Actual rating: 3.5 
 First line: "I float in the Pacific Ocean." 
 Girl out of Water is a great, summery contemporary read. It's a sincere story about the confusion and uncertainty around the end of high school, experiencing the world outside of home for the first time, and learning about who you are and who you want to be. 
 The story has a lot of different subplots going on. Home vs. an unfamiliar place, old boy vs. new boy, estranged mom issues, growing distant from friends - it's a lot to take on in one book. I had a strange feeling while reading that, while everything was explored on more than one occasion, I also wanted to dive deeper. For example, Anise's relationship with Lincoln is super adorable. She's full of uncertainty and he's confident, and effectively becomes her solid ground. It's understandable that because we only see them together for a couple of months, there's not a whole lot of time to flesh out their potential, but I would have love to see something a bit more. The ending of the book also was wrapped up very cleanly, and maybe a bit conveniently. 
 I really loved seeing Anise's growth though. She had to deal with a lot of issues in such a small time span, and she handled it all, for the most part, very well. She could come off as a bit judgmental and closed-off but her trip to Nebraska really developed her into a more well-rounded teenager. 
 Another thing I loved was Laura Silverman's ability to make the settings feel so real. I felt such an urge to be around water when Anise was talking about her own pull towards the ocean. I wanna go to California so baddddd! 
 Overall, a really fun, summery story that I wish just got a little bit deeper.