It’s time for another giveaway! This one is to celebrate the beginning of a new year. (Or, 18 days into a new year, but details.) I was sent a brand new copy of The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont, and since I’ve already read it, I’d love to give it away.

A powerful first novel about life and death, friendship and love, as one young man must navigate the depths of his emotions.

Jason Prosper grew up in the elite world of Manhattan penthouses, Maine summer estates, old-boy prep schools, and exclusive sailing clubs. A smart, athletic teenager, Jason maintains a healthy, humorous disdain for the trappings of affluence, preferring to spend afternoons sailing with Cal, his best friend and boarding-school roommate. When Cal commits suicide during their junior year at Kensington Prep, Jason is devastated by the loss and transfers to Bellingham Academy. There, he meets Aidan, a fellow student with her own troubled past. They embark on a tender, awkward, deeply emotional relationship.

When a major hurricane hits the New England coast, the destruction it causes brings with it another upheaval in Jason’s life, forcing him to make sense of a terrible secret that has been buried by the boys he considers his friends.

Set against the backdrop of the 1987 stock market collapse, The Starboard Sea is an examination of the abuses of class privilege, the mutability of sexual desire, the thrill and risk of competitive sailing, and the adult cost of teenage recklessness. It is a powerful and provocative novel about a young man finding his moral center, trying to forgive himself, and accepting the gift of love.

It was a notable book of The New York Times Book Review, and most importantly, I quite enjoyed it. So read it and let me know what you think.

TO ENTER: Comment below by Thursday, January 24th, letting me know where you were in 1987 (I’m totally okay if the answer is “wasn’t born yet!”) I was in NY, accepting the fact that I was officially an older sister. This relationship was not perfect at first, as my mom had to give birth to a boy instead of a girl, but eventually I learned to accept and – shhh – like my little brother. (Who is, WOW, now 25. Weird.)