Review: Fish Out of Water by Natalie Whipple

Fish Out Of Water 
By Natalie Whipple
My Rating: 5 Stars
Publication Date: February 5th, 2015
Hardcover, 360 Pages

  Summary From Goodreads:

Mika Arlington was supposed to spend the summer after her junior year shadowing her marine biologist parents at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but when her estranged grandmother randomly shows up on the doorstep one day, those plans are derailed. Because Grandma Betty isn't here to play nice—she is cranky, intolerant of Mika's mixed-race-couple parents, and oh yeah she has Alzheimer's and is out of money.  While Mika's family would rather not deal with Grandma Betty, they don't have much choice. And despite Mika's protests, she is roped into caring for a person that seems impossible to have compassion for. And if that wasn't hard enough, Mika must train the new guy at her pet shop job who wants to be anywhere else, and help a friend through her own family crisis. Something's gotta a give, but whichever ball Mika drops means losing someone she loves. Not exactly a recipe for Best Summer Ever—or is it?

My Review:

First, I want to talk about the back of the book for a minute

As far as little snippets on the back of the book goes, this one is probably my favorite of all time. It really hit me in the feels when I first read it, and I got kind of emotional. I don't know why, I just did! And that, I think, is when I knew this was going to absolutely FANTASTIC. 

I was so excited when I found this one, because I love Natalie Whipple, and then the back of the book kind of punched me in the gut too, so I decided to give it a shot. Why not, right?

So first I'm going to talk a little bit about what I didn't like. The fact that when everyone went out golfing, and everyone made a big deal out of Mika's outfit. I was just like "what even? who cares? I wouldn't. I was kind of annoyed at Dylan for making it such a big deal (but I do realize that he was looking out for her, and his heart was in the right place) Once I got over that annoyance, and I realized that this book was a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, I was okay.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, time to talk about what I did like:

There was so much depth and character development in this book. I found myself cheering for their success, and crying with them when something bad happened.

Mika had so much more patience with Grandma Betty than I would have. (Actually, I say that, but I think if I were in her situation, I would probably be pretty patient) It took her a while to warm up to Betty (and that is completely understandable) and stop resenting her for being there and being such a hateful person. Even when Betty was being mean to Mika and Dylan yelled at her and called her out on her nastiness, Mika still defended Betty, because she was family.

Joel was one of my favorite characters as well. He was always so upbeat and positive, even when the situation was pretty sad

I liked the friendships in this book, and even though sometimes they had communication issues (talk to each other more, people!) They never let that stop them from being there when they needed each other

I loved Mika and how real and quirky she was. She loves fish, and she wants, more than anything, to get an internship at the same aquarium where her parents work. I like that she would just spout off random fish facts (I learned a lot about fish when I read this book)