Girl at Sea

Girl at Sea

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3.76 of 5 stars 3.76  ·  rating details  ·  5,003 ratings  ·  321 reviews
Sometimes you have to get lost . . .

The Girl: Clio Ford, seventeen, wants to spend the summer smooching her art-store crush, not stuck on a boat in the Mediterranean. At least she'll get a killer tan.

The Mission: Survive her father's crazy antics. Oh, and also find some missing underwater treasure that could unlock the secrets of civilization.

The Crew: Dad's wacky bes

...more
Hardcover, 323 pages
Published May 17th 2007 by Harper Teen
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Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
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Ying
OHH EMMM GEEEE, I LOVED ITTTTT :]]] -excuse me while I gush for a few moments- I loved this book!!!! The ending was kind of a surprise but I liked it!!!! I thought it was a well- written book and was a good mix of mystery and romance. Building suspense in every word, this book can bring tears to your eyes or laughter to your mouth. This would have to be Maureen Johnson's best book for me. I would recommend it, of course :) Please read this book, you won't regret it.
Antonia
It so pissed me off. First of all, the description was weird. I mean a lot of unecessary infos, and things that made you confused. I loved the cover, the Romanian one :D Let's start with the characters. Clio, just so you know it, I can't remeber how she looked, bbecause it's not specified. Whatever. She is confused and never really acts how she should. I mean she should get mad and scream and all that. Well, no. She gets a little upset, than she's not upset anymore. Clio's father-an idiot. Julia...more
Christina Santo
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Amy
Maureen Johnson is perfection. While this story did not have as quirky of characters as her Suite Scarlett series, the amazing creativity of Maureen Johnson is still there.
Clio had her summer all planned out. She had a new job and a possible future boyfriend. Instead she gets shipped off to her dad. Since her parent’s divorce, she hasn’t really liked her dad, and she is sick of his impulsivity. So to be stuck on a boat with him and four other random people for weeks does not sound like her dream...more
Kate M.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Kiwie
The plot is highly unlikely (as Maureen Johnson's plots often are, and I'm not saying that is a bad thing), Clio is a frustrated teenager with issues with her father, and she's never been kissed. She's sent to Italy to stay with her father on a boat, which sounds pretty good, but there is secrecy, her father's new girlfriend Julia and her daughter, as well as an old friend of her father and Julia's assistant.

The first half of the book was incredibly frustrating, it felt like slamming your head...more
Elodie  Diebolt
J’étais tentée par la lecture de ce livre puisque la quatrième de couverture me paraissait très intéressante et la couverture plutôt sympa elle aussi. Je connais l’auteure de nom puisque de nombreuses personnes ont lu et adoré son roman « 13 petites enveloppes bleues » et j’avais hâte de découvrir sa plume.

Nous faisons la connaissance de Clio, une jeune fille de 17 ans qui vit seule avec sa mère et prévoit un programme des plus alléchant pour ses vacances d’été. Malheureusement, ses parents vont...more
Jp
Reading a Maureen Johnson book is always a pleasure, and (not that I expected her to) MJ didn’t let me down. I don’t know if this only happens to me, or if I’m the only one who’s noticed it, but you can spend all the time in the world with someone in or around your city/town, and it will still be different when you go somewhere like on a crazy surprise cruise all to yourselves and you spend all your time together. Girl at Sea touches on this, and MJ does a good job. It’s the same as if you sudde...more
Natali
Meh, it was just okay. I guess you could say it was...cutesy. There wasn't really anything AMAZING about it, and there was nothing that was absolutely terrible about it either. So a nice even middle, like 2.5 stars. It was a fast read, with okay characters, and a semi-interesting story line. I really didn't feel anything for this book, so I'm not going to recommend it to anyone but I don't feel like bashing on it for hours.

At age 17, Clio has lead a not so ordinary life. At age 11, she and her...more
Kaitie
I picked this up after having read (and loved!) 13 Little Blue Envelopes and The Last Little Blue Envelope. Overall it was an enjoyable book, but didn't come close to being as good as the other two.

