Hey mersquad coven! I’m back with another blog tour post thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and Inkyard Press. Thank you so much for always thinking of me for these tours. I absolutely adore reading the YA books you have coming up every season so continue to send them my way!

This beautifully lyrical contemporary novel features an elite teen swimmer with Olympic dreams, plagued by injury and startled by unexpected romance, who struggles to balance training with family and having a life. For fans of Sarah Dessen, Julie Murphy and Miranda Kenneally.

Susannah Ramos has always loved the water. A swimmer whose early talent made her a world champion, Susannah was poised for greatness in a sport that demands so much of its young. But an inexplicable slowdown has put her Olympic dream in jeopardy, and Susannah is fighting to keep her career afloat when two important people enter her life: a new coach with a revolutionary training strategy, and a charming fellow swimmer named Harry Matthews.

As Susannah begins her long and painful climb back to the top, her friendship with Harry blossoms into passionate and supportive love. But Harry is facing challenges of his own, and even as their bond draws them closer together, other forces work to tear them apart. As she struggles to balance her needs with those of the people who matter most to her, Susannah will learn the cost–and the beauty–of trying to achieve something extraordinary.

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Anna Jarzab is a Midwesterner turned New Yorker. She lives and works in New York City and is the author of such books as Red Dirt, All Unquiet Things, The Opposite of Hallelujah, and the Many-Worlds series. Visit her online at annajarzab.com and on Twitter, @ajarzab.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Netgalley, and Inkyard Press for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

You know how some people think that jocks are just airheads that only care about their sports careers and don’t have any other problems other than getting the gold, or whatever the highest ranking is?

Well maybe that’s not the full thought but that’s definitely something that I used to believe before I became an athlete myself, and before I came to terms with the fact that there is always more to someone’s story than just what they choose to show on the surface. And this book shows this in such a powerful and emotional way that I feel like it would give a different look into the lives of some high school athletes.

When I think about Susannah and how much time and effort she put into honing her craft, building up her skill in swimming and for it to just fall like that really hurt to read. I could imagine feeling things couldn’t possibly get any better somehow, or that there’s no way to fully recover from the events that happened to her, and even though people may try to tell her that time will heal everything, it’s not always easy to see. It makes sense that not only is she dealing with a physical fight for her career again but a mental and emotional one. Which one is worse, you can make that decision when you read it.

Then we have Harry, and boy I am so glad that they started off as friends in this novel before moving on to a romantic relationship. Personally, I would have liked if they remained friends, that just really loved each other as soul mates without the romantic aspect, but that’s just my weird self that can’t seem to get over romance lately. Either way, I loved the development of the relationship between Susannah and Harry in this novel, and seeing how they were able to learn how to help one another float in life again.

This was just a beautiful story, well written and I’m glad that I had the opportunity to read this.