"Like a Ship on the Sea," by Kellyn Roth

Audience: Young Adult/Adult

Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance

Overall Content Rating: Clean

Content Warnings

Suicide Topics

Suicide attempt (out of grief)

Overall Review

(Note: I was obligated to write a review as a result of being sent an e-ARC. I was not obligated to write a positive review and anything good that was written about the book was quite well-earned. There will be mentions about me speaking to the author personally, just as a forewarning. This is not my typical way of writing reviews)

First and foremost, I loved talking to Kellyn before I got this book. She is such a sweet author and really sold me on it from the beginning, forewarning me that it did address some suicide topics but that everything was approached in a mature way. And she was absolutely right about that! When I first got the book, though, I wasn't sure what to think about it. So, in the end, whatever I thought ended up being shoved aside because the degree to which I'd tried to box things in just... didn't fit. I thought it'd be historical fiction, for example, and it was, but it also felt more contemporary than I was expecting.

My favorite part of this book—and I mean this (mostly) as a joke—was the mention of Winnie Hilton's pet dog, Potato, who happens to be ahem not the most well-behaved dog out there. He entered only in Chapter 6, but he made me so happy with only a few sentences dedicated to him that I felt the need to mention him in this review.

My favorite character overall is Patrick Hilton, one of our MCs. His character arc is so drastic and it's amazing to see his transformation as the story goes on. At first, I was slightly curious, then I detested him, and by the end, he was close to making me swoon. Like, girls, this kind of transformation is what we should all want in a guy, at least in my opinion.

Overall, I loved this book. I wasn't riveted right from the beginning, but I was certainly interested. But once the true action began, I was pulled through the story effortlessly. I had so many different favorite parts and there's so little to critique with this book! I loved reading through it! It's a poignant story with vivid images and it's full of twists that I honestly didn't expect as I read through it. But the main draw was its Christian aspect. Almost every hard decision that the characters had to face they brought to God, and though I did find it hard to imagine at the end that none of the characters were outright atheists or denied the faith entirely (there were some doubters, but none that vehemently denied the faith, which shocked me), I did appreciate the rock-solid faith of the main character, Cassie. Patrick grew in his faith a ton, and by the end, he was as solid in it as Cassie was, which I admired.

Before I finish this off, though, I want to address the character who struggled with suicidal ideation and actually attempted to commit suicide. Her reasoning for it was mainly the reasoning of a person going through heavy grief. This was not the development of a person who had been depressed for a while, but instead a sudden event that she was unable to handle and therefore, she tried to "escape." She did fail, and it wasn't talked about in detail, but everyone was very careful about her after that. To the point where we remain close to her for the duration of the story, not just because she's the friend of one of the main characters, but also as if a reassurance that "no, she's not going to die."

It's with that, though, that I leave you all. I hope you enjoyed this book review, I hope that you read this book (Kellyn is an amazing person and her writing is also awesome, so I'm going to want you to support her in like... every way possible), and ultimately, I just hope that you aren't upset that you read this (and that it was so long. Sorry about that). Thank you so much for reading and have a blessed day!