The Girl from the Sea - Shalini Boland

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

‘I can’t remember anything. Not even my own name.’
When Mia James is washed up on a beautiful, sun-drenched beach she has no idea who she is or what happened to her. She doesn’t even recognise her own face – until her boyfriend, Piers, comes forward, providing her with an identity.
Piers is handsome and attentive, Mia’s home is huge and stylish, and her friends are eager to help her fill in the blanks. As Mia steps into the perfect life she was living before her accident, she should feel lucky to be alive. But she struggles to adjust, lost for words around people she is meant to know and love, grasping for clues about who she really is.
And as her memories slowly return, Mia realises something is very wrong. Her neighbours are avoiding her, her emails have all been wiped, and she is haunted by the face of a woman standing by the water. Too many things just don’t seem to add up and she begins to question those closest to her…
What if nearly drowning didn’t happen by accident?
How does she know who to trust, when she’s not even sure she can trust herself?

My Thoughts:

This was quite a slow read, but luckily it was a short book (230 pages), so I was able to get through it reasonably quickly.
We start the story with Mia waking up on a beach and not knowing how she got there. She soon realises that isn’t all she doesn’t know; she doesn’t even know her own name or recognise her face in the mirror.
So the story starts off quite exciting. The majority of the book is Mia trying to piece together who she is and how she ended up where she did. However, not a lot happens while she is doing this. Everyone around her is evasive with the details, but she doesn’t help the situation either by avoiding asking questions and pushing harder for answers. She spends a lot of time avoiding the people that can help her and just sitting on her own on her balcony. It seemed like a nice place to live, but if that were me, I’d be hunting down those answers and not just sleeping and floating through the days. Her actions were very frustrating.
The ending makes up for the deadwood in the middle of the book with great twists and a fantastic conclusion.
Overall, not a bad book, just a bit forgettable. Three stars from me on this one.