Jojo Moyes - Silver Bay

So now for a normal book again, set in a different place from the UK or the States because they aren't the only places in the world.  Though I read other more normal books, like the Stephanie Plum series, they are still odd just from the events that happen, such as cars being destroyed in random ways which make no sense at all.

Silver Bay is a book by Jojo Moyes, an author my mother recommended to me.  I read another one of her books, Me Before You, which focussed on a young woman as she helps care for Will, a quadriplegic following a motorcycle accident.  This book was so sweet at points and also made me cry; it was an emotional rollercoaster and Silver Bay was the same but in a different way.

Rating: 8

Recommended To: Romance lovers

Favourite Characters: Mike - passionate, caring, adaptable

Favourite Part: So I leant forward, took Liza McCullen's exhausted, beautiful face in my hands and kissed her.  God only knows why.  The really surprising thing was that she kissed me back. - Page 142

Good Points: Interesting way of telling a quite mundane concept; a lot lighter than the other Moyes book I've read; sense of family

Bad Points: Lotte story seemed unnecessary; took forever for the truth to come out about Lotte

Silver Bay tells the story of a small seaside town in Australia which is home to Liza McCullen and her daughter who live in her aunt's family hotel.  All is well for Liza as she goes about her day to day life running a dolphin and whale watching tour boat until Mike Dormer comes to town.  While Mike becomes integrated into Silver Bay life, he is secretly getting the development of a hotel approved that could ruin much more than the family hotel.

I'm not undermining the concept of this book, as I am not implying that the preservation of sea life is pointless and insignificant but for me, the concept of this book is extremely mundane because I primarily read paranormal or dystopic fiction which has more unusual events happen.  However, Moyes makes this seemingly normal concept really interesting for me; she does this by changing perspective at every chapter, going from the point of view of Mike who knows about the hotel development but little about the sea life of Silver Bay to the residents of Silver Bay whose lives revolve around this little seaside town but are unaware of the possibility of the hotel and even goes to the perspective of Mike's sister in England.  This made it really interesting because the focus was always changing and different events could be seen differently as it was interesting to see what certain characters are thinking.

In contrast to Me Before You, Silver Bay feels lighter and not as emotionally draining as there isn't the dread of death hanging over the entire story, it's more about preserving the life of Silver Bay, both the town life and the sea life.  Despite there being a darker element to this story, the idea of preserving Silver Bay is key to the story and the darker elements aren't as significant though they do play a part.

Family is a major thing in Silver Bay and it's one thing I love about it because Mike's close to his sister and works for a family company.  It's not just sense of family coming from Mike but Liza as well; Liza is extremely close to her daughter, Hannah, as well as her aunt Kathleen who still runs the hotel that her father ran years ago.  This all implied that family is an important thing to the story and the author.  This sense of family is what appeals to Mike and gets involved in more than his hotel development as he begins to feel for the McCullen family and their cause.

Mike has to be my favourite character out of all of them because he goes through the biggest change as he grows as a character, while the others stay pretty much the same apart from some revelations come out about a handful of characters.  Mike goes from being a corporate business man who couldn't give a damn about the environment he would possibly be destroying to a caring, passionate man who has opened up to not only a woman but a family.  His passion to stop the development of the hotel is commendable, even though he's one of the ones that started it, and his passion infects Hannah, showing that he could be a great influence on her.

Though Lotte is the reason behind Liza taking Hannah to Australia in the first place, the entire storyline seems unnecessary because Liza still could have ran away to Australia to get away from her past without having something as horrific as a death of a child.  Granted, it brought a different element to the story but it was just this dark cloud hanging over the entire story that had enough to it and the story still would have worked without it and the happy ending still could have been achieved.

Despite the fact that I didn't like the Lotte storyline, it would have been slightly better if it had come out sooner rather than being briefly mentioned constantly and even when it does come out, it still took forever to be told to the reader as Hannah briefly mentions that she had Mike who was equally in the dark.  This left the reader out of the loop, even if it was for a brief amount of time.

So I leant forward, took Liza McCullen's exhausted, beautiful face in my hands and kissed her.  God only knows why.  The really surprising thing was that she kissed me back. - Page 142

I think this part was just incredibly sweet and summed up Mike's final character, a kind, caring, and loving man and this was a preview early on in the book and implies the developing relationship between Mike and Liza as they grow closer and closer.

If you were to get into any books by Moyes then I would say to read this one first as it has a happy ending despite the emotional rollercoaster the characters go through unlike others I have read.