Book Review: The Blue by Lucy Clarke

Pages: 336

Genre: Adult Fiction

Pub. Date: July 7, 2015

Source: Publisher for review

Other Books By Author: A Single Breath

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Goodreads says, "In the tradition of Alex Garland’s The Beach, a spine-tingling adventure novel about a group of friends whose journey around the world on a yacht turns from a trip to paradise into a chilling nightmare when one of them disappears at sea. A group of friends. A yacht.  And a disappearance-at-sea that turns paradise into a chilling nightmare.  Lana and her best friend Kitty leave home looking for freedom—and that’s exactly what they find when they are invited onto The Blue, a fifty-foot yacht making its way from the Philippines to New Zealand. The crew is made up of a group of young travelers bitten by wanderlust, and it doesn’t take long for Lana and Kitty’s dream of sea-bound romance to turn into reality. Both women fall under the hypnotic spell of The Blue, spending their days exploring remote islands and their rum-filled nights relaxing on deck beneath the stars. But when one of their friends disappears overboard after an argument with another crew member, the dark secrets that brought each of them aboard start to unravel. At turns gorgeously scenic and entirely haunting, The Blue is a page-turning thriller about friendship, freedom and wanting to leave the past behind."

Lana and Kitty have been best friends since childhood and now that they are adults, they escape England to travel the world after Lana received some devastating news.  They spun the globe and picked a spot: The Philippines.  While there they come across a group of young adults who travel the world aboard their yacht, The Blue.  It seems like an idyllic way to live, sailing around to exotic locations without a care in the world. After hanging out with them, the crew votes to decide if Lana and Kitty can join The Blue's crew and after the group's consensus, they were invited on board.  Aaron, the captain, has some strict rules though, such as no one on board can have a romance with another crew member, they all must share duties, and pay equal amounts of money as living aboard a yacht isn't cheap.  As Kitty and Lana get to know the other people on board, they realize that they are truly living a dream.  Lana even hits it off with Denny and she secretly sees him since it's against the rules to have a romance on board.  As more time passes, things start to unravel though. A crew member disappears and Lana wants answers. The more she pokes around, the more flack she gets from Aaron, but she can't help how she feels. She knows he is hiding a secret.  Lucy Clarke's The Blue has all the ingredients for a fantastic beach read. There are faraway locations, a gorgeous yacht, a romance and a thrilling mystery.

Lana and Kitty are best friends and I truly loved their relationship in The Blue.  But once Kitty starts hiding a few secrets from Lana, their relationship took a turn for the worse.  I couldn't quite figure Kitty out (until the end) and although I didn't always agree with both girls' decisions, my heart held a soft spot for their friendship.  They have been friends since childhood and there's something to be said of that.

Lana's romance with Denny was also entertaining, but I couldn't help that I felt he was hiding secrets in The Blue. In fact, I felt like everyone on board was hiding secrets and Lana was in the right for feeling that way.  Denny also made some bad decisions, but overall, I was rooting for their relationship despite Aaron's ridiculous rules.

The setting of a yacht was pretty fantastic. At first, it was idyllic. I wanted to board a yacht and travel through the Pacific, but then things got crazy.  A crew member disappeared, people got shady and there were many, many secrets.  It got eerie for Lana when she was stuck on board with no land in sight.  Needless to say, a yacht is the perfect location for a thrilling mystery since the characters are essentially stuck there until they find land.

If you love beach reads with gorgeous locations and a thrilling mystery, then you must check out Lucy Clarke's The Blue. It's the perfect read for the summertime and it kept me flipping the pages until I figured out all of the secrets.