Harbor’s Edge Book Review by Sanne Rothman
Sanne Rothman’s young adult thriller Harbor’s Edge sparks curiosity while stimulating the imagination, with a story that offers mystery, the supernatural, a budding romance, and an intelligent 14-year-old heroine on a deeply insightful journey toward self-discovery.
The story is set in beautiful Hawaii with which the author Sanne Rothman does a wonderful job of detailing the beautiful setting. She showcases her timeless natural beauty and artfully presents intriguing aspects of Hawaiian life and culture, especially with her incorporation of the lore of the dark and ancient sea monsters called The Mo’o, whose legend and mystery is initially contemplated. by Harbor at the beginning of the story.
Initially, as the story unfolds, we meet Harbour, a tough, intelligent young teenager who finds her life shrouded in mystery and sadness. Having lost her parents in mysterious circumstances, she struggles with feelings of abandonment as she seeks to solve the mystery of what really happened. Hers Lost her father, an FBI agent, to a cold-blooded killer, and her mother, who disappeared without a trace, leaving her and her younger sister, Fig, in the care of TuTu ( grandmother of her) of her. TuTu owns a popular local restaurant that offers Hawaiian burgers and Harbor Works in the drive-through restaurant, which allows her to practice analyzing customers’ faces based on techniques from her father’s FBI profiling manuals. . She works on her abilities to analyze faces in hopes of finding clues about her father’s killer and clues about her missing mother.
Overall, a story full of well-plotted twists and turns fueled by the excitement and rising tensions as the kids start to go missing and Harbor thinks he may have a clue. Furthermore, the story carries a mystery within a mystery, as Harbor makes a friend at school, Keyne, with whom the sparks of first love begin to ignite, yet he too seems to have an air of secrecy surrounding him.
All in all, Harbor’s Edge turned out to be an imaginative and absorbing read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I found myself instantly drawn into the beautiful world of Harbour, shrouded in mystery, a supernatural legacy, and cleverly fueled with intriguing plot twists, including the unique inclusion of disbursed clues in each chapter. In addition, I also enjoyed the likeable characters in the story, especially Harbor. He is an intelligent and relatable character, easy to like and whose exciting journey towards self-discovery was easy to follow. Absolutely, a valuable and remarkable read that left me wanting more. I am looking forward to Book 2, Keyne and The Wrath of The Mo’o. Overall this would be a good choice for an end of summer read and I highly recommend it.