ship equally. He is a traditional man's man, but has manners and is kind also which is a great combination. He meets Jocelyn on the beach one day and then is drawn into the old lady's plans as Jocelyn is to travel on his ship first to India, then China and onto England.

I don't want to give away any spoilers as the story is so brilliantly written, you need to go out and read this yourself, I will say that the story is incredibly clever and Sarah Armstrong-Garner's take on mermaids is the most interesting and exciting version that I've seen in a long time. I also thoroughly enjoyed the different locations travelled to so far in book one, you could feel the isolation and cruel beauty of the beach in Ireland and the colours and heat were so intense in India you could almost smell the wonderful aromatic spices.

My only complaint is that book two is not out yet (Sinking was released on the 23rd of February 2016) and so I couldn't immediately go on to find out what happens after this book ends on such a cliff hanger,

I started reading this book on the 14th of February 2016 and finished reading it on the 16th of February 2016.
I gave this boo 5 stars on Goodreads.