I just finished Wind and Sea by C.L. Ryder, and it was a very sweet beach romance. Here’s my review! There are spoilers in the second half, so I’ll put a couple of lines in case you want to avoid that.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
There were a lot of good things about this book! I really liked the setting and how the writing made me feel immersed in the beach culture of Orange County. The characters were fun, particularly Cammy’s little sister Abby. There was a sweet theme of destiny that ran through the story: Cammy’s dream led her to Lei and little details were woven together to show that Cammy and Lei were meant for each other. I thought that was pretty romantic. There were also some parts where I really couldn’t put the book down, which is unusual for me.
**Spoilers Below**
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The only thing I didn’t like was the whole concussion/coma thing. Lei told Cammy she was absolutely straight, and then Lei hits her head on a rock while scuba diving, has to be put into an artificial coma, and when she wakes up…she tells Cammy she’s now attracted to women.
If Lei had woken up from her coma and the accident made her realize that she’d fallen in love with Cammy, that would’ve been fine and totally understandable. But it was treated like fact that a concussion and coma could change someone so that they were no longer straight. Especially since Lei’s parents, who were very conservative, immediately asked the doctor to “turn her back.” It made it sound like being queer is something you can change by surgery or injury, and it scares me that people might think that.
Over all, though, I enjoyed Wind and Sea. It was sweet and I liked being immersed in the beachy setting.
Marian Snowe 