Natalie Whipple

Better than average teenage romance due to the added twists of Alzheimers, reverse racism and family dramas.
Mika is in her final year of school and works in a pet shop over the Summer holidays. On the same day as the owner introduces her to his nephew Dylan who will also be working there over the Summer due to "family issues"; her paternal grandmother Betty turns up unannounced in the beginning stages of Alzheimers. This in itself is monumental as her father hasn't spoken to his mother since show more she disowned him for marrying Mika's Japanese mother 20 years ago.
So Mika's plans to work at the Monterey Aquarium with her marine biologist parents are thrown into chaos, and she now spends her mornings at the pet shop trying to make Dylan into a decent human being and her afternoons babysitting a grandmother who is racist and slowly going insane!
To top this off, her best friend Shreya's Indian parents have kicked her favorite brother Pavan out of home for becoming engaged to a white girl, and when Shreya dares to visit him, she is also disowned and has to move in with Mika.
Couple all this with the revelation that Dylan is the quintessential super wealthy bad boy who stole his father's company credit card and threw a $5 million party in the Iron Man house.(He flew everyone in his school to the party!)
This story twists and turns as family secrets are revealed and Mika learns some home truths about her expectations of other people and her need to be "in control". Oh and there is the bitchy Ex girlfriend of Dylan, London and the "pretend date " from hell to endure....
Funny and sad; a book that girls will LOVE. Has one sex scene and a few minor swear words. show less

3.5 stars

I loved the front cover of this book and, although, "Fish Out of Water" was basically an airy, summer romance it did deal with a number of serious issues including the effects of Alzheimer's, prejudices, racial customs and the choice between excessive wealth and happiness. Mika often annoyed me. She was self-centred, uncaring to her friends and opinionated. However, Dylan was a sweetie and extremely tolerant of Mika. I also liked the relationship that developed between Mika and her show more grandmother and all the references to fish was cute. show less

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

Pure fun. That’s what Natalie Whipple’s TRANSPARENT is. Universal themes regarding identity and independence are explored alongside twisty fun supernatural abilities like flight, the protagonist’s invisibility, and all the way down to seemingly trivial powers like fear induced stink. More series issues arise thanks to Fiona’s crime lord father and ‘jobs’ he literally charms her into carrying out for him.

The invisibility metaphor is one show more that has been explored before, especially in relation to those awkward teenage years, but Natalie Whipple’s take is fresh and refreshingly devoid of depression laced prose. On the contrary, Fiona is bright and confident in her own skin–even if she can’t see it. That’s not to say she doesn’t deal with insecurity, she just doesn’t let it define her. She really doesn’t even let her invisibility define her. She demands that anyone who truly cares about her see her for who she is not what she is.

Fiona is a genuinely likable character. Her situation–both being invisible and being forced to work for her father–is immediately easy to empathize with because of the way she reacts to it. She doesn’t constantly bemoan how she misses out on things by being invisible or wallow in self-pity, rather she is practical and resourceful and brave in a completely admirable way. And more than one guy notices her.

When so many YA novels default to insta-love after a few paragraphs of holy hotness appraisal of the other’s physical attributes, TRANSPARENT eschews that type of romance. Yes, Fiona notices that guys are attractive, but she doesn’t define them based on appearance since she won’t let anyone define her that way. The result is an organic romance with plenty of realistic missteps and sweet intimate moments. There isn’t any info regarding a sequel, but I’d be first in line to read it if one comes along.

Sexual Content:
Kissing show less

I enjoyed this story well enough to listen to it in one day, despite the complete improbability of a person's body (and bodily fluids) being entirely invisible. But I was actually kind of disappointed near the end, when I realized that the story was basically a variation on the theme of a teenager falling in love with someone because that person can "see" who they "really" are.

Yes, it's sweet that Seth is into Fiona even though he can "see" her as she really is, without any of the trappings show more of appearance she would've bothered with if she had been visible (like shaving her armpits or covering pimples with makeup). But the fact that she's apparently "smoking hot" kind of mitigates the sweetness a bit. Plus there's the fact that there are so many MORE interesting things that could happen to a person who is entirely transparent. But maybe that's to come in a followup novel.

I don't yet know how interested I'd be in a second installment. It depends on how long the story of the first novel sticks with me. show less