Girl Underwater by Claire Kells

by:  Claire Kells
published by:  Dutton
publish date:  March 21, 2015

Nineteen-year-old Avery Delacorte loves the water.  Now a sophomore on her university’s nationally ranked team, she struggles under the weight of new expectations but life is otherwise pretty good. Perfect, really.

That all changes when Avery’s red-eye home for Thanksgiving makes a ditch landing in a mountain lake in the Colorado Rockies. She is one of only five survivors, which includes three little boys and Colin Shea, who happens to be her teammate. Colin is also the only person in Avery’s college life who challenged her to swim her own events, to be her own person. Instead she’s avoided him since the first day of freshman year. But now, faced with sub-zero temperatures, minimal supplies, and the dangers of a forbidding nowhere, Avery and Colin must rely on each other in ways they never could’ve imagined.

I'm a sucker for survivor stories.  Shipwreck, plane crash, whatever, I love them.  This one was really good.  Girl Underwater might be the best book I've read this year.   Way to knock it out the park on your first book Claire Kells!

Avery and Colin both come from the Boston area but they do not come from the same side of the tracks.  Avery comes from the affluent area and Colin comes from a working class neighborhood.  They both end up in California on the same swim team.  They're flying home for Thanksgiving when their plane crashes into a lake in the Rockies.  They both survive along with three little boys.   The story tells of their 5 days on the mountain and how they survive afterwards once they have to go back to their real lives.  It's told going back and forth between before, during and after the crash and how Avery and Colin's relationship develops.  

Would I recommend this book?  Yes!  Definitely!  To anyone!  I was so sad when this book was over.  I want to read another one just like it.  Anyone have any recommendations?