Fish Out of Water by Natalie Whipple

Title: Fish Out of Water
Author: Natalie Whipple
Published: 5th February 2015
Publisher: Hot Key Books

Review


I blooming loved Fish Out of Water! This is the first book I have read my Natalie Whipple and she is a writing genius. Fish Out of Water refused to let me go, I was completely involved in Mika's story; I just could not get enough! Also how cute is the cover?! It got quite a few looks whilst I was reading it on the train. It really catches your eye (excuse the pun).
Mika's summer is all planned out; it's going to be perfect, but the arrival of her never before seen Grandmother and grumpy Dylan at work mean that her summer is not going to go quite the way she had envisaged.
So much is packed into this story, it deals with the issues of prejudice, relationships, illness, family drama, different cultures and more, but at the same time it is a really cute, really happy, lighthearted story that melted my heart. 
I grinned like a loon when I read that Mika is a fish fanatic as my boyfriend loves his fish and he was pleased to hear that I learnt a little bit about them in this, and I understand his love for them a bit better now. Mika is an instantly likeable character. She can hold her own and just seems happy and upbeat most of the time, but also has real life weaknesses, like we all do. Her best friends Shreya and Olivia are the ultimate best friends and her Mum and Dad are pretty kool parents, who are also marine biologists and partly where Mia gets her love of fish from. The title also obviously clearly relates to how we all at some time feel like a fish out of water, like we don't quite fit in, but we find our way in the end.
Natalie tackles the themes of pride and prejudice really well in this book, it goes between race, social status and living up to people's expectations. Mika, who is half Japanese gets a lot of comments about her being exotic and people asking her where she is from, things that are actually in what people call the grey areas of racism, but they are still racist. She also has to deal with a lot of very nasty comments from her own Grandmother! It was definitely an area addressed really well by Natalie. 
I particularly enjoyed Mika and Dylan's love-hate relationship. It made for some fun reading, but it was so blooming clear that they had crazy chemistry! I could actually really relate to some of it and this is what is so great about this book as it is realistic and relatable in so many areas.
I've heard a few people say they weren't that happy about the ending, but I loved it. It made my heart swell with happiness as to me it was the perfect happy ending.
An absolutely brilliant, happy, uplifting story that you 100% need to read!