Stephanie S. (skywriter319) - , reviewed Self-Discovery Aboard a Yacht with Strangers on 12/9/2008 + 784 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

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 them.

Things get even worse. Clio's shipmates are her dad's girlfriend Julia, an intense professor/researcher; Julia's daughter Elsa, beautiful and loyal; Martin, Clio's dad's longtime friend; and Aidan, Julia's research assistant with the arrogant attitude. And this motley crew is supposed to live together on a yacht and search for something that nobody has told Clio anything about.

Can this summer, which is shaping up to be the worst one ever, actually end with Clio finding true love, a best friend, and a better relationship with the man who had once deserted her?

Once again Maureen Johnson delivers a winner. Not much really goes on, and all the mystery surrounding the crew's mission is a bit overdone, but Johnson creates remarkably vivid characters, flavored with snappy, smart dialogue and off-handed snort-out-loud remarks. Fans of her previous books should love this one just as much.

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