Castles on the Sand
Author: E.M. Tippetts (Emily Mah Tippetts)
Publisher: self
Published: August 2012
ISBN13: 9781479120291
Genre: YA Contemporary
FTC FYI: Received a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Reviewed by Mindy
Goodreads Summary: Madison Lukas knows her place in the world. She’s not pretty, not interesting, and therefore easy to forget.
John Britton is serving his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and has been praying for fifteen years to find the sister he lost in his parents’ divorce. She is beautiful, talented, and makes kindness a fine art.
When John and Madison cross paths, he recognizes her at once, but Madison is certain that he’s got it all wrong. Even if she is his long-lost sister, she can’t possibly be the exceptional, amazing girl he thinks she is, can she?
My Review
Madison is a very sweet girl with a lot going on her life, even though she doesn’t think so. She has a best friend, that isn’t really a friend at all, and all-of-the-sudden boys are paying attention to her. Madison doesn’t think very well of herself, and doesn’t know how to react when she gets all the attention she does. Her “best friend” Kailie, who has some series issues herself, does not like the attention that Madison gets from the school hunk, and does some mean things to her that ends up with Madison black and blue. Madison suddenly meets her long-lost brother, which confuses her. All of her life, she thought she was an only child. Her mother is an artist, and pretty much lets Madison do what she wants. As long as she leaves her alone. At least her boss, Siraj is nice to her. There are also some encounters with the “town psycho” that had me curious.
3 of out 5 stars. The things Kailie do to her really started to get to me, and a couple things in the relationship were left unexplained. I really enjoyed, though, Madison’s relationships with her brother John, Siraj, and Alex. I really liked Alex, and I was happy to see there were people in Madison’s life that treated her well, and appreciated what a great person she is. I was also relieved that Madison got smarter about the boys in her life.
Emily Mah Tippetts is the author of several books. Find out more about them on Goodreads and her Blog.