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Spark of Life #1
Diving Under
Eight years after her older sister was swept out to sea, eighteen-year-old Ava Adair still swears off the ocean. It takes a promise of the best vacation of her life aboard the Ocean Jewel with her friends to get her even within reach of the waves. When she steps aboard the luxury yacht to sail the California coastline, the last thing she expects is to gain the attention of gorgeous Carter Stevens, the yacht’s deckhand, who becomes the perfect distraction against her fear of the open water.
On the yacht, a freak accident involving Carter reveals a secret he’s been hiding from Ava. She discovers that he’s a merman and by saving her, he changed her life. One misstep could reveal the new secret they share and ruin the life on land she’s desperate to maintain. Torn between a future on land with her family and a new life at sea, Ava must decide—is her former life worth fighting for, or can she accept that she belongs to the ocean?
On the yacht, a freak accident involving Carter reveals a secret he’s been hiding from Ava. She discovers that he’s a merman and by saving her, he changed her life. One misstep could reveal the new secret they share and ruin the life on land she’s desperate to maintain. Torn between a future on land with her family and a new life at sea, Ava must decide—is her former life worth fighting for, or can she accept that she belongs to the ocean?
Unknown Binding
Published June 27, 2017
37 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
Ginna Moran
100 books294 followersGinna Moran is the author of an array of both paranormal and contemporary young adult novels including the Demon Within, Falling into Fame, and Spark of Life series.
She started writing poetry as a teenager in a spiral notebook that she still has tucked away on her desk today. Her love of writing grew after she graduated high school and she completed her first unpublished manuscript at age eighteen.
When she realized her love of writing was her life’s passion, she studied literature at Mira Costa College in Northern San Diego. Besides writing young adult novels, she was senior editor, content manager, and image coordinator for Crescent House Publishing Inc. for four years.
Aside from Ginna’s professional life, she enjoys binge watching television shows, playing pretend with her daughter, and cuddling with her dogs. Some of her favorite things include chocolate, anything that glitters, cheesy jokes, and organizing her bookshelf.
Ginna is currently hard at work on her next novel.
She started writing poetry as a teenager in a spiral notebook that she still has tucked away on her desk today. Her love of writing grew after she graduated high school and she completed her first unpublished manuscript at age eighteen.
When she realized her love of writing was her life’s passion, she studied literature at Mira Costa College in Northern San Diego. Besides writing young adult novels, she was senior editor, content manager, and image coordinator for Crescent House Publishing Inc. for four years.
Aside from Ginna’s professional life, she enjoys binge watching television shows, playing pretend with her daughter, and cuddling with her dogs. Some of her favorite things include chocolate, anything that glitters, cheesy jokes, and organizing her bookshelf.
Ginna is currently hard at work on her next novel.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 24, 2017
I found another YA mermaid series! If you follow my reviews, you know that as an author of a YA mermaid series, I’m always looking for such books. I mean, those authors and I are inspired by the same folklore and mythology, yet we create vastly different worlds and circumstances. I enjoy the stories even more when the merpeople interact with humans who were unaware of their existence. Diving Under, the first part in author Ginna Moran’s Spark of Life series checks off all those boxes along with another favorite of mine—a human unwittingly and/or unwillingly transforming into a mermaid.
So let’s dive in, shall we?
The main character and first-person narrator is Ava Adair. She and her friends have recently graduated high school. They’re taking a cruise on a luxury yacht to celebrate, despite her severe aversion to the ocean. You see, eight years earlier, Ava’s older sister Bailey was swept out to sea. When Ava is accidentally knocked overboard only a few chapters into the story, she sinks like a stone, fearing that her parents are going to lose both of their daughters to the sea.
But Carter, the super-hot deckhand on the yacht, jumps in and saves Ava’s life. Well…he rescues her, but the only way for him to do so is to change her into a mermaid. Woo-hoo! Here’s where the story becomes what I hoped it would.
Ava’s now got this secret that she can’t share with anyone—much to her best friend Giselle’s chagrin. She also has to learn to embrace the ocean. Moran’s choice to give Ava an initial and believable fear of the ocean is a strong decision, as it creates additional obstacles and internal conflict. After all, it’s much more interesting to read about a girl/mermaid who’s afraid of the ocean than one who’s an expert scuba diver.
Also complicating matters, Ava now shares a bond with Carter. Okay, it’s not as big a complication as becoming a mermaid and all because he’s super sexy—a fact that Ava repeatedly narrates. Granted, I’m a middle-aged man and thus, not the target audience of the book. I suspect a teenage girl reading this might enjoy Ava and her friends swooning over Carter’s hotness a little more than I did. Though Ava’s interest in him may have started as physical, I liked how it progressed, particularly when she questions whether he likes her for her or because of the bond between them.