Basically, we have Clio who it all set to have the best summer of her life when she finds out that instead she is being shipped off to spend the summer on a boat in Italy with her dad. Who wouldn't love that, right? Clio, that's who. We find out that Clio's dad is a bit eccentric and always has somet...more
Jodi
I was a big fan of 13 Little Blue Envelopes and The Last Little Blue Envelope so I had high hopes for Girl at Sea. Unfortunately, I found the story line to be a bit boring.
Clio is upset when her potentially perfect summer is ruined when she is sent to live with her father. Her father, along with a research crew, are planning dives off the coast of Italy in a hunt for a missing artifact. Her and her father have had a strained relationship since his irresponsible ways caused her family to lose...more
Jodi Papazian
I was a big fan of 13 Little Blue Envelopes and The Last Little Blue Envelope so I had high hopes for Girl at Sea. Unfortunately, I found the story line to be a bit boring.
Clio is upset when her potentially perfect summer is ruined when she is sent to live with her father. Her father, along with a research crew, are planning dives off the coast of Italy in a hunt for a missing artifact. Her and her father have had a strained relationship since his irresponsible ways caused her family to lose...more
Reggie
Girl at Sea starts off with Clio being forced to go with her father on vacation since her parents are divorced. Now, she's stuck with her dad, his best friend, his research partner, her assistant Aidan, and her daughter Elsa on a boat. Clio hates it because she's trapped on a boat in the middle of the Mediterranean when she could be working in an art store back home flirting with her co-worker Ollie. A lot of things happen in the boat...and a lot of secrets are revealed.

I found Girl at Sea okay....more
Kelly
Full review at http://yannabe.com/2009/06/23/review-...

Summary: 17-year-old Clio just finagled a job where her crush works. But when her mom gets an out-of-town work assignment, Clio has to put her plans on hold and hang out with her dad on a boat in the Mediterranean. Sound fun? You haven’t met Clio’s dad.

Review: Maureen Johnson cracks me up. I read her blog religiously.

That said, this wasn’t the MJ book for me. I much preferred Suite Scarlett.

I loved the romance, and the humor cracked me up as...more
GirlwiththeBraids
Taken away from her chances of winning over a handsome Southern, Clio is pulled into the world of seasickness and tiny spaces. Her father, ambitious and hopeful (and should I say cute), bought a yacht. The yacht isn’t huge but it would get them from here to there, right? What about from Sorrento, Italy to the middle of the sea? Stuck on a yacht (which should be exciting) but with five other people, can be tiring. Especially if there is a statuesque archeologist’s daughter who Clio envies, a cute...more
Steph Su
17-year-old Clio Ford wants to make the summer before her senior year her best yet, starting with a job at the local art supply store alongside her longtime crush Ollie. Then her mother delivers the blow: she’s going to Kansas on some art grant. She’s taking her boyfriend with her. And Clio is relegated to spending the summer with her father aboard a boat in Italy. Her father, the man who had made her childhood perfect, but through continuous absentmindedness and impulsiveness had almost ruined...more
Kristina
Clio Ford is being forced to spend a portion of her summer in the middle of the Mediterranean on a ship with her father. While most other teenagers would probably beg for a chance on that boat, Clio knows that she's in for a totally bizarre and possibly boring trip. She must leave her crush at home in order to spend this valuable time with her father and his new ship crew, consisting of his best friend: Martin, his new girlfriend: Julia, her daughter: Elsa, and her assistant: Aidan. As if she we...more
Susan
Aug 01, 2012 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: ya
Maureen Johnson can write. This book isn't quite as good as The Name of the Star, but it's a very good book.

We meet Clio, named after a Muse, who is just about to start a summer job at an art store. As she's an artist, this is a good fit. BUT, before she can start her job, she's forced to go to Italy for the summer with her impulsive, rather nutty, dad. Honestly, her dad is so attention-deficit and immature, it's sad.

Clio is forced onto another of her dad's impulse decisions: a big yacht he su...more
Janelle
Ok. I have to comment on the cover. WTF? That girl on the cover could never, ever be Clio. I’ve noticed a pattern with Maureen Johnson’s books: Find a picture of a pretty, slim girl (with no face). Put her in tight pants and a tank top. Add in a few pieces of plot-related decorative flourishes. And Voila! A cover girl that has nothing at all to do with the strong heroines Johnson writes. (At least Suite Scarlet seems to have broken this pattern)

I’m probably overreacting, but this really bothers...more
Katie
I was surprised at just how much I ended up liking Girl At Sea. Judging by the cover and summary, I was expecting a giggly-story about a stubborn girl who is forced to spend her summer at sea and falls in love in the process. Which kind of happens, but there’s surprisingly a lot more to it than that.

The boat and crew actually have a mission- one that is mysterious and kept me turning the pages. Every few chapters, we catch random peeks of the history of the mission (which I’m trying hard not to...more
Gabrielle Pech
This isn't my own review....this is the one on this site but its really good.......

Sometimes you have to get lost.

The Girl: Clio, seventeen, wants to spend the summer smooching her art-store crush, not stuck on a boat in the Mediterranean. At least she'll get a killer tan.

