I had first heard about Girl out of Water way back (well fairly) in late 2015 and it just sounded so good and so funny, so I could not wait to read it.

Girl out of Water is the story of 15 year-old Lou. Lou is a very talented swimmer, but unexpectedly and sadly for Lou, she sees her friend Hannah go through to the High Performance Training Camp and not herself. This dramatically changes Lou's life as she knows it, her life feels like it has gone down the pan.

I connected with Lou so much and my empathy for her was almost palpable. Lou isn't popular and when the safety net of her best friend and swimming club come crumbling down, Lou realises just how few friends she has, even her swimming coach no longer wants to know. She has lunch in the library and her weekends are spent at home. That is until a chance meeting with Gabriel, Roman and Pete at the swimming pool have them asking for her help to enter in the Britain's Hidden Talent contest after they were rejected from their first attempt.

The characters in this were just brilliant and Lou was obviously my favourite. Why no one would want to be friends with her, I have no idea. She's funny, genuine and down-to-earth, the perfect kind of person. Gabriel also became a quick favourite of mine and was hoping that there would be a development there- without wanting to say too much.

If there ever was a book to remind me of the social hierarchy at school, Girl Out of Water is it. Nat Luurtsema portrays the angst of being a teenager so well that it felt like being back at school myself. Despite all Lou's misfortunes though, this is actually a really funny read and I mean that genuinely. There were a lot of laugh out loud moments that were so on point and Lou's Dad particularly had me in stitches. It's a great book to really get into and enjoy it whilst reading. It also managed to have a fresh and unique storyline that actually made this a fun read.

A thoroughly enjoyable book with lots of laugh-out-loud moments.