High Dive

HIGH DIVE TAMMAR STEIN Contemporary Young Adult Knopf Rating: 4.5 Enchantments When her deployed mother decides to sell the family vacation property in Sardinia, it's up to Arden to travel from New York back to the house she hasn't seen since her father died to close it up and get it ready for sale. Along the way however, she meets four girls from Texas on their way to France for vacation. In a move quite unlike her, Arden abandons her plans and makes a detour to Paris for a few days she'll never forget. Ms. Stein creates a wonderful story in HIGH DIVE. Arden is truly a great character. Dealing with life on her own, she finds herself wishing she stuck with her original travel plans when things in Paris start to go wrong. First the hostel the other girls are staying at has no more rooms and she ends up spending the night in an unseemly room across town, the only thing available in her budget. But as HIGH DIVE moves along Arden discovers more about herself and begins to come to grips with her past and her loss. I really enjoyed HIGH DIVE. Ms. Stein paints a wonderful picture of Paris through Arden's eyes and I loved the scenes when Arden realizes she should have went along with her gut, and not her new friends ideas when she had the urge to book a room at the same hostel as them when they first arrived in the city. This is one great book that will stay on my keeper shelf! Tammar Stein has lived in Israel, Europe and the United States. She is also the author of Light Years which was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association. She currently lives in Florida with her husband and their son. Lisa Enchanting Reviews June 2008

For those teens and adults that enjoy travel and awesome food descriptions with some great drama thrown into the mix, Tammar Stein's new novel is perfect. When I was first sent this book and read the description, I was instantly hooked, as I am one of those that loves a combination like this. The writing is great, the emotion is very real, and the settings are magnificent. High Dive is the story of Arden, an incredibly mixed up and lonely girl that is incredibly talented at putting on a happy face. Her father died in a car accident and her mother has recently been deployed to Iraq to fight the war, leaving Arden to take on the task of closing up the family vacation home in Sardinia. The house holds some of Arden's best memories of her family when they were still whole, together, and happy and she is having a difficult time allowing herself to begin the letting go process. While on the plane to Sardinia, she meets three girls from Texas, traveling to Paris for a vacation and Arden decides to join them, a very non-Arden thing to do. The girls learn about each other while exploring Paris, though Arden often feels like a fourth wheel. She can't decide if these girls are helping her to let go of the thoughts of her old family life or if they are only making her long for it more. By the end, not only does Arden get the answer to this question, she also learns more about herself, her strength, and her ability to grow than she ever thought possible. The country descriptions alone will grab the reader, but Arden's fragile emotional state is the true shining star in this book. I felt connected to her immediately and wanted to know everything she knew. Strong, yet vulnerable characters that come across as beautifully lost as Arden do not come along nearly as often as we would all like, but if you pick High Dive up for yourself or a teen, you will not be sorry. I loved it and know a lot of you will as well.