The Mission: Survive her father's annoying antics. Oh, also find some underwater treasure that could be the missing link to a long-lost civilization.

The Crew: Dad's absentminded best friend Martin, his scary girlfriend Julia...more
Keri
Girl at Sea is the story of Clio, forced to go on a cruise with her father, his girlfriend Julie, Julie's daughter, and Julie's adorable assistant Aidan. She doesn't know it, but Clio is about to embark on the cruise of a lifetime off of the coast of Italy, researching an ancient mystery that has been lost for hundreds of years.

Girl at Sea has everything that makes Johnson's books great: quirky characters, humorous dialogue, and a handsome love interest. This isn't my favorite book by her, thoug...more
Jen (Almost Grown-up)
Posted to Almost Grown-up: 10/4/11:

I fully expected to like this book. At this point I've read quite a few Maureen Johnson books and I have yet to be disappointed. What I did not expect was to be left with the impression that this is a contender for my favorite Johnson book yet.

Clio is absolutely furious when she is whisked away by her father for the summer. Her parents divorced some time ago and while Clio lives with her mom most of the year, she has an academic project over the summer so dad s...more
Mimi
Ive never read a Maureen Johnson book before, but i have read her blogs. she's pretty funny. But this book was not as funny as her blogs, and it took me until about halfway in to get really into it. Once i did i couldn't put it down, then it started getting funnier. there was just a lot of explaining in the beginning, it was necessary, yes, but long. Over all i really enjoyed this story. the guy was cute enough (except at first i wanted to strangle him, i wasnt sure Maureen was going to get me t...more
Savanna
Jan 18, 2011 Savanna rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: ya
I am a huge Maureen Johnson fan, and her tweets always make me smile. I love the Suite Scarlet series so far but when I read 13 Little Blue Envelopes… I doubted the great Jar Keeper (twitter joke, sorry). I enjoyed the story, but I could never suspend my disbelief enough to believe that the underage main character’s parents were ok with her going on this crazy overseas mission with no information whatsoever. Maybe I missed the part where she explained about that. I felt uncomfortable having the...more
Fira Rosli
I read this a looooooooong time ago but here I am, just writing a review. I think this book is really, really good especially for those youngsters who loves romance in the young adult section. This is exactly the book that you're finding for! But. Ah, here comes the buts. You see, the reason why I only rated it 4 stars is because **spoiler** at the end of the book and after their fantastic boat adventure with her father and his crew, she and the guy separated at the end with him pursuing his Uni...more
A.
I really dig Johnson's writing style -- she's great with the turn of phrase -- but both of the books of hers I've read have felt a little too light; like with another 40 pages of character-digging, they'd have moved from good to great. Enjoyable lightweight reads for sure, but this one, particularly, felt to me like something was missing from it. YMMV.
Johana712
in the book, girl at sea, clio isnt sure of what she wants. she doesnt know whether she preferres ollie or aidan. if she wants to be with her mom, and her stepdad, or her father and her new stepmom (julia). at first, she thinks that she wants to be with her mom and ollie. but towards the point where im at, she begins to realize that maybe being with her dad isnt as bad as she thought it would. imean, sure she didnt get her dream of being kissed by ollie, but she also met aidan. and even though s...more
Jan
This is an amusing piece of teen chick lit from talented author Maureen Johnson. It combines the suspense of an archeological thriller with the classic romantic plot ripped off from Pride and Prejudice that includes a Darcy-like love interest. A great light read for when you are in need of entertainment that is not mentally challenging.
K  Nolfi
Horrible cover! With all the talk about her "artistic" dress and her crazy tattoo, why do we get this generic hottie cover. With no eyes, too!
It's a pretty cute story but not really necessary. Kind of a trifle. I'm interested to read more of her work to see if this is standard. I like the jellyfish scene.
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Maureen knew from an early age she wanted to be a writer. She went to high school at an all-girls' Catholic school and graduated from University of Delaware with a degree in writing. She now lives and writes in New York City.

Many of the adventures Maureen's characters face in her books are based on real-life stories. Maureen has traveled all over Europe, and is a Secret Sister to vlog brothers Han...more
More about Maureen Johnson...
13 Little Blue Envelopes (Little Blue Envelope, #1) The Name of the Star (Shades of London, #1) The Last Little Blue Envelope (Little Blue Envelope, #2) Suite Scarlett (Scarlett, #1) The Bermudez Triangle

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Guilt isn't always a rational thing, Clio realized. Guilt is a weight that will crush you whether you deserve it or not. 42 people liked it
“I guess life is full of maybes.” 42 people liked it
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