Melanie Parker is a 16-year-old girl who has ambitious hopes and dreams of working with and rehabilitating sea creatures, yet is tied down by her experience battling childhood cancer. Still, her love of the ocean and sea animals lands her a job at the aquarium where her mom works. Here, she meets and makes lifelong friends, including Chase, the handsome boy she takes a liking to fairly quickly, and Kona, the sweet, isolated dolphin that she forms a bond with almost immediately.

Kona is a beautiful coming-of-age story written by Erik Daniel Shien and Melissa Davis that explores love, loss, and what it means to never give up no matter what life throws your way. Shien and Davis do a wonderful job of creating a story that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. It’s the type of story that readers of all ages can sit down and enjoy. It teaches about the importance of wildlife and shows what it means to be both selfless and someone who cares about the environment.

Between the stress and tension readers feel alongside Melanie due to the fear of her cancer potentially returning, and the beautiful prose, it’s a page turner that leaves readers hanging on every word. The relationships between Melanie and every character that readers encounter are beyond skin-deep and are a joy to follow; especially the bond that she’s formed with Kona. She finds herself connected to Kona through the overlapping struggles that they both face with their health situations and they become each other’s support.

Kona is an emotionally-resonant and uplifting story with the same emotional depth as John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, although not as tragic. Not only is it a sweet story that teaches important lessons, but the book also has a well-defined and inspiring narrative that makes this an enjoyable romance novel overall.

Pages: 294 | ASIN: B08DVG814X

Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2022/11/09/kona/