Genre: Romance novel, Fiction, Mystery, Bildungsroman
Key Stage: Year 9/10+
Rating: ★★★★★
Sea of Lost Love by Santa Montefiore (2007)
Plot: ‘The Sea of Lost Love’ is a story based in Cornwall in the summer of 1958. Celestria Montague is the daughter of an aristocratic family blessed with it all- good looks, money and power. But death seems to stalking their paradise. And once catastrophe strikes the family so suddenly, the tragedy first breaks Celestria’s young, innocent heart. All that was left behind was but two words, ‘forgive me’. This journey takes Celestria through trails of deception, masquerades and mirrors from the Southern coast of England to the orange groves and rugged beauty of Puglia where she falls in love. Soon she discovers the shocking truth of her family and how to save her ancestral home.
Positives and negatives: I loved this murder mystery novel and the twist of romance. What I had particularly loved was Celestria’s journey, both physically and emotionally as it is one of self-discovery. Amidst her grief, sorrow and heartache, there is humour and happiness as she finds love so unexpectantly. In this novel, the sun pours out of every page and you find characters that are more than they seem to appear. This story is extremely hard to give improvements or changes to, so I simply do not have anything to dislike about it.
Who I would recommend this to: This story is a loved one for murder mystery readers and readers who love romance and great chemistry between two lovers. This is a novel that I would recommend to upper KS3+ because it contains quite mature content.
Reviewer: Yaminah, Year 9