Rating: ⭐⭐⭐✨⬜⬜
Title: Float Plan
Author: Trish Doller
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Setting: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida / Various islands across the Caribbean
Month Read: January 2022
Book Type: Paperback
Publication: 2021
Pages: 272
TRIGGER WARNING-
Suicide / Grieving / Sexual Themes
"But before you go down this road, you need to be certain what you want. If anyone will do, you need to find someone else."
No Spoiler Summary:
Float Plan is a contemporary romance novel by Trish Doller, and tells the Story of Anna - whose fiancé has recently committed suicide. After spending close to a year in a fog of depression, Anna decides to take their boat out and do the sailing he had been planning on the day it popped up in their phone calendar.
But sailing is a lot tougher alone than Anna thought it would be, and after a close call and a near death experience, Anna decides to enlist some help for the especially tough crossing to Puerto Rico. Keane has also had a tough life, and things are certainly not going the way that he had planned, but he can't refuse her offer and needs to get to Puerto Rico. They work together to chart their own course, on the ocean, and hopefully to love.
Review:
I'm really happy I got this book on a whim on BookOutlet nearly a year ago- and it reminded me a lot of Just Haven't Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens. It's a cute, slightly predicatble, read-in-a-sitting romance book that I tackled during a blizzard in Connecticut this past weekend. Anna is a lovely character fighting through the grief of losing the man she thought she'd be with forever, and Keane is a tough Irish man, who is having a tough time after losing a leg in an accident.
The two characters spend most of the novel living together on a boat, filled with cautious courtesy, and wondering if they harbor secret crushes on each other. I did like the slow, slow burn of this novel, because the feelings involved were very complicated, and Anna spends a lot of time feeling like if she can feel something for Keane, this stranger she barely just met, did her feelings for Ben really mean anything. I think this back and forth in her mind was actually a highlight of the book, and really easy to relate to in many different ways. I also like that she was open and honest about these feelings, and because of this Keane may be even more cautious to step into something with her. One of the lines I loved a lot in this book was: “You can't expect me to play rebound to a ghost. I won't do that.”
I wasn't expecting to learn anything about sailing while reading a cute romance novel, but fortunately, Anna and her husband actually do sail, and I found myself looking up terms, photos, and other boat-related things while reading this to help foster the images I was making in my head. Also, now I 100% want to leave my entire life to go sailing around the Caribbean, so many of these islands sounded so beautiful, and so wonderful, and I hope that in this lifetime I can go to a handful. (I have checked off the Bahamas, and their view of Nassau was exactly the same one I have, which I chuckled at.) The supporting cast of characters was also lovely, and everyone brought somethign new and fresh to the story. I would say I wish we got more of Carla, and more of Anna's family back home- but we're actually getting an entire new book this year for Anna's sister. I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy! I really enjoyed reading this, and also loved that it was one I could dive into for a day or two, and come on the other side of it happier, and with some new character crushes.
^Pun Intended
Recommendation:
Romance that Takes you on a Journey:
Just Haven't Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Books That Take you to Fun Places:
The Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman
"Have a care, Anna. I tend to fall for girls who say complimentary things about my mother."
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