The description and summary of this book intrigued me. Although not a fast paced read and at times difficult to follow without having to reread some parts, after establishing a feel for time period and characters, the pace of the book picked up. Overall, it was a great love story!

I could not get into this text and sadly am not able to supply a review, I did not connect with the writing and would been bad reviewing this book low when I knew from the get go it was not my taste.

This was hard to read thanks to the formatting of the ARC - maybe I just got a bad copy. Aside from that, this had very lyrical description but I didn't feel particularly attached to the characters.

What a charming whole hearted read! I didn't know what to expect with this one but do glad I decided to read it! Thank you netgalley for the free arc in exchange for an honest review!

For me, this book had its strengths and weaknesses. I initially thought I would really enjoy it because my favorite type of contemporary is one that explores heavier topics, which this book definitely does, but I have a few issues with it.

Pros:
• Characters - All of the characters, especially Ida, had very complex story arcs and experienced emotions that a reader could sympathize with. Several demographics are also represented, especially in the second half, which I really enjoyed.
• Setting - The book was set in Washington and Alaska during the 1960s. I haven’t read any other books with a similar backdrop, and I rather enjoyed reading a story in such an unexplored location in YA fiction.
• Fishing - I’ve never read a book with a such a central focus on the fishing industry, which intrigued me from the start. My father has always loved to fish and watches shows about recreational as well as industrial fishing, so I’m familiar with many aspects of it. It was refreshing to read about a topic I have prior knowledge of and rarely find in book of this genre.
• Themes - Loss and family are skillfully explored in the book, which I appreciate immensely.

Cons:
• Motive - Ida’s motive to go to Alaska in search of her father seemed loosely formed and unrealistic to me. When her mother says she doesn’t know if Ida’s father is actually dead, my mind immediately suspected her mother’s words were based on the fact that his body wasn’t found, which makes his death feel less permanent for her. Ida on the other hand jumps to the conclusion that her father abandoned her and her mother in favor of someone else. I just don’t think that’s a sound enough deduction to justify running away from home to go to Alaska in search of information about her father.
• Pacing - Several parts of the novel were rather slow, which is why it took such a long time for me to finish.

The Leaving Year was a decent read, but since the narrative was based on Ida’s misinterpretation of a conversation and moved along at a sluggish pace, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped I would.

The Leaving Year is a beautifully written, emotional coming of age story of a girl whose father, a fisherman, is presumed drowned during a fishing trip. It's a story about coming to terms with the fact that her father might never return home, learning things about him that she never knew before and how to deal with them.

I am usually not a fan of slow-paced stories and this book starts off quite slow, but I found myself hooked to it nonetheless. Everything that was happening around and to Ida when her father went missing was what immediately drew me in, then it became about how she deals with it and how will she answer the questions she has about her dad.

The story also uncovered a part of the world that is unknown to me. It was nice to read about the fishermen villages, the Alaskan canneries and just how things were around there in those days, some fifty years ago.

I really enjoyed reading this!

I’m not really a fan of historical fiction but being a YA book, I thought that I would give this a try since I read Fawkes and really enjoyed the magic element in that one.
This on the other hand had more of an emotional side. It was beautifully written, I was intrigued from the first chapter. It was a little on the slow side but that didn’t bother me to much in this case. This book is set in the late 1960’s and to think that things happened back then is crazy because we really only think of the year that we were born and beyond, anything past that is odd.
This book goes on Ida’s journey after hearing that her father is presumed to be lost at sea after she over hears a conversation what her mom is having. Her mom and dad have been keeping secrets from her, due to this she decides to leave an get the answers that she is looking for.
I did have one issue with this book. I didn’t feel connected to Ida until the second half of the book. That being said I still enjoyed it.
This kind of reminded me of The Long Way Home Series by Jasinda Wilder when Ava’s husband Christian gets lost at sea.

Ida is on a journey to find her father in this novel, but the journey switches to one of finding herself. The author did a great job of capturing the pain and hope Ida feels in her journey. I love books that make me feel for the characters so intently and this one did that! I highly recommend this!

A really strong and moving story set in a place and culture not typically over-explored. The Leaving Year brought something different to the typical tale of self-discovery with some beautifully-written prose to top it all off. I was a little uncertain on Ida (for a 16-year-old there were a couple of moments she felt more like 13 or 14), and times when the pacing felt a little off-kilter (but overall actually turned out OK), though as a whole the book was a quaint, heart-warming read (with some great background knowledge on fishing and canning in 1960s Alaska.)

The Leaving Year was very beautifully written, with a really interesting combination of ideas. However, it was quite slow moving and there was not a whole lot that happened during the first part of the novel particularly. The second half I loved though! It's not an overly long book, but I feel that it could have been just a bit shorter.

One main thing I think made this book a bit harder to read was that it felt detached. I didn't really feel the main character, and for the first half of the book I couldn't remember her name.

I also found that the setting wasn't really established in the first part of the novel. It is set around 1970, but it took me a little while to realise this, as it isn't really referred to at the beginning of the novel.

But it was a really nice narrative, and I loved all of the side characters that made appearances throughout the novel. It was a really great concept to go along with this pretty cover and title.

But the second half of the book picked up considerably, and I think that after I was in part 2, I began to really enjoy the novel.

I also really loved the definitions included at the beginning of each chapter. They were my favourite part!

A high-schooler learns that adults have lives besides just being parents. The diversity of characters is a good thing, but none of the characters are particularly memorable or interesting. Appropriate for late elementary school students and middle grades; although written with high-school age characters, they are all young for their ages, perhaps an artifact of the book's 1967 setting, or the author's lack of desire for more complex and mature characters.

“It never mattered to me what he did when he was away, so long as he came back. Now that he’s gone, I want to find out all I can.”

The sea is a mean wife, anyone who’s ever read, watched, or studied the ocean knows this. And yet it still calls to people, like doctors are called to medicine, like moths to a flame.

Ida’s father has gone missing, it is presumed that his boat had some catastrophic event and he drowned, only without witnesses or evidence, it’s impossible to know for sure. But what she does know, is that her parents have kept secrets from her, and her mother, so weighed down with grief, either refuses or is unable to shed any light, prompting Ida to leave and get the answers she so desperately desires for herself.

Set in a time when the Civil rights movement was at its peak, this is an important story about acceptance, love, and not allowing fear to govern you.

Overall, I liked The Leaving Year, there were some interesting characters and events. I especially enjoyed the richness of culture and diversity. But given that this book was so emotionally driven in its content, I found it to be a little detached in parts, I didn’t feel the emotions come through the text, and so I felt a bit disengaged with the story. Though in saying this, it may have just been me and my frame of mind on the day that I read this book, as it is quite a beautiful story, one that I will definitely read again in the future.

Thank you to Pam McGaffin, SparkPress, and NetGalley, for a copy of this book in exchange for honest review.

A wonderful and emotional coming of age story that will warm your heart, I loved this book so much I couldn't put to down it was so addictive Ida’s search for a missing father. I would highly recommend giving it a read.