Float Plan

Such a touching, beautiful and heartfelt story, I loved every minute of reading it! I will be reading the other books in this series for sure! This is such an easy 5 stars to give!❤

“But I'm starting to understand how sadness and happiness can live side by side within a heart. And how that heart can keep on beating.”

I cannot believe that not a lot of people are talking about this book!

I am hard to please when it comes to reading romance because I normally find them too cheesy or too unrealistic but this one I loved!

This is about Anna who sets sail on a solo trip after her husband, Ben, passed away from suicide. She was trying to complete the trip that Ben planned for the two of them. The story talked about death, grieving and moving on so well. 

During the trip, Anna learns what her strengths are (when it comes to sailing) and learning to love again. She falls in love with Keane, a man she met during her first stop.  It was such a mix of emotions as she learns to let go of the man she loved wholeheartedly but also finding a friend in Keane but eventually opening up her heart to him.

This is not only a romantic love story but also about the journey of finding love in yourself and becoming a strong woman who can overcome almost anything that's thrown at her.

Oh wow, this story was absolutely beautiful. As you can tell there were a quite a few quotes from it that I loved, I couldn't just pick one.

As I finished the book I was left an aww of how beautiful and reimagined life can be after a tragedy of loss. As you follow Anna in her journey to find herself after her fiancé dies; she learns that life doesn't have to be mapped out or planned, that people come in and go out of your life for a reason and that you can find beauty and love in the most unexpected places.

I absolutely adored this story from beginning to end. It's one of my top read this year, can't wait to start book 2.

Float Plan made me wish I was sitting on a beach in the Caribbean (but honestly, when do I not want that?). It also made me reminisce about the sailboat my dad had when I was a child. This was such a fun read, especially for someone whose happy place is anywhere beach/boat related! This story deals with Anna living with the grief of her fiancé committing suicide 10 months prior. It is a story about self-discovery and learning that the only people we truly need in order to fulfill our goals and be happy are

Anna hasn't been able to function since her fiance killed himself. She spontaneously decides to go forward with a trip the two had planned in their sailboat, hiring a professional sailor to help.

Lots of things make this a good story. The strengthening of the characters through their trials and their friendship with each other is one element. But there are also lots of things that weaken the story, including the multitudes of good fortune that come to the characters. All in all, a good, quick read.

TW: death by suicide of heroine's fiancé (occurs before the book's events, but there are flashbacks)

I am not fully comfortable with this book and I'm struggling to put my finger on the reason. The best I can come up with is that I felt Ben was poorly served by the plot. I never got a strong sense of Anna's relationship with him, and although a story of moving past grief and taking a chance on a new relationship is a very worthy topic, it felt like Ben was increasingly portrayed as weak and damaged, while Keane was a little too perfect to seem real. I also didn't care for the fact that Anna noted several times that she was more attracted to Keane than she ever was to Ben, that he was more emotionally healthy than Ben, etc. Each relationship is different, and Ben didn't have to be seen in a less charitable light in order for Anna to move on.

The descriptions of the beautiful Caribbean islands that Anna encountered on her journey were enchanting, and I have to take it on faith that the sailing was accurately portrayed. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive, as a person who has dealt with depression for many years, but the bright and cheerful cover image should have been a warning sign that this book wouldn't work well for me.

Read for the Kindle Clearout Readathon 2021 & Read for Bookoplathon 2021 - 48 hour round

I think this book with to be absolutely perfect for somebody and while I really enjoyed it, it wasn't perfect for me.

I loved everything about the way grief was handled in this book. I personally have never dealt with a loss like the main character, but it also deals with the loss of a love. That is something so many people can relate to, and it just connected with me. The descriptions of Anna's emotions were just so raw and real. It really made me tear up at some points.

I also think disability was handled in here amazingly. I am not a disabled myself, but my dad is and while his disability is different from the character's he has a similar mentality. This book really showed how just because someone develops a disability doesn't mean their life is over or that they can't keep doing the things they love. It really hit me in a soft spot.

The themes in here were ones I needed to hear and that I have been experiencing myself lately, This book dove into how being alone is okay and while you may care for people and want them in your life, doesn't mean you need them. I'm not super into theme heavy books, but this one really connected with me.

The reasons I didn't love this book was because it was so short. I feel like the relationships and characters didn't have time to fully develop, so I didn't really feel attached to them. I like how the romance effected the main character, but I wasn't connected to it in a traditional sense. I feel like this would have been better for me if the romance was more developed, or it ended on a bit of a bitter-sweet note.

I would highly recommend this book because of the themes it covers, and I think a lot of people will connect with it like I did.

Thank you to St. Martin's Griffin, Trish Doller, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Road Trip Island Hopping Mashup. At its heart, this is effectively a road trip tale of healing and finding oneself again after a tragedy. Even though it uses sailing a small sailboat through the eastern edges of the Caribbean as its primary vehicle, rather than some wheeled vehicle. And as with all good road tripping tales, you get a lot of heart and a fair degree of humor, and since this is a romance variant of the road trip, you get a bit of that (yes, including sex scenes) as well. Overall the suicide that spurs the trip threatens to drag the tale down at times, but Doller does just enough to keep that from really happening. Solid story, and a good escape that could provide a degree of catharsis for some. Very much recommended.