But my favorite part of the book was the mermaid transformation process. Though water would trigger Ava’s change, I appreciated that there were other ways. As a new mermaid, particularly one of human origin, Ava doesn’t yet have full control of her ability to transform back and forth. This is accompanied with an internal—both physical and emotional—conflict about whether to live on land and hide her secret from friends and family or to live in the ocean with Carter and leave her family and friends behind. As she thinks too much about being a mermaid, her transformation can be triggered, and I loved this idea.
She changes into a mermaid several times throughout the course of the story, sometimes willingly and sometimes unwillingly. The unexpected transformations helped build some tension because, like in a fantasy-inspired sitcom (think the Australian H2O, Just Add Water), they occur at some of the most inopportune times. Though I could usually sniff out when one was coming, I never felt the moments to be contrived. They were fun and dramatic.
Moran creates an interesting and vividly described world in which these humans and merpeople coexist. Ava and her friends are obviously upper class (big California beach houses, yacht cruises, and society galas), but they come across as regular kids instead of spoiled rich kids—though some of them are a little oversexed for my YA reading tastes. And the undersea world contains much mystery, as Carter only scratches the surface of what may lie ahead for Ava in subsequent books in the series.
I’ve said in some other reviews of book series that it’s okay for a part to end on a cliffhanger if the primary conflict of the book is resolved in some way. Here, the main storyline is about Ava dealing with the change and debating which future she’s going to choose. There isn’t an external antagonist, which is fine, because this is a story of Ava’s self-discovery and character development. That may make the book feel slow at times, but the ending packed a punch that resulted in me picking up the next part, Treading Water.
Diving Under is a nice introduction into this series, anchored by Ava’s narration. Though she waffles back and forth on some issues, show me a teen that doesn’t. I expect her to grow throughout the next two books, but I still recommend you take the plunge and read this solid new YA mermaid story. I give it FOUR STARS.
So let’s dive in, shall we?
The main character and first-person narrator is Ava Adair. She and her friends have recently graduated high school. They’re taking a cruise on a luxury yacht to celebrate, despite her severe aversion to the ocean. You see, eight years earlier, Ava’s older sister Bailey was swept out to sea. When Ava is accidentally knocked overboard only a few chapters into the story, she sinks like a stone, fearing that her parents are going to lose both of their daughters to the sea.
But Carter, the super-hot deckhand on the yacht, jumps in and saves Ava’s life. Well…he rescues her, but the only way for him to do so is to change her into a mermaid. Woo-hoo! Here’s where the story becomes what I hoped it would.
Ava’s now got this secret that she can’t share with anyone—much to her best friend Giselle’s chagrin. She also has to learn to embrace the ocean. Moran’s choice to give Ava an initial and believable fear of the ocean is a strong decision, as it creates additional obstacles and internal conflict. After all, it’s much more interesting to read about a girl/mermaid who’s afraid of the ocean than one who’s an expert scuba diver.
Also complicating matters, Ava now shares a bond with Carter. Okay, it’s not as big a complication as becoming a mermaid and all because he’s super sexy—a fact that Ava repeatedly narrates. Granted, I’m a middle-aged man and thus, not the target audience of the book. I suspect a teenage girl reading this might enjoy Ava and her friends swooning over Carter’s hotness a little more than I did. Though Ava’s interest in him may have started as physical, I liked how it progressed, particularly when she questions whether he likes her for her or because of the bond between them.
But my favorite part of the book was the mermaid transformation process. Though water would trigger Ava’s change, I appreciated that there were other ways. As a new mermaid, particularly one of human origin, Ava doesn’t yet have full control of her ability to transform back and forth. This is accompanied with an internal—both physical and emotional—conflict about whether to live on land and hide her secret from friends and family or to live in the ocean with Carter and leave her family and friends behind. As she thinks too much about being a mermaid, her transformation can be triggered, and I loved this idea.
She changes into a mermaid several times throughout the course of the story, sometimes willingly and sometimes unwillingly. The unexpected transformations helped build some tension because, like in a fantasy-inspired sitcom (think the Australian H2O, Just Add Water), they occur at some of the most inopportune times. Though I could usually sniff out when one was coming, I never felt the moments to be contrived. They were fun and dramatic.
Moran creates an interesting and vividly described world in which these humans and merpeople coexist. Ava and her friends are obviously upper class (big California beach houses, yacht cruises, and society galas), but they come across as regular kids instead of spoiled rich kids—though some of them are a little oversexed for my YA reading tastes. And the undersea world contains much mystery, as Carter only scratches the surface of what may lie ahead for Ava in subsequent books in the series.
I’ve said in some other reviews of book series that it’s okay for a part to end on a cliffhanger if the primary conflict of the book is resolved in some way. Here, the main storyline is about Ava dealing with the change and debating which future she’s going to choose. There isn’t an external antagonist, which is fine, because this is a story of Ava’s self-discovery and character development. That may make the book feel slow at times, but the ending packed a punch that resulted in me picking up the next part, Treading Water.
Diving Under is a nice introduction into this series, anchored by Ava’s narration. Though she waffles back and forth on some issues, show me a teen that doesn’t. I expect her to grow throughout the next two books, but I still recommend you take the plunge and read this solid new YA mermaid story. I give it FOUR STARS.
June 20, 2018
I wasn't too sure what to expect when I started this one. I enjoy the YA genre, including romances, but this particular brand of it tends to not really connect with me.
To my surprise, the book did a pretty good job of building up both Ava and Carter as characters that have depth to them (no pun intended...mostly.) Ava in particular was a nice surprise - young and emotional but still capable of making rational choices and going for what she wants in life. Something out of her control happens and she rolls with it as best as she can.
This book has a lot of elements I don't like - love at first sight romances, mermaid stories involving an undersea kingdom and characters that will probably end up being connected to royalty in some way, etc. And yet, for the most part, it managed to make it work in a way that was endearing enough for me to want to read the second book.
What I liked about the book especially was that it dealt with a topic I'd like to write about myself someday - a normal girl finding themselves transformed into a mermaid but wanting to stay connected to land. And then trying to deal with the many problems that would likely cause. I loved the various mechanics of how the transformation worked, though I would like to know more about why the moon is connected to the process (is there a reason, or is it just because it's kind of a mermaid trope at this point?) and how the ring functions (if Carter isn't wearing it, then how can he keep his legs, but Ava can't if she's not wearing the ring? Shouldn't he have transformed back without it? Maybe it explained it and I didn't realize.)
I liked Ava's friendship with Giselle. The rest of the friends were kind of forgettable - they had some funny moments, but overall, I'm having trouble remembering even one of their names.
I'm not too sure how I'll feel about the rest of the series, especially if it goes the way I'm thinking with the mermaid royalty thing. Most mermaid series seem to involve royalty and secret kids and relationships, or an angry king/queen in charge of the whole thing that is bitter for some reason.
It's a well written story though, and Ava's characterization and her voice is really what sold it for me. Seeing her go on the journey of trying to manage this mystical transformation was a lot of fun, and something I hope I get more of as I continue the series.
One bit about the ending:
To my surprise, the book did a pretty good job of building up both Ava and Carter as characters that have depth to them (no pun intended...mostly.) Ava in particular was a nice surprise - young and emotional but still capable of making rational choices and going for what she wants in life. Something out of her control happens and she rolls with it as best as she can.
This book has a lot of elements I don't like - love at first sight romances, mermaid stories involving an undersea kingdom and characters that will probably end up being connected to royalty in some way, etc. And yet, for the most part, it managed to make it work in a way that was endearing enough for me to want to read the second book.
What I liked about the book especially was that it dealt with a topic I'd like to write about myself someday - a normal girl finding themselves transformed into a mermaid but wanting to stay connected to land. And then trying to deal with the many problems that would likely cause. I loved the various mechanics of how the transformation worked, though I would like to know more about why the moon is connected to the process (is there a reason, or is it just because it's kind of a mermaid trope at this point?) and how the ring functions (if Carter isn't wearing it, then how can he keep his legs, but Ava can't if she's not wearing the ring? Shouldn't he have transformed back without it? Maybe it explained it and I didn't realize.)
I liked Ava's friendship with Giselle. The rest of the friends were kind of forgettable - they had some funny moments, but overall, I'm having trouble remembering even one of their names.
I'm not too sure how I'll feel about the rest of the series, especially if it goes the way I'm thinking with the mermaid royalty thing. Most mermaid series seem to involve royalty and secret kids and relationships, or an angry king/queen in charge of the whole thing that is bitter for some reason.
It's a well written story though, and Ava's characterization and her voice is really what sold it for me. Seeing her go on the journey of trying to manage this mystical transformation was a lot of fun, and something I hope I get more of as I continue the series.
One bit about the ending:
April 4, 2017
Holy fluff guys, I want to talk about this book so badly right now, but it's not out yet, so I can't post my review here yet (because that's not how I roll.) But I'm madly in love with this world and these characters. For real.
Full review will be posted here after it goes live on my blog.
Full review will be posted here after it goes live on my blog.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews