Critically acclaimed author Trish Doller’s unforgettable and romantic adult debut about setting sail, starting over, and finding yourself…
Since the loss of her fiancé, Anna has been shipwrecked by grief—until a reminder goes off about a trip they were supposed to take together. Impulsively, Anna goes to sea in their sailboat, intending to complete the voyage alone.
But after a treacherous night’s sail, she realizes she can’t do it by herself and hires Keane, a professional sailor, to help. Much like Anna, Keane is struggling with a very different future than the one he had planned. As romance rises with the tide, they discover that it’s never too late to chart a new course.
This book was a punch to the gut. I was bawling my eyes out reading the first chapter. This book is a romance, yes but it is more than that. It is a journey of self discovery after the unthinkable happens. Anna’s fiance took his life by suicide 10 months prior, on Thanksgiving morning her alarm goes off and the reminder pops up that they were supposed to start their sailing journey. After months of not being able to leave her bed, Anna realizes that this is just what she needs to start the process of closure. As she begins her voyage, she soon understands that she might have taken on more than she could handle. This was supposed to be a trip for the both of them and she is not sure she can do it on her own.
Enter Keane, a man who saves her from herself after a night of drinking too much and bad decisions. Keane was a professional boat racer and he loves being on the sea. After an injury left him unable to do what he loved so much, he began helping people like Anna, but he will never give up his dreams. The unlikely pair form a bond while at sea, finishing the itinerary that was set up by Anna’s fiance Ben, but with each stop, Anna starts to realize more and more about her relationship and about herself.
The self discovery in this book was the real stand out to me. Anna explains that the grieving process isn’t linear, how it’s all over the place but it is also a process she was stuck in for so long and this trip helps her progress. At each stop, Anna lets a little more go and begins to see that there is a whole world out there worth living for, not just living in her grief and what might have been.
At the beginning of the book I felt a little more emotion than I did at the end, and I will say I was expecting a little more of an AWE moment with the romance, but after a lot of thought, it was right where it needed to be. Anna has further to go with her grief, but I am glad she pulled herself out to know that good things await her in the future.